After three months, and three M1 Mac Mini’s, I still cannot boot from an external thunderbolt SSD. Is there a list of functional SSD and enclosures?

[Screensaver]

Long story short, I bought an M1 Mini with the 16 GB upgrade, and couldn’t get it to boot from any of the following:

- A new OWC ThunderBay 4 Mini (thunderbolt 3) using any of the following 2.5” SATA SSD brands:
- Sk Hynix Gold S31 SSD
- SanDisk Ultra 3D SSD (SDSSDH3)
- an ADATA SSD, but can’t recall the model.

I have tried most of the Big Sur iterations up to the current 11.2.3 with no success. I always get the message saying, Unable to boot device, with error code, “SDErrorDomain 104.” I have attempted to both download the Big Sur Installer app to install to the connected SSD as well as downloaded the direct install from Apple Recovery Mode with no success either way. Once each installation is complete, the Mac restarts, and the white progress bar pops up with the Apple logo, but after two status bar movements, the screen goes black and the Mac restarts to the internal. Any manual attempt to boot to the external SSD, whether from Recovery Mode or from the Startup Disk preferences yields the above 104 error. Of course, each install was performed on an erased disk, formatted with APFS without any encryption.

After many headaches Apple, I returned the device and was encouraged to order more units as Apple support “hasn’t heard of these issues before and I should be able to boot externally from an SSD.” So, after trying a total of three 16 GB Mac M1 Mini’s with no success, I’m not sure where to turn. A little bit of Googling shows that this is a substantial problem, but Apple would rather play dumb and have me exhaust their inventory and accept a bunch of returns than to level with me. That said, I also have seen folks report that they can boot from external SSD without any problems.

I would greatly appreciate any and all feedback anyone has. Is there a comprehensive list of working SSDs? Preferably, a SATA SSD so that I can buy it and pop it into my OWC Thunderbolt 3 bay. Speaking of which, I should mention that I thought that the OWC ThunderBay 4 Mini might be to blame, but I also tried booting from a first-generation ThunderBay 4 Mini without success also. OWC claims that their devices all work perfectly with M1 Macs, so I am not sure what to do.

Thank you for your time.

 

[dmccloud]

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/cannot-boot-from-external-ssd-1-m1.2274812/unread - look at this thread for some advice...

 

[Screensaver]

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/cannot-boot-from-external-ssd-1-m1.2274812/unread - look at this thread for some advice...

Thanks for the response! I actually replied to this thread earlier today, but it’s been super dormant so I don’t know if anyone is really looking there anymore. The list that started in that thread a couple months ago may not be conclusive and up to date. Also, the drives that people confirmed to work there are stand-alone, plug and play portable drives and NVMe drives. I was really hoping to learn of some 2.5” SATA SSD success as well as maybe anyone who has had success with OWC Thunderbolt bays in general. Thanks again for the reply!

 

[Brian33]

You’ve tried three different SSDs. If I were you I’d focus on the ThunderBay 4 Mini as the likely culprit and try to get help from OWC.

 

[Screensaver]

You’ve tried three different SSDs. If I were you I’d focus on the ThunderBay 4 Mini as the likely culprit and try to get help from OWC.

Thanks for the reply! I called them previously about it and they said they haven’t heard of any issues. I have a first-generation OWC Thunderbolt enclosure too that wouldn’t work either. So it’s either multiple products in the OWC Thunderbolt line or it’s the M1 Macs that are notorious for external boot issues. At this point, I don’t care whose fault it is; I just crave some sanity.

 

[Apple_Robert]

It's not a SSD or external enclosure problem. It is a roadblock put up by Apple (likely due to security concerns).

 

[Screensaver]

It's not a SSD or external enclosure problem. It is a roadblock put up by Apple (likely due to security concerns).

It’s definitely something that crossed my mind, but why even include the ability to boot from an external drive in System Preferences if it is not an intended feature in Big Sur? The fact that Apple engineers have gone back and forth with me, requesting I try certain things after several macOS updates tells me that they intend for folks to be able to do this.

 

[Pummers]

It’s still half baked. Reading this post plus the related posts from this link might help you or maybe just raise your blood pressure.

Booting an M1 Mac from an external disk: it is possible

If you’ve been unable to create a bootable external disk to use with your M1 Mac, this explains what you need and its limitations and quirks.

eclecticlight.co

How are your ssd attached? Looks like a thunderbolt enclosure is most reliable and usb-c is the least and swapping to usb-a might work better (on a mini at least).

 

[Screensaver]

How are your ssd attached? Looks like a thunderbolt enclosure is most reliable and usb-c is the least and swapping to usb-a might work better (on a mini at least).

Each of the SSD’s are installed in the OWC ThunderBay Mini 4 (thunderbolt 3):

OWC ThunderBay 4 mini 4-Drive Thunderbolt 3 External Enclosure

Compact data storage enclosure that you can populate with new or existing 2.5-inch HDDs or SSDs, and weighs as little as 3.1 pounds with drives.

eshop.macsales.com

So based on most online accounts, it should work, being thunderbolt and all. I don’t imagine I could use some kind of adaptor in between this enclosure for better results.

 

[MarkC426]

It's not a SSD or external enclosure problem. It is a roadblock put up by Apple (likely due to security concerns).

This and the fact that the M1 will not be running optimised with unified ram/cpu/gpu if booting externally.

 

[lcubed]

if you check the soft raid forums, the latest non-beta 11.2.X breaks soft raid.
the latest 11.3.x beta seems to be working, so depending on how your
thunder bay 4 mini was configured (JBOD, raid4...) and the state of the OS on the
boot device, things might not be working

i'm waiting for the non-beta 11.3 before i attach our m1 mini to the thunder bay 4 mini (SSD)

 

[Mac... nificent]

It's not a roadblock put up by Apple, as others have done this successfully.

It's most likely your enclosure (or the cable going to it). Which one are you using? (the OWC ThunderBay 4 Mini?)

The only USB A enclosure that has been verified to work is the Startech USB 3.0 251BMU313.

It could also be the cable coming from the enclosure. Are you using any hubs or dongles?

Thunderbolt 3 is the preferred way to do this, but others have used USB-A with the Apple USB-C to USB (MJ1M2AM/A) dongle.

 

[Pummers]

I'm guessing that the ASM-1062 SATA chip in the OWC mini is unsupported/bugged for booting in the current Big Sur implementations, or maybe the 4 drive implementation has tripped up the boot process in some way.

Most Thunderbolt enclosures are adapted to NVME drives? I know the Samsung T3/T5 USBC drives have m-SATA drives in them.

The 251BMU313 uses ASM1351.

I think the only thing you can do is report it Apple engineers and cross your fingers if you want to keep the OWC mini as a boot(able) device.

 

[Mac... nificent]

I'm guessing that the ASM-1062 SATA chip in the OWC mini is unsupported/bugged for booting in the current Big Sur implementations

Sounds reasonable. The OP needs to try their SSD in the 251BMU313 and if it works then the chipset in the OWC is probably his weak link.

 

[circatee]

Not to segway the conversation. In short, I would like to know, why would one need to boot from an external drive, versus the internal (unless the internal drive died or something)?

 

[Mac... nificent]

Apple charges way too much for their added hard drive space. Booting externally gets around that issue.

 

[MarkC426]

Apple charges way too much for their added hard drive space. Booting externally gets around that issue.

Seriously.......M1 macs the cheapest macs have ever been.

 

[MarkC426]

Not to segway the conversation. In short, I would like to know, why would one need to boot from an external drive, versus the internal (unless the internal drive died or something)?

Exactly, this defeats the object of having a unified system.

 

[Screensaver]

This and the fact that the M1 will not be running optimised with unified ram/cpu/gpu if booting externally.

I don’t even care if the hardware isn’t optimized for an external boot. I need backup options to avoid downtime when inevitable Big Sur/M1 issues bork my whole system. Especially since you cannot downgrade your Big Sur install, I need real-time backups. Cloning is all well and good, but there are times when I need to access multiple builds under different macOS versions and the ThunderBolt Mini used to scratch that itch.

 

[Screensaver]

i'm waiting for the non-beta 11.3 before i attach our m1 mini to the thunder bay 4 mini (SSD)

Oh wow, I did not know this. Hmm how long before 11.3 comes out, would you estimate? I already have a bunch of SATA SSDs and would really like to use the new ThunderBolt 4 Mini that I bought, but I’m on the verge of exercising a late return since OWC claimed full compatibility with M1 Macs.

I wonder how the ThunderBay Minis are configured. I tried the Thunderbolt 3 version, and also a first-generation version and got the same SDErrorDomain 104 error upon attempting to boot from one of the SSD’s inside of it.

 

[Screensaver]

It's most likely your enclosure (or the cable going to it). Which one are you using? (the OWC ThunderBay 4 Mini?)

The only USB A enclosure that has been verified to work is the Startech USB 3.0 251BMU313.

It could also be the cable coming from the enclosure. Are you using any hubs or dongles?

Thunderbolt 3 is the preferred way to do this, but others have used USB-A with the Apple USB-C to USB (MJ1M2AM/A) dongle.

So I am using the ThunderBolt 3 cable that came with the ThunderBay 4 Mini and that cable was plugged directly into the M1. No hubs or even daisy chaining of Thunderbolt devices.

I keep reading that Thunderbolt is the preferred way to boot externally, but not with OWC products, apparently. A kind person who posted right before you seems to have some potential Intel that maybe a beta for the next incremental Big Sur might offer additional support for how these ThunderBays are formatted? If there is a ray of hope with beta software, it would have been nice to have OWC technical support aware of this. All of you folks are the greatest resource a fella could have.

 

[Screensaver]

I'm guessing that the ASM-1062 SATA chip in the OWC mini is unsupported/bugged for booting in the current Big Sur implementations, or maybe the 4 drive implementation has tripped up the boot process in some way.

Most Thunderbolt enclosures are adapted to NVME drives? I know the Samsung T3/T5 USBC drives have m-SATA drives in them.

The 251BMU313 uses ASM1351.

I think the only thing you can do is report it Apple engineers and cross your fingers if you want to keep the OWC mini as a boot(able) device.

Thanks for the information. I reported my issue and had a back and forth exchange with Apple engineers for about a month, so they should be aware. I sent them system data logs, so let’s hope they can figure out a solution. OWC currently sells ThunderBolt 3 and Thunderbolt 4 versions of this ThunderBay product and claim that these products are fully compatible with M1 Macs, so I’m sure OWC would like Apple to help them live up to their claims.

 

[Screensaver]

Seriously.......M1 macs the cheapest macs have ever been.

It’s not just the expense of Apple’s internal storage at launch but there are number of other benefits that range from essential to desirable:

1) I often end up with various bootable macOS version drives that I need to jump back and forth into. For example, during the last major Apple migration to Intel, there were apps and plugins that no longer worked once newer macOS versions dropped Rosetta support. So I needed to access previous bootable macOS builds on the fly and jump back and forth for accessing many older projects. I am certain that I will need to meet similar demands as time moves forward with Apple Silicon migration.

2) Apple has made it impossible to downgrade your Mac back to a past, incremental version of macOS. Now, more than ever, is it essential that I can clone my current macOS onto as a bootable drive so that I can test my productivity environment after a macOS update and still have another, identical boot to revert to as we all ride the bumpy ride of this migration.

3) it’s super convenient (or would be) to just just move my SSD drives to my next Mac when I upgrade. Granted, I cannot boot from my Intel bootable drives, but I am certain that I will want to keep multiple M1 versions available to me as time goes on. Using an external hArs drive bay with multiple boot options inside is very convenient, as I can still store some content on each bootable drive to use them as external storage additionally, so sort of a value proposition to be able to serve both functions. I keep a lot of my content external, and it’s very easy to hop around between the various Macs I have for whatever reason, especially if I encounter a major hardware issue.

4) speaking of which, if I need to take my Mac in for a non-booting repair, it’s good to have crucial and sensitive client files on my external drives, both for privacy reasons, as well as so that I can boot that macOS build up onto another Mac and not have downtime while the first Mac is in the shop.

Not being able to boot from an external drive may seem trivial to some people, but it would be enough to make me consider jumping platforms between projects when I consider the overall cost of being in the Apple ecosystem as well as how things appear to be ever more locked down with Macs.

 

[Screensaver]

Not to segway the conversation. In short, I would like to know, why would one need to boot from an external drive, versus the internal (unless the internal drive died or something)?

Fair question! I listed a few key points in the above/subsequent response.

 

[Mac... nificent]

Seriously.......M1 macs the cheapest macs have ever been.

What does that have to do with anything? They charge $600+ for a $200 SSD.