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Once I've cloned the OS from my imac internal drive to the external ssd, how do I delete the OS on the imac internal drive? I want to only keep my user folders on the internal drive.
 
Disk Utility can remove the OS while leaving my user documents in place? I'll look into it. Thanks.

Oh that's not possible. I thought you wanted to remove everything.

If you want to preserve your data, transfer your data elsewhere first. The only way to remove an OS is to reformat the partition. Which erases everything in it.

WinClone Pro will clone the contents of the Boot Camp partition into the external SSD (Windows itself and the user folders).

After that, you can remove the Boot Camp partition from your internal SSD.
 
Oh that's not possible. I thought you wanted to remove everything.

If you want to preserve your data, transfer your data elsewhere first. The only way to remove an OS is to reformat the partition. Which erases everything in it.

WinClone Pro will clone the contents of the Boot Camp partition into the external SSD (Windows itself and the user folders).

After that, you can remove the Boot Camp partition from your internal SSD.

I see. Since I've made a Superduper clone onto an external hard drive, I can format the fusion drive then restore just my user folders back to the fusion drive. Thank you!
 
When I boot from the external ssd and try to run the Black Magic Disk test on that volume, I get an error stating that it can't test the volume because it can't write to that volume. I've confirmed that the external ssd is the boot volume. What am I doing wrong?
 
When I boot from the external ssd and try to run the Black Magic Disk test on that volume, I get an error stating that it can't test the volume because it can't write to that volume. I've confirmed that the external ssd is the boot volume. What am I doing wrong?

Ah, I just needed to change the permissions to Read & Write. :)
 
When I boot from the external ssd and try to run the Black Magic Disk test on that volume, I get an error stating that it can't test the volume because it can't write to that volume. I've confirmed that the external ssd is the boot volume. What am I doing wrong?

Just create a "test" folder on that drive (it will ask for your password), then point DiskTest to that folder (which YOU own) and it should work fine.
 
Boot Windows on a USB 3.0 drive natively, without Bootcamp setup

I have a walkthrough on how to boot Windows on a USB 3.0 drive without using Bootcamp on a Mac. It is here michaeljjensen.com/tinkerer/#removablewindowsonmac.
It requires some setup with the partitions but isn't anything that would be hard to follow in my opinion.
I put this walkthrough together because this isn't documented anywhere that I could find. The only thing you need Bootcamp for is the driver disk it creates and you can use it to make your USB install for Windows. No need to worry about partitioning your main disk or the limitations of where you can install Windows now.
 
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I have a walkthrough on how to boot Windows on a USB 3.0 drive without using Bootcamp on a Mac. It is here michaeljjensen.com/tech.
It requires some setup with the partitions but isn't anything that would be hard to follow in my opinion.
I put this walkthrough together because this isn't documented anywhere that I could find. The only thing you need Bootcamp for is the driver disk it creates and you can use it to make your USB install for Windows. No need to worry about partitioning your main disk or the limitations of where you can install Windows now.

I need some clarification on your instructions. They're very ambiguous.
Especially Step one.

Using Bootmcamp to create your Windows install disk. is this the USB External SSD/HDD, or the USB stick that gets the Bootcamp drivers?

In what is the drive to be created? As Ran both through there. Selecting Create a Windows 8 install disk.
Neither show up as EFI Boot on the Boot screen where I select the drive. In fact the only thing that shows up is my Mac Pro's Internal SSD with Mavericks and Yosemite Beta on, with their recovery partitions.

I would love some clarification as without this step there's nothing else to do.
 
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Slow down, read more thoroughly

I need some clarification on your instructions. They're very ambiguous.
Especially Step one.

Using Bootmcamp to create your Windows install disk. is this the USB External SSD/HDD, or the USB stick that gets the Bootcamp drivers?

In what is the drive to be created? As Ran both through there. Selecting Create a Windows 8 install disk.
Neither show up as EFI Boot on the Boot screen where I select the drive. Infant the only thing that shows up is my Mac Pro's Internal SSD with Mavericks and Yosemite Beta on, with their recovery partitions.

I would love some clarification as without this step there's nothing else to do.

I am not sure what you read. Step 1 said:
"Step 1– For best results, use Bootcamp utility to create your Windows 8 USB install disk with Mac Drivers. That is all you will use Bootcamp for."
All you are doing is using Bootcamp to put Windows 8 install files and Mac drivers on your thumb drive or another USB device that will be separate from the actual drive you install to. The list of things you need clarifies that further.

I added what I thought was self-explanatory.

Read the Bootcamp options, choose, “Create a Windows 7 or later version install disk.” Do leave the box checked that says “Download the latest Windows support software from Apple.” Uncheck “Install Windows 7 or later version.”
 
I am not sure what you read. Step 1 said:
"Step 1– For best results, use Bootcamp utility to create your Windows 8 USB install disk with Mac Drivers. That is all you will use Bootcamp for."
All you are doing is using Bootcamp to put Windows 8 install files and Mac drivers on your thumb drive or another USB device that will be separate from the actual drive you install to. The list of things you need clarifies that further.

I added what I thought was self-explanatory.

Read the Bootcamp options, choose, “Create a Windows 7 or later version install disk.” Do leave the box checked that says “Download the latest Windows support software from Apple.” Uncheck “Install Windows 7 or later version.”

Thank you, found the issue. Every other external device had to be unplugged from my Mac Pro before it would see the drive. It also had to be directly into the back of the Mac, instead of through the USB hub also.

Rather annoying bug to say the least.
 
Going this way with an external Thunderbird SSD 240GB Silicon Power brand on a 2012 iMac. The thought of breaking the iMac open and all the steps to replace the hard drive put me off nd I have replaced CPUs in Mac Pros etc.

The SSD will be the boot drive and the 1GB internal I will use for backups, photos etc.
 
I have a 27" iMac with the fusion drive. I broke up the fusion drive so that I could use the internal SSD as the boot drive and the external SSD as my home folder drive. This works GREAT. I used this Plugable USB 3.1 Gen 2 USB-C to SATA Adapter Cable (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01JK8KJSA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) with a Samsung 850 EVO. I get 489MB/s on the write and 510MB/s on the read speeds on the external drive. That's just as fast as an the same drive installed on the SATA connection. The iMac recognizes the drive as a USB 3.1 device with 10GB/s bandwidth. And of course the internal drive on it's own is incredibly fast. I've seen it peak out at about 3000MB/s read and 1100MB/s write, but it averages slower than that.


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