How to make an external drive bootable and primary?

[NikitaBz]

Hello forum members Smile
I ordered an iMac m3, came a few days ago, bought a Samsung T7 for a terabyte, formatted it and... installed macOS 14.1.2 on it and the result is in the photo.

How to properly make an external drive the main and boot one so that all files are written to it immediately?

I also plan to install parallels desktop on the same disk, or do I need to split it into several and in different formats? Do I need to add volumes?

Please be understanding as this is my first Mac system.

thanks for answers

 

[Buadhai]

I know this doesn't help you, but I did this just recently and it works fine on an M1 MBA with a Samsung 970 SSD in a Orico enclosure.

If you could tell us what the error message is, it might help.

Also, how exactly did you install the OS?

 

[kitKAC]

Try the instructions here:

https://eclecticlight.co/2022/11/10/make-a-ventura-bootable-external-disk-for-an-apple-silicon-mac/

 

[ChrisA]

How to properly make an external drive the main and boot one so that all files are written to it immediately?

Why do you want to do this? The internal drive is likely faster than your new external SSD and you'd be wasting the internal drive. Most people will install MacOS on the internal drive and use the external for their data.

Is there some reason why you don't want to use the internal SSD?

 

[avz]

Why do you want to do this? The internal drive is likely faster than your new external SSD and you'd be wasting the internal drive. Most people will install MacOS on the internal drive and use the external for their data.

Is there some reason why you don't want to use the internal SSD?

Perhaps it helps to ensure the longevity of the iMac and its re-sale value down the road by reducing the amounts of the terabytes written to the internal drive?

 

[ChrisA]

Perhaps it helps to ensure the longevity of the iMac and its re-sale value down the road by reducing the amounts of the terabytes written to the internal drive?

If you work out the number, that doesn't make economic sense. Assume a $600 base M2 Mac mini. In 4 or 5 years the market value is perhaps $300. How much of a premium can you sell one for if the internal SSD has low usage? No one will give you much extra, certainly not enough to cover the cost of the external drive.

For most people, I'd estimate the internal drive would last at least 10 years. At that point if the computer is still of use to you, then buy the external drive for maybe 20% of today's price.

I doubt economics is the OP's motivation. Maybe he will say.

 

[Basic75]

I can be paranoid about SSD write cycles, but I'd still put the operating system on the internal drive. You can use the external SSD for your virtual machines, that alone will keep a large chunk of your writes off the internal one.

And I can't make out whatever language the error message is in, but your screenshots clearly show "T7 Shield 500" and that it has half a terabyte; you wrote that you purchased a terabyte, I hope you didn't get scammed!

 

[j26]

I bought an M2 Mac mini recently and want to preserve the ssd life. However, I left the OS on the internal drive - all documents/images/videos etc go to an external ssd. I also got 16Gigs RAM.

That should reasonably safeguard the internal drive...