Use External SSD as primary Start Up Disk? early 2015 Macbook Pro (Model: MacBookPro12,1)

[jaqomatic]

Hi all,

I'm a complete novice at anything regarding computer hardware, but I was trying to run do some video editing on Premeire Pro and my computer just wasn't able to handle any templates. After much Googling, it appears that the simplest solution (short of buying a $2,500 laptop), is to run your Startup Disk on an External SSD. I've watched some videos, and from what I can gather, I'm supposed to 1. Format my External SSD to the Mojave OS 2. Delete the Startup Disk from my Harddrive 3. Always keep the External SSD connected and run my OS off of the External? Are these the right steps using this guide

? I'm just afraid to delete the Startup Disk from my harddrive or mess something up.

I am planning to purchase this as my external SSD https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B078SWJ3CF/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_1?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1


Lastly, if there are any other upgrade options without spending a fortune, please let me know.

Thanks!

 

[ruslan120]

Booting an external SSD over USB has been an abysmal experience for me.

It would be better to either put your Final Cut Pro library on the SSD, or even better, upgrade your internal SSD (which is already super fast) to a larger capacity.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/upgrading-2013-2014-macbook-pro-ssd-to-m-2-nvme.2034976/

I’ve done a video on this procedure (link in my signature).

 

[Juicy Box]

Give it a try with USB3, it will probably be fine. You do not have to erase your current internal drive. Just leave it as-is incase the external drive doesn't work out, or if you want to boot up without the external drive attached.

I have used external boot drives off of USB, FireWire, and Thunderbolt, and they were all fine.

I have a few external drives with a bunch of cloned bootable MacOS partitions, and they all work well.

I have even used iPods are MacOS boot drives.
[doublepost=1566999442][/doublepost]I just thought of something, I recall trying to boot with an external SATA SSD over USB, and it took longer to boot. Once booted it was fine, but if I had to restart, booting could take a few minutes. With using the same SSD over thunderbolt, there was no delay.

I looked it up, and it seemed like other people had a similar experience.