Making an M1 External Boot SSD in 20 Minutes...

[Mike Boreham]

I have just repeated what failed this morning and it worked ! Successfully installed and booted onto USB Samsung T5 using a bootable USB flash drive.

Again reinforces the flakiness of the topic, and if it doesn't work first time try again.

Just done another repeat test install. This time I launched a freshly downloaded installer direct from the Applications folder and installed successfully onto an external USB Samsung T5, and booted from it.

This avoids steps 2 and 3.

This reinforces what I said earlier "Different things work (and don't work) for different people at different times". to which I would add if it doesn't work first time it might the second.

 

[Mike Boreham]

An alternative to step 2, avoiding use of the Terminal is MDS by Two Canoes.

It can download full installers from any of the Apple Catalogs and uses createinstallmedia to make a bootable flash drive with a user friendly UI.

It works and is free.

 

[chouseworth]

OK thanks, I'll have to update my version today. I wonder if they ever got Camtasia to work.

No need to spend the money on updating to Snagit 2021 either. Snagit 2019 is working just fine for me on my M1s. Don’t know about Camtasia.

 

[Mac... nificent]

This time I launched a freshly downloaded installer direct from the Applications folder and installed successfully onto an external USB Samsung T5, and booted from it.

I had considered that, but was worried about Terminal formatting the drive in the wrong format.

No need to spend the money on updating to Snagit 2021 either.

Too late I updated last night. It wasn't to much and I'm sure I'll get a lot of use out of it.

 

[Mike Boreham]

I had considered that, but was worried about Terminal formatting the drive in the wrong format.

Don't really understand this comment. Terminal was not involved. I just double clicked the installer while it was in the Apps folder and at the Select Disk point chose my freshly erased (in DU) external "TEST".

 

[Mac... nificent]

Ahh... OK. I thought Terminal moved it to the other drive. Interesting.

 

[Mac... nificent]

11.2.3 just posted on Apple.

Here we go again....

This time I think I'll try to install it straight from the Applications folder.

 

[deeddawg]

Preface: I designed this process for making an external bootable Big Sur SSD. For installing Big Sur on a internal SSD I recommend using the Configurator 2 app along with a USB-C charging cable (standard USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 cables are not supported).

Lately I’ve had so many problems trying to install Big Sur, and spent so much time doing it, that it almost felt like I had a second career. I was so upset by the buggy, seemingly half-baked procedure(s) that I actually started referring to Big Sur as Big Sour. Over and over again I was forced to go into “recovery” and click on Install Big Sur, where it would tell me that the install process (each time) would take around 2 hours and 5 minutes. I would watch anxiously as the countdown timer would slowly click away, minute by minute. Sometimes it would give an error at 53 minutes left to go, and sometimes it would wait until it almost finished before an error (of one sort or another) would pop its ugly head up. Several times it would actually complete the install, but of course it still wouldn’t boot to the actual desktop, forcing me to try the install process all over again…

It seemed as if my M1 was mocking me, telling me to start the whole cursed procedure all over again. And of course I would… over and over again. At times it felt as if actually completing the Big Sur install process and booting into the desktop was just an illusion.

For many of us here what I’ve described above is nothing new. We’ve all been on this Big Sur merry-go-round and experienced a Big Sur’ge of issues with the new Apple Silicon OS. Reinstalling Big Sur and actually booting into the desktop, is one of the most frustrating things that I’ve ever had to deal with as an owner of a Apple product.

Einstein defined insanity as “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”. With this in mind I decided to try a slightly different approach when it came to a macOS Big Sur installation, and it appears that the Install Gods have shined down on me because not only did I find a new install procedure, but it seems to work extremely well.

The best part is that it took me only around 20 minutes to complete the actual install process (yes, 20 minutes) not including the OS download time. If you’ve already downloaded Big Sur to your Applications folder, then please try using this new procedure and see if it works better for you. Some of the steps you’re probably already familiar with, they’re just utilized differently here. Like Apple once said “Think different”.

I am hopeful that this new procedure will work better for everyone here trying to make a bootable external drive, so that we can put this whole Big Sur Install nightmare behind us, and start actually enjoying our M1 computers. The following procedure has 3 steps; Format, using Terminal with the OS download, and placing the converted installer into your Volume of choice. Let’s get started;

Step 1 of 3;
Formatting Your Hard Drive:

Note: Formatting a hard drive will delete everything from it. If you have anything on the hard drive that you need to save, then you first need to back those files up before attempting to format.

The first thing that you’ll need to do is to format your hard drive. With Big Sur this is a little bit trickier than with other versions of macOS. Please follow this step exactly as outlined because if you don’t complete this step correctly, then the entire procedure will fail. Of the 3 steps, this is one of the most important!

First things first, you’ll need to do your hard drive formatting from the M1, and not from an intel Mac. You will not need to go into Recovery to format (that works best for internal disks, not external). Since you will be doing this procedure from the desktop, it is more straight forward to simply perform this step from Disk Utility.

Go to Applications > Utilities folder > Disk Utility. Click the “View” button at the top of Disk Utilities and then choose “Show All Devices”. Find the Volume that you wish to format and click on the top level of it, then click on Erase:


View attachment 1739533


A new window will popup:

View attachment 1739524



For “Name” type in what you wish to name your hard drive.

For “Format” you’ll need to choose “APFS”.

For “Scheme” you’ll need to choose “GUID Partition Map” and then click on the Erase button.

Your hard drive is now formatted for your M1, however I always like to take an extra step just to make sure that the container is properly formatted. You can skip this step if you wish.

Click on the next level right below the top level.


View attachment 1739525

It will say “Container” with the number of your Volume. With the Container level highlighted, click on the Erase button on the top menu. A popup will appear:

View attachment 1739526

For “Name” type in what you wish to name your hard drive.

For “Format” choose “APFS” and then click on the Erase button.

Step one is now completed. You can close Disk Utility. You can now move onto step two.



Step 2 of 3;
Using Terminal With The OS Download:

This step assumes that the macOS installer has already been downloaded to your Applications folder. If it has not been downloaded, then go to System Preferences and click on Software Update, and choose to have the installer download to your Applications folder. Once it has been downloaded you can continue with step two below.

For this step you will need a USB flash drive formatted as Mac OS Extended, with at least 16GB of available storage. Name the USB flash drive MyVolume (the name is case sensitive). Terminal will be looking for this exact name. If you name the USB flash drive something different, then Terminal will not be able to find the USB flash drive, and the process will fail.

With the MyVolume USB flash drive plugged into your M1, open Terminal, which is in the Utilities folder of your Applications folder.

Copy and paste in the following command into Terminal;

sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Big\ Sur.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume

After pasting in the command press Return. When prompted, type in your administrator password and press the Return key again. You probably won’t see your password as you type it in. This is normal and is a security feature.

View attachment 1739529


When prompted, type Y to confirm that you want to erase the volume, then press Return. Terminal will show you the progress as the USB flash drive is being erased.

After the USB flash drive has been erased, you will see an alert that Terminal would like to access files on a removable volume. Click OK to allow the copy process to proceed.

When Terminal says “Install media now available at…” the process has completed and the installer will be renamed “Install macOS Big Sur”.

Step two has now been completed, and you can now close down Terminal.




Step 3 of 3;
Placing the converted installer into your Volume of choice:


This step is where everything comes together. Click on the (formatted) hard drive that you wish to install macOS Big Sur into to open it up. Next, click on the USB flash drive to open it up.

Click on the ‘Install macOS Big Sur’ installer and drag it to the hard drive where you wish to install Big Sur. You can also copy and paste it in your hard drive if that is easier for you.

Once it has copied over, double click on it and watch the magic happen. The entire process usually takes around 20 minutes to install. Long gone are the days when you would have to wait over two hours to install Big Sur. Follow the on screen prompts to complete the process. I do not recommend that you use your M1 for anything else while the install process is being completed.

If anyone has any questions please post them below. I really hope that this new method works as well for you, as it did for me. I tested this using a Thunderbolt 3 SSD, but I see no reason why it wouldn’t (shouldn’t) work for a USB drive.

Good work.

Much as I like my M1 MBP, your write up shows how far Apple has strayed from “It just works”

I hope they find their way back.

 

[Mac... nificent]

I'll let you know how clicking straight from the Applications folder works, although I must admit, I've never been so nervous clicking on anything like this before

 

[jdb8167]

Good work.

Much as I like my M1 MBP, your write up shows how far Apple has strayed from “It just works”

I hope they find their way back.

I wonder if it was bad analysis that they decided to not prioritize installing from new and installing on external disks. Something like, "We have years of data showing that very few users erase and reinstall from new or install on external disks. It isn't very important." But they didn't analyze the number of users who are early adopters who do reinstall and install on externals. It is probably much higher than the average person who just buys a new Mac and starts using it.

 

[Mac... nificent]

Update went fairly well. At one point it said "100% Complete" and then a few seconds later it said "12 minutes Remaining"

Seems the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing....

 

[Quackers]

Update went fairly well. At one point it said "100% Complete" and then a few seconds later it said "12 minutes Remaining"

Seems the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing....

My update did the same

 

[Quackers]

Can I ask why people have/use external drive installations?
From what I've been reading even external systems (on an M1 at least) still boot using the internal drive initially (iBoot) so if that drive should fail the external wouldn't boot anyway. Or so I understamd it.
I suspect that arrangement is what caused some of the problems getting external installations to work in the beginning.

 

[deeddawg]

Can I ask why people have/use external drive installations?
From what I've been reading even external systems (on an M1 at least) still boot using the internal drive initially (iBoot) so if that drive should fail the external wouldn't boot anyway. Or so I understamd it.
I suspect that arrangement is what caused some of the problems getting external installations to work in the beginning.

In the past, such as when imacs or mini's came with slow spindle drives an external SSD could be a cheaper solution vs buying an internal SSD.

Others may choose to do so from the standpoint that an external 1 or 2TB SSD can be a couple hundred $ less than buying the upgraded internal SSD.

Folks used to those paradigms would reasonably expect the same procedure to work on a new M1.

 

[Mac... nificent]

In the past, such as when imacs or mini's came with slow spindle drives an external SSD could be a cheaper solution vs buying an internal SSD.

Same rule applies today. Apple 2TB = $800.00. Aftermarket = $200.00.

Plus you can also buy a larger drive than just a 2TB when you buy an external.

 

[RvXtm]

Can I ask why people have/use external drive installations?
From what I've been reading even external systems (on an M1 at least) still boot using the internal drive initially (iBoot) so if that drive should fail the external wouldn't boot anyway. Or so I understamd it.
I suspect that arrangement is what caused some of the problems getting external installations to work in the beginning.

One reason is that on m1, the swap burns your internal ssd fast, using apps like Lightroom CC for longer times will write 1Tb on your ssd fast.
This is a known issue/behavior.... at this point it’s not even clear what’s happening. This wil cause huge problems in the future, especially with the preboot stuck on the internal ssd.

 

[Mac... nificent]

Can I ask why people have/use external drive installations?

They're mostly for desktops. Saves you a ton of money over what Apple charges, plus Apple limits sizes to just 2TB.

From what I've been reading even external systems (on an M1 at least) still boot using the internal drive initially

Nope. System Prefs > Startup Disk is all you need

 

[deeddawg]

Same rule applies today. Apple 2TB = $800.00. Aftermarket = $200.00.

Plus you can also buy a larger drive than just a 2TB when you buy an external.

Just remember that $200 external 2TB SSD is a whole lot slower than the internal SSD.

To approach the internal SSD speeds you need to move to a thunderbolt3 NVMe external, and those cost a bunch more.
Example: Amazon.com: SAMSUNG X5 Portable SSD 2TB - Up to 2800MB/s -Thunderbolt 3 NVMe External Solid State Drive, Gray/Red (MU-PB2T0B/AM): Computers & Accessories

What makes sense though depends on the user's specific needs / use case. I'd not want to depend on an external with a portable such as MBA or MBP, so the extra cost of having the internal storage is worth it to me. (I also don't need 2TB so the price delta's not so large)

 

[Quackers]

They're mostly for desktops. Saves you a ton of money over what Apple charges, plus Apple limits sizes to just 2TB.


Nope. System Prefs > Startup Disk is all you need

I'd just read this from the site below, when I posted earlier

"When you start up an M1 Mac from an external disk, the first part of the boot process still runs from internal storage and the iBoot System Container, so that it establishes saved security policy. However, a separate policy is saved for each system install. This makes it possible to engage a different policy when booting from an external disk from that for the internal SSD, and for alternative systems installed on the internal storage too."
https://eclecticlight.co/2021/01/14/m1-macs-radically-change-boot-and-recovery/

 

[Mac... nificent]

To approach the internal SSD speeds you need to move to a thunderbolt3 NVMe external, and those cost a bunch more.

Oh I don't use USB drives anymore. I have a NVMe 2TB that is very fast and cost me around $200.

 

[notgonna]

I'm getting this as I launch Install macOS Big Sur on the external Thunderbolt AFPS drive:

No users available for authorization
Allow one of the following users to administer this computer in System Preferences to continue: (null)

I've restarted, and re-tried, same result.

Any suggestions?

Trying to install 11.2.3 from (tried both from Applications folder and main home) and onto the external Thunderbolt SSD.

My M1 Air is running 11.3 beta 3. (I would like an external start up drive before updating to 113 beta 4.

FileVault off.

 

[Mac... nificent]

Any suggestions?

Are you at step 3?

 

[Snowii]

I am considering moving from Win to M1 Air and using this external boot approach for Lightroom work, has anyone actually tried it using Samsung T7 drive or is this going to be too slow since it isn't TB3?

Also as a user with pretty much zero mac experience I'm wondering whether it is possible to partition the external drive so there can always be a lightroom library partition and the MacOS partition which would then be updated as needed. Or is this something which for whatever reason you don't have to or cannot do on a mac at all?

Thank you!

 

[Mac... nificent]

has anyone actually tried it using Samsung T7 drive or is this going to be too slow since it isn't TB3?

While the T7 should work, it will be much harder to get it to work, plus it will be much, much slower.

Also as a user with pretty much zero mac experience I'm wondering whether it is possible to partition the external drive so there can always be a lightroom library partition and the MacOS partition which would then be updated as needed.

This should be fairly easy and straightforward to do.

 

[Snowii]

so TB3 is from a HW standpoint much easier to setup this way for booting, do I understand it correctly? Then TB3 enclosure and a fitting M.2 SSD should do it...?

Filesystem question - is it possible for my described case to boot from the APFS partition (I'm assuming that is the filesystem MacOS would use) and have a 2nd partition in exFat so it would be usable and a wide array of machnes incl. the Win ones? Or is there any drawback to this solution?

Thank you!