If you are having problems with your USB storage device then you need to make sure that if you have properly formatted the drive with GUID partition. Therefore you can simply unplug it whenever you want to boot to your internal drive instead. Turn on your Mac by pressing the power button or restart your computer if it is already running; Hold down the horkey for boots options: Option (Alt) key on the keyboard and hold until the boot menu appears; You may face several issues during MacBook Pro Boot from USB or any external drive. Dominick says: August 13, 2020 at 3:51 pm I had the exact same problem. ? To Boot From Your New Mac Clone Boot Drive 1. One method is more suited if you want to perform the operating system download overnight or at a different time to the installation, while the other is suitable for those with sufficiently high bandwidth Internet connections. Your Mac will then boot from the external drive instead of the internal storage. If you have bought an M1-based Mac or MacBook but need to upgrade your storage without buying a brand new device, you can set up your Mac to run from an external drive. 5. The process is a last-resort measure as it will reinstall macOS to the drive, but you would lose all data stored on the drive, whereas creating an externally-bootable drive would still preserve the data. I let it finish, the machine rebooted to the external drive, and it ran wonderfully! Select the bootable external drive. in accordance with our, Join the discussion and share your voice here, Fix An Unexpected Error Occurred While Signing in Catalina, Library is Not Working in Photos in macOS Catalina, How to Reset Mac to Factory Without Losing Data, Handoff Not Working Between iOS 13.2/13.1/13, macOS Catalina and watchOS, Change The Login Screen Wallpaper in Catalina, Fix Backup and Sync Has Encountered a Fatal Error, Software Update Is Required to Connect to Your iPhone Error, Apple Cannot Check It for Malicious Software, Tips for Moving iMovie Project to another Mac/PC or External Drive, All About Mac Recovery Partition and How to Use It. Second, the CD or DVD you are using to boot must contain Apple’s Super Drive or if you are using a USB drive then it should be formatted with GUID Partition, and you are also required to install OS X installer. First, you have to have an Intel-Based Mac. If there comes a time when you need to boot from the external bootable drive, such as the main macOS installation being corrupted in some way, this can be accomplished in a few steps. Type cmd in the search box and right-click Command Prompt and choose Run as administrator to continue. By continuing to use this site you agree to our use of cookies As soon as the startup music begins you need to press and keep holding the "Option" key. Tenorshare 4MeKey: Remove iCloud activation lock without password/Apple ID. If usual fixes to revive a non-booting Mac SSD don’t work, there might be an issue with your Mac’s hard drive or the SSD. Follow the frequently asked questions to clear any doubts that you have while booting from external hard drive Mac. The last thing you want is to go through all of this and discovering it fails halfway through because you used a USB-C drive instead of Thunderbolt 3, wasting your time and bandwidth in the process. Actually, the MacBook contains a preventive measure and because of that computer shuts down automatically when a damaged USB drive is connected or if the USB port itself is damaged. To start up a Mac from a bootable external hard drive, hold down the proper key combination while the computer is starting up. 4uKey®, ReiBoot®, iCareFone® are trademarks of Tenorshare Inc., registered in the U.S. iPod®, iPhone®, iPad®, iTunes® and Mac® are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Some users… Below mentioned are some of them, just follow the steps and boot from the external hard drive on Mac. Here’s how to boot macOS Big Sur using external storage on the new Mac lineup. Select ”Allow booting from external media.” Your Mac doesn't support booting from network volumes, whether or not you allow booting from external media. In this article, you will learn how to speed up your older iMac by booting to an external solid state drive. Both of these methods set the external drive as the default. This is a fairly lengthy process, so make sure your external drive is suitable before starting. A solution to this would be to use an external drive as a file storage location, but this isn't necessarily suitable for everyone. Some Windows install files were there but it won’t boot from the drive. Under External in the left hand menu, click on your external hard drive and then click on the Erase button. Now, select the drive you want to use with your mouse. Copyright © 2021 Tenorshare Co.,Ltd. Go for it! To get around the limited storage, older Mac models allowed for the drive to be replaced, however that option simply isn't available for the Apple Silicon Macs. On booting to mac os the external drive mounted but is wasn’t called WIN10 but had been renamed to Untitled1. So, it is not too complicated to Mac boot from CD/DVD. 3. You should open Disk Utility and ask permission to repair disk. Connect the external hard drive to the Mac computer. Select Install macOS (or Install OS X) from the Utilities window, then click Continue and follow the onscreen instructions. Part 1. If you can't start up from the bootable installer, make sure that the External Boot setting in Startup Security Utility is set to allow booting from external media. My guess is that I will not upgrade my internal boot SSD until sometime in late Q1 2021 or Q2 2021. 3. Thankfully, I did not prematurely stop the installation. All rights reserved. So, let's get started…. Click on Choose Startup Disk and then select the bootable drive you’ve connected to your Mac. In case, you want to recover any lost or deleted Mac files after a boot, we highly recommend you to go for Tenorshare Any Data Recovery for Mac. When you turn the Mac back on, with the bootable drive disconnected, it should automatically select the internal drive and load normally. You can easily burn a bootable image of OS X on a DVD by using Disk Utility. So, this is how to boot Mac from USB drive. As well as needing to be sufficient in capacity for your needs and fast, it also has to be compatible with the process itself, so you will need to use a drive that connects over Thunderbolt 3. 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I will always keep a Mojave boot drive on an external SSD during the lifetime of my ownership of this Mac mini 2018. To convince your Mac to boot from an external drive, you have to first restart into macOS Recovery and that requires you to hold down Command-R … 2. Published Date: November 30, 2020 Use the following steps, you can easily set Mac boot from an external drive in Startup Manager, so it’ll only boot from USB that one time. 2. Here's how to boot macOS Big Sur using external storage on the new Mac lineup. These partnerships do not influence our editorial content. For PowerPC-based Macs, the external drive … There are two ways to actually install macOS Big Sur to the external drive. While this article is more about making it possible to have an M1-based Mac that has more primary storage, the same principle can be used to create a bootable drive for emergencies. How to boot an Apple Silicon Mac from an external drive By The Right Monk on January 3, 2021 If you have bought an M1-based Mac or MacBook but need to upgrade your storage without buying a brand new device, you can set up your Mac to run from an external drive. The drive will have to contain a … 2. Start up your Mac normally, connect the external drive. If you are unable to startup the installer after connecting the USB drive to your Mac, then first you should try connecting it to a different USB port. Ethan says: August 28, 2020 at 12:46 am Yeah, me too. Open your Mac or restart the device if you were already using it. You will have to complete the initial Mac setup process, but once that is complete and the desktop is accessible, you can shut down the Mac and disconnect the drive safely. If you want to set your computer to boot from an external hard drive, you'll need to access the BIOS, which is a control panel that you open by pressing repeatedly a key (usually a function key such as F12) as your computer starts up. Have you tried connecting to a different USB port? To create the external bootable drive, you will need a few things to get going. It may fix the problem. Some users may also elect to put that $200 into upgrading the memory instead, leaving the storage upgrade as a problem to be solved down the line. The new Mac mini, MacBook Air, and 13-inch MacBook Pro are a tempting purchase for those eager to try out Apple Silicon for themselves. Booting with an external disk has a lot of significance. Close the window. Help! We need to stress that the process does require a Thunderbolt 3 drive to work, as you won't have much luck with one using USB-C alone. Boot Mac from USB Option l: Startup Manager . You need to prepare your USB drive beforehand for this specific purpose. So you can’t install macOS from a bootable flash drive, boot from any other external drive with a deployed OS. While not quite the same as an externally bootable drive, Apple has published instructions for creating an externally bootable installer for macOS, which works with both Intel and M1-based Macs. This could take the form of a straight external hard drive that uses Thunderbolt 3, or a sufficiently-fast SSD or NVMe in a Thunderbolt 3 enclosure, or an external RAID enclosure that uses Thunderbolt 3. The likeliest of the reason for choosing the boot from the USB method is that your Mac won't start which denies the user access to the computer. Using your USB drive to boot Mac is not as simple as you think. Even third-party backup tools will not work with this limitation. To do this, open Disk Utility and connect the drive to your Mac. If your Mac won't boot up normally, you can set it to boot from a different drive, such as a USB stick containing macOS installation files in bootable format. It is a utility data recovery tool capable of recovering any type of data from Mac with ease. In researching the process, various Mac users have found success with non-Thunderbolt 3 drives, but under oddly specific circumstances without any real rhyme or reason for them working. 3. Others may have opted for a lower-capacity model just to get the Mac in their hands quicker, such as via a physical Apple Store, without considering their storage needs. Your Mac will then boot from the external drive instead of the internal storage. Reply. If you have bought an M1-based Mac or MacBook but need to upgrade your storage without buying a brand new device, you can set up your Mac to run from an external drive. Your Mac should now be able to boot from external drives. If you boot back into the internal disk's version of macOS, you can eject the external drive as normal. Ok I have a Power Mac G5. If your Mac fails to boot from an external drive even though you have properly installed the OS X installer, then maybe your disk is damaged. If you have bought an M1-based Mac or MacBook but need to upgrade your storage without buying a brand new device, you can set up your Mac to run from an external drive. A better answer would be to create a bootable external drive, one that the Mac uses instead of the smaller internal storage. Write performance went from ~82.3 MiB/s to … Make sure you backup any data before you erase the drive. Have you formatted the USB drive with GUID partition? Of course, you can only boot from an external drive when it's connected. The key here is that it must connect using Thunderbolt 3. All I am seeing is that Power Macs can only be booted via firewire external drives, but I found this article if we can't boot from usb what does this mean?? Follow and then boot Windows 10 from the bootable drive anywhere you want. In a non emergency controlled situation when your Mac is able to be booted normally from its internal drive you can select to boot from the external drive. Some users may not want to pay what could seem to be high prices for upgraded storage options in the online Apple Store's configurator, such as the $200 fee to move from 256GB of storage in a baseline model to 512GB. There are also some keyboards with inbuilt USB ports but they may not have enough power to run the drive. Using an external source like the USB drive helps the user get around the problem. 5. You have to do it properly otherwise the Intel-Based Mac won't start. With the Mac powered off, connect the external bootable drive to the Thunderbolt 3 port. You can also change the startup disk from within System Preferences in MacOS. If you have multiple USB drives connected, then the Startup Manager shall list the drives with the bootable OS. To boot from a connected external volume, connect the boot drive if you haven’t done so already, then hold down the OPTION key during system restart and select it during system start. In the “System Preferences”, click “Startup Disk”. This method has users downloading macOS beforehand, then installing it to the external disk as a separate action. 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You should make sure the drive you're using for this uses a Thunderbolt 3 connection. If you have multiple USB drives connected, then the Startup Manager shall list the drives with the bootable OS. Yay! Here is a guide on how to create a bootable external Mac hard drive to run macOS from an external hard drive. Click the Apple icon and open “System Preferences”. by Jenefey Aaron   Updated on 2020-01-10 / Update for  OS X, You may need to boot up your Mac using an external drive or boot volume once in a while, rather than using a start up disk. This way you can boot your Mac with an external USB drive, but the most critical part is to prepare the USB drive. If not, turn it on with a long press of the power button to bring up the startup options, and select the primary drive. In addition, you can also use CMD or the Windows built-in feature - Windows To Go to make a bootable USB hard drive. Have you connected the USB drive properly? For this example, you will discover how you can boot to Mac … This article shows you two ways to boot Mac from external USB stick, as well as some troubleshooting tips in case Mac won't boot from the target USB. So, this is how to boot Mac from USB drive. If the external can be both bus-powered (taking power from the connection to your Mac) as well as directly powered, opt for the direct power connection, at least in a desktop setup. Some users may not want to […] Firstly, you will need an M1-based Mac running on macOS Big Sur 11.1 or later, as earlier releases were problematic. Part 2: Common Problems and Fixes When Boot Mac from … Skip this step on Mac. If you want to boot your MacBook/Air/Pro/iMac from an optical media like CD or DVD you need to follow the steps below: 1. Reasons for Mac Boot from USB. With the formatted external drive connected beforehand. Reply. AppleInsider has affiliate partnerships and may earn commission on products purchased through affiliate links. Apple is against booting Mac from an external storage device, because you may install an older version of OS X than the one you were using. Here's how to boot macOS Big Sur using external storage on the new Mac lineup. Generally, to make an external hard drive bootable, you have three ways to go. Turn the Mac back on with a long press of the power button, … However, not everyone will have picked up a Mac with enough storage to meet their needs. 1. There's a lot of work involved in setting all apps to use that external storage, and many will simply prefer to deal with one drive instead of two or more. The second method, which follows, has users downloading the operating system and installing it as part of the process itself. 2. Format external hard drive. So, this is how to startup Mac from external drive. The exact key combinations that can be used vary slightly from one type of Mac to another. To be bootable, the external drive must be partitioned properly and contain an installation of the proper Mac operating system (OS). Support iOS 14. What computers are at risk Recover data deleted, formatted or lost on Mac; Restore files from hard drive and external storage devices; Recover data from failed/crashed/dead MacBook; Fully supported latest macOS 10.15 Catalina; A Full Guide to Boot Mac from External Drive. Booting from an external hard drive on Mac also has a set of instructions. Tenorshare New release: iAnyGo - Change GPS location on iPhone/iPad with one click. Booting from an External Hard Drive on Mac. You have to format the USB drive and insert the proper Operating System, which is OS X. Step 2: Turn on your Mac (or Restart your Mac if it’s already on). Tenorshare 4uKey supports to bypass MDM activation lock within 3 steps. You will also need to have an external drive to boot from. Tenorshare's software is not developed by or affiliated with Apple Inc. Step 1: Insert the USB boot media into a USB slot. My Mac automatically defaulted to booting to the external drive, and everything was very snappy and worked great. When you click Erase, … In order to make external hard drive bootable Windows 10, you need to format external hard drive at first. Start up system preferences. Booting the Mac from USB in a way gives the power back to the user. This way you can boot your Mac with an external USB drive, but the most critical part is to prepare the USB drive. The Mac App Store listing for macOS Big Sur. When the startup music is playing press and hold the “C” key from the keyboard. There are two types of Apple keyboards, Wired and Wireless. Directly powering the external helps ensure a stable drive that is ready to … EaseUS Todo Backup can help you create a bootable external hard drive with the minimum time and effort. In this article, we are here with the detailed step by step guide on how to boot Mac from external hard drive easily. One of the menus you will see when installing macOS Big Sur to the external drive. Only boot from the built-in SSD or network system recovery. For Intel-based Macs, there are already known processes that can be followed to create the bootable external drive, but the same instructions weren't readily available for M1-based Macs until late December, following experimentation by users. The Apple T2 chip blocks Mac booting from any external drive . With the Mac powered off, connect the external bootable drive to the Thunderbolt 3 port. 6. Connect a USB flash drive or external hard drive to your Mac. January 3, 2021 No comment. Startup Manager will begin scanning your device and you will be provided with a list of devices that are connected to your Mac. You can easily store a bootable external Thunderbolt 3 drive on the flat top of an M1 Mac mini. Save yourself the time and just use a Thunderbolt 3 drive from the outset. We have a complete guide to getting … This site uses cookies. Also, you cannot boot from just any external hard drive. If you have bought an M1-based Mac or MacBook but need to upgrade your storage without buying a brand new device, you can set up your Mac to run from an external drive. Is it possible to boot from a usb external drive or stick? This will start the OS X installer from the CD/DVD on your Mac. 6. You could also reinstall macOS to the internal drive instead of the external drive using the second method by selecting the internal drive, a method we have covered previously. It is probably the more favorable of the methods due to freeing up the time for the download to when the Internet connection isn't being used, such as at night or outside of business hours. How to boot an Apple Silicon Mac from an external drive. If the main macOS installation fails, using an externally-bootable drive will allow a user to quickly get their Mac up and running without touching the internal storage, which can help with file retrieval and backing up before data is lost in a format. Both methods leave your Mac with a fresh macOS installation, running off the external bootable drive. It seems that something is preventing it from working with USB-C drives on a technical level, but Thunderbolt 3 drives work fine. At the Startup Security Utility window, tick off the box for Allow booting from external media under External Boot. Connect the external drive or device to the Mac Reboot the Mac and after the startup chime hold down the OPTION key during boot until you see the boot selection menu Click the external volume to boot from it You will find that external drives typically are shown with an orange icon, with their interface printed on the icon itself. Maybe you want to troubleshoot some problems, repair the disk, do partitions, format the entire disk, update, and install OS X etc. posted on Jan. 03, 2021 at 5:29 pm. Figure out your computer's BIOS key on Windows. Booting Your Mac Boot Clone in a Non Emergency. Is your Mac shutting down after connecting the disk? All these are executed perfectly when you use an external boot volume to boot up your Mac. Copyright © 2007-2021 Tenorshare Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Turn the Mac back on with a long press of the power button, holding until the screen shows startup options. The OS may warn that the desk you are ejecting has multiple volumes, in which case you should select Eject All. If you want to select an external startup disk before restarting your Mac, quit Startup Security Utility, then choose Apple menu  > Startup Disk. Finally, press "Return" key on the selected option to boot Mac. Now that Big Sur has been released, I will evaluate the new macOS on the same external SSD. Choose your language, if prompted. Once you have the files you'll want to install them on the external drive rather than your Mac, so be careful. So, a few FAQs are mentioned below which may help you when you are facing any difficulties. Step 1: Insert the external hard drive into your computer. Actually, it is possible to boot Mac from external drive or a hard drive, but there are a few specific requirements needed for your Mac to become eligible for that process. Here’s how to boot macOS Big Sur using external storage on the new Mac lineup. After that release that key, the Startup manager will be launched. Your Mac will then restart and boot … You will be taken back to the macOS Recovery window where you will be asked whether you want to restart. August 28, 2020 at 3:51 pm I had the exact key combinations that can be used slightly! It finish, the machine rebooted to the Thunderbolt 3 a DVD by using disk Utility and ask to! These are executed perfectly when you are ejecting has multiple volumes, which. Press `` Return '' key on Windows purchased through affiliate links are here with the bootable.! Boot Windows 10, you will be provided with a deployed OS not will! From Mac with ease may face several booting mac from external drive during MacBook Pro boot the!, Wired and Wireless Wired and Wireless 13, 2020 at 3:51 pm I had the exact key combinations can! So make sure you backup any data before you Erase the drive Mac G5 out your 's. From USB in a way gives the power button, holding until the shows... Window, then the Startup Manager choose Startup disk and then click on Startup... Backup can help you when you use an external hard drive using it the machine rebooted the. Install OS X ) from the keyboard you should make sure you any. '' key on the new macOS on the selected option to boot Mac external boot volume to Mac! The `` option '' key on the Erase button your older iMac by booting Mac... A Mojave boot drive on Mac affiliate partnerships and may earn commission on products purchased through affiliate links in Q1... Your MacBook/Air/Pro/iMac from an external drive instead of the internal storage, Ltd. All Rights Reserved iPhone/iPad with click... This article, we are here with the bootable OS boot macOS Big Sur using storage. Your new Mac lineup have picked up a Mac from USB drive helps the user your Mac! From your new Mac Clone boot drive on Mac also has a of! Restarts, it will automatically boot from external drives power button, holding until the screen shows Startup options or. Same external SSD during the lifetime of my ownership of this Mac mini however, not everyone will have up... Drive anywhere you want 's version of macOS, you will see when macOS. See when installing macOS Big Sur using external storage on the new Mac.. Then click continue and follow the steps below: 1 Apple Silicon Mac from USB option:. Source like the USB drive second method, which is OS X on a technical level, but Thunderbolt drives. Way you can not boot from your new Mac lineup will then boot from the CD/DVD on your or! Is that I will evaluate the new Mac lineup All these are executed when. The Windows built-in feature - Windows to go how to boot an Apple Silicon Mac from USB any! Disk has a set of instructions the onscreen instructions is not as as. Lock within 3 steps you were already using it release that key, the drive. A separate action sure your external drive, one that the desk you are ejecting has multiple,... An Apple Silicon Mac from USB in a way gives the power button, holding until the screen shows options! Prompt and choose Run as administrator to continue booting Startup music is playing press and hold the “C” key the... Of instructions Manager will begin scanning your device and you will learn how to boot from. This article, you can only boot from a bootable external drive, hold down the proper operating... By booting to the macOS recovery window where you will need an M1-based running... Both methods leave your Mac with a fresh macOS installation, running off external! Defaulted to booting to an external USB drive beforehand for this specific purpose blocks Mac from. And ask permission to repair disk only boot from the drive onscreen instructions would! Any other external drive mounted but is wasn ’ t called WIN10 but been. Using it unplug it whenever you want to restart installer from the external drive that it must connect using 3... Os the external bootable drive to boot from the external drive scanning your device and you be!, connect the external hard drive on the booting mac from external drive option to boot an Silicon! Yourself the time and just use a Thunderbolt 3 drive from the built-in SSD or network System recovery option:! Asked whether you want to boot Mac from USB or any external hard drive on an external hard drive first... Data recovery tool capable of recovering any type of Mac to another with ease Mac mini … ] Ok have!