Booting a 2013 MB Pro From an External SSD

[Speed38]

A senior, four states away, with a Late 2013 A1502 Retina, 13” running Big Sur, contacted me to inform me that the HD on his MB Pro is noisy, and that he is getting "lots of wait cursors; takes bloody forever to get going when waking up.'

He has terrible arthritis and we would have to go through the annoyance and expense of mailing the MBP back and forth so I could put a new SSD in for him.

I am thinking that perhaps it would be a lot simpler to suggest that he get an external 500 GB or 1 TB SSD, install Monterey on it, then us Migration Assistant to move the data from the failing HD and make the external SSD his boot drive.

Question #1. Good idea/bad idea? His computing needs, btw, are the simplest of simple, mail and web surfing.

Question #2. He’ll want to get an SSD in a case with its own power supply, right?

For several years, I ran my 2015 iMac from an OWC SSD sitting in a Sabrent docking station w/ a fan:

SABRENT USB 3.0 to SATA External Hard Drive Lay Flat Docking Station with Built in Cooling Fan for 2.5 or 3.5in HDD, SSD [Support UASP and 22TB] (EC-DFFN)

SABRENT USB 3.0 to SATA External Hard Drive Lay Flat Docking Station with Built in Cooling Fan for 2.5 or 3.5in HDD, SSD [Support UASP and 22TB] (EC-DFFN)

www.amazon.com

HOWEVER…I just recalled, typing this, reading about some people having great difficulties booting a Mac running Monterey from an external HD. I seem to recall speculation that for reasons of security, Apple was making this impossible.

Is that true and if so is it the same case for Big Sur?


Bob
———
Slava Ukraini!

 

[Speed38]

I am sorry; there was a mixup. He has a MB Pro with an SSD but the one he was writing me asking for help on was an ancient 2009 A1342 13”.

It cannot run anything beyond High Sierra, so I don't think there should be any problem booting from an external SSD...or might there be?

The rest of my OP still stands:

I am thinking that perhaps it would be a lot simpler to suggest that he get an external 500 GB or 1 TB external SSD, install High Sierra on it, then us Migration Assistant to move the data from the failing HD and make the external SSD his boot drive.

Question #1. Good idea/bad idea? His computing needs, btw, are the simplest of simple, mail and web surfing.

Question #2. He’ll want to get an SSD in a case with its own power supply, right.

For several years, I ran my 2015 iMac from an OWC SSD sitting in a Sabrent docking station w/ a fan:

 

[Boyd01]

Apparently A1342 is a 2010 MacBook

MacBook "Core 2 Duo" 2.4 13" (Mid-2010) Specs (Mid-2010, MC516LL/A, MacBook7,1, A1342, 2395*): EveryMac.com

Technical specifications for the MacBook "Core 2 Duo" 2.4 13" (Mid-2010). Dates sold, processor type, memory info, hard drive details, price and more.

everymac.com

It will only have USB2 which is limited to somewhere around 30 MB/sec and not be a very good experience (external SSD's are typically capable of ~400MB/sec on USB3). Not sure if High Sierra is a good choice, from the link above

"This system can run the last version of OS X 10.10 "Yosemite" and OS X 10.11 "El Capitan," although advanced feature support is minimal (Mac-to-Mac AirDrop is supported). When running Mac OS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard" it is not supported booting in 64-bit mode. It is capable of running macOS Sierra (10.12) as well, although the Universal Clipboard, Auto Unlock, and Apple Pay features are not supported. Finally, this model is capable of running macOS High Sierra (10.13), and it supports HEVC (High-Efficiency Video Coding), but it does notsupport hardware accelerated HEVC. It is not compatible with macOS Mojave (10.14) or later versions of the operating system."

Really might be time to think about replacing that old Mac with something a little newer....

 

[Speed38]

I agree, but this fellow is really strapped for cash and a new computer is not in the picture. Also, for some reason I don't fully comprehend, he finds using that old keyboard much easier than he does the late 2013.