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Want to preserve the lifespan/value of your M1 Mac?
- Thread starter Luposian
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That's my rational LOL. When on a project would cost more in time to dig into the likes of this than the price of the computer. Some are documenting excessive writes, equally no indication as to the source of the writes to the SSD or simply misinterpretation of the SMART data.
As for the original premise of booting from an external drive, has it's uses for sure, as the primary boot drive just a hard no. Had a few Mac's go sideways over the years and PC's. For the most part they have all held up well generally outlasting their usefulness.
Mac's Still in the herd
- 2020 13" M1 MBP - 100% a testbed to see what I can get out of Apple Silicon
- 2015 12" rMB - KB is highly polished, USB C port loose, display showing signs of delaminating, battery degraded
- 2014 13" Battery degraded, few creaky keys, last fully shutdown was when we moved house doubt it's been turned off more than 2-3 times in the last 5/6 years. Keep meaning to swap it for a newer PC that has better CPU hardware decoding (media server) equally it runs fine and owes me nothing
- 2012 15" Runs, however modified by family testing Newton's law of gravity, sans display
- 2011 15" 100% stock Apple including the SW image never having been clean installed, still runs hotter than hades. The very reason I switched up to the 2012 15" yet ironically this one seems intent on seeing the rest off
- 2008 15" Pass - needs new top & bottom case, 3rd set of fans, battery exploded years ago, love the KB LOL. Sadly it's time to take "Old Yeller" to the woodshed
- 2011 13" Air another victim of the inquisitive, conclusive evidence that Mac's & water don't mix...
- 2011 11" Air detonated it's battery resulting in scrap, maybe Steve knows I know I don't
- 2000 Hewlett-Packard still runs after being left in a barn for over 10 years LOL
In all fairness my systems are used heavily in a professional role, prior to the pandemic put to use from the sub Artic to the equator with few concerns as they either performed or were replaced. Generally cherry picking the HW to meet the demands of the project from an 8.4" UMPC to 17" monsters with the Mac's somewhere in the middle.
Q-6
Yes. That is why I said it was some evidence of a difference but not definitive. I'm not seeing a real issue on my M1 MacBook Air. 5.85 TBW in 90 days. Not alarming at all especially if the predicted 1.5 PBW limit on the 1 TB SSD is real (that seems a bit high but given the evidence of 96% lifespan after 65 TBW it isn't out of the question.)
You didn't happen to find an Osborn 01 in the barn by any chance?That's my rational LOL. When on a project would cost more in time to dig into the likes of this than the price of the computer. Some are documenting excessive writes, equally no indication as to the source of the writes to the SSD or simply misinterpretation of the SMART data.
As for the original premise of booting from an external drive, has it's uses for sure, as the primary boot drive just a hard no. Had a few Mac's go sideways over the years and PC's. For the most part they have all held up well generally outlasting their usefulness.
Mac's Still in the herd
Honourable mentions
- 2020 13" M1 MBP - 100% a testbed to see what I can get out of Apple Silicon
- 2015 12" rMB - KB is highly polished, USB C port loose, display showing signs of delaminating, battery degraded
- 2014 13" Battery degraded, few creaky keys, last fully shutdown was when we moved house doubt it's been turned off more than 2-3 times in the last 5/6 years. Keep meaning to swap it for a newer PC that has better CPU hardware decoding (media server) equally it runs fine and owes me nothing
- 2012 15" Runs, however modified by family testing Newton's law of gravity, sans display
- 2011 15" 100% stock Apple including the SW image never having been clean installed, still runs hotter than hades. The very reason I switched up to the 2012 15" yet ironically this one seems intent on seeing the rest off
- 2008 15" Pass - needs new top & bottom case, 3rd set of fans, battery exploded years ago, love the KB LOL. Sadly it's time to take "Old Yeller" to the woodshed
Half a dozen PC portables still with us, the rest relegated to history
- 2011 13" Air another victim of the inquisitive, conclusive evidence that Mac's & water don't mix...
- 2011 11" Air detonated it's battery resulting in scrap, maybe Steve knows I know I don't
- 2000 Hewlett-Packard still runs after being left in a barn for over 10 years LOL
In all fairness my systems are used heavily in a professional role, prior to the pandemic put to use from the sub Artic to the equator with few concerns as they either performed or were replaced. Generally cherry picking the HW to meet the demands of the project from an 8.4" UMPC to 17" monsters with the Mac's somewhere in the middle.
Q-6
Just use the internal SSD, they're meant to last. By the time it wears out you'll want to upgrade to an M7X or whatever is around in 5+ years anyway.
Also this whole thread is hilarious
Also this whole thread is hilarious
I don't have anything quite that old, but I do have a Commodore VIC-20 with cassette drive (my first computer) and an Apple IIGS in storage...
Got that machine for Christmas, by the following summer I had already disassembled it and the cassette deck to see how they worked, then reassembled both devices. I was 6 when I got that Commodore...
Wow, same here. It was Christmas, but don't recall the exact year. I think you're probably a couple or so years younger than me.
Hope all you want, but you will only see a resale premium (or loss, depending on the point of reference) when comparing a Mac with a working SSD with a Mac with a dead SSD. The average buyer of a used Mac will not look into SSD usage. Either it works, or does not.
Actually I'm using this method on my wife's iMac. But not for preserve the value as I would replace all my laptop or desktop every three or five years. However in this case, the iMac was running on HD not SSD thus the speed is extremely slow, so I attached an Samsung 1TB SSD to the iMac and let it boot from that SSD. Something I have experienced is that, SSD USUALLY has longer span life than HD, and SSD may not be the first thing that broken on your device, maybe keyboard, backlit, screen, battery etc.I have 2 or 4 SSD from devices that already broken for varies reason, so I just attached them on my desktop or workstation.
I assume people who brought Apple products because they love Apple, they need Apple and they are used to apple OS or apple environment and they can afford it(doesn't matter if you finance it or pay in full). You purchase Mac or just like buying a Car is to use them, let them change your life or make your life a lot easier, I don't pay to take good care of them as they should be built to last. But it is a good idea to take care of your device as you using them just like maintenance your car, but don't get over your head on preserving its value. Treat residual value as bonus, not something you must have.
Lastly, it is a very good method for people who using HD on their apple products, SSD will increase your Mac performance dramatically.
I assume people who brought Apple products because they love Apple, they need Apple and they are used to apple OS or apple environment and they can afford it(doesn't matter if you finance it or pay in full). You purchase Mac or just like buying a Car is to use them, let them change your life or make your life a lot easier, I don't pay to take good care of them as they should be built to last. But it is a good idea to take care of your device as you using them just like maintenance your car, but don't get over your head on preserving its value. Treat residual value as bonus, not something you must have.
Lastly, it is a very good method for people who using HD on their apple products, SSD will increase your Mac performance dramatically.
Ironically, it was also my first experience with computers becoming outdated quickly, as the Commodore 64 released not long after I got the VIC-20...
Oh, I'm sorry... to all the nay-sayers that said this thread was a bunch of nonsense... but, what are we suddenly seeing? Hmm... maybe what I said was NOT completely unwarranted?
www.macrumors.com
I'm using an external SSD, as we speak... so I'm not having to worry about this...
M1 Mac Users Report Excessive SSD Wear
Over the past week, some M1 Mac users have been reporting alarming SSD health readings, suggesting that these devices are writing extraordinary...
www.macrumors.com
I'm using an external SSD, as we speak... so I'm not having to worry about this...
Oh, ho-ho! And, once again, it wouldn't surprise me that this is an "OS bug". Figure... how is Apple going to make you buy a NEW Mac? Make the old one obsolete or... unusable! I'm enjoying being a Mac user again and I still think Apple is "the devil in disguise". I know that Apple is a money-hungry corporation. Doesn't mean I hate the M1 Macs. I just have to look far enough ahead, to know what Apple COULD do, to make life more difficult. I started this thread, based on the VERY real (and now HAPPENING) possibility of the M1 Mac's "lifespan" being affected... and what are we seeing less than 1 year later? That VERY scenario being played out! Noah faced the same problem... no one believed him, until it was too late... "Enjoy the rain!" ?
Yeah, but running around with an external hard drive to be constantly tethered and taped to a laptop is absolutely ridiculous. Might as well not bother having a laptop at that point.
The confirmation bias is strong with this one...
I wasn’t that posh. I missed the C64 era, but most my friends had one, I think shortly after I went for a Sony MSX 😂
I don’t recall the name of the game, but it was on the C64 and it featured a steam train.
We're suddenly seeing a rather serious bug that will need to be fixed by whoever is responsible and it's quite possible that Apple will have to acknowledge this and replace some machines.
Using your solution to prevent normal and expected (!) wear to the SSD would be ridiculous, like always towing your new car with a second car.
But, you see, I'm avoiding this problem even BEING an issue on my M1 Mac Mini. Those with M1 laptops might be able to get away with using a USB-C flash dongle and not a full external drive, but I'm still waiting to try and see if I can get my USB-A 128Gb flash drive (dongle) to work. I'm happy having a working external drive setup right now, so don't want to mess with it.
A few thoughts. It is also happening to Intel Macs so......
It hasn't been established that actually anything is happening here. It could in fact be a problem with the reporting tool (SMART)...
Anyway, go on patting yourself on the back while everyone else is just living either way.
Oh, I'm sorry... to all the nay-sayers that said this thread was a bunch of nonsense... but, what are we suddenly seeing? Hmm... maybe what I said was NOT completely unwarranted?
M1 Mac Users Report Excessive SSD Wear
Over the past week, some M1 Mac users have been reporting alarming SSD health readings, suggesting that these devices are writing extraordinary...
I'm using an external SSD, as we speak... so I'm not having to worry about this...
If that's real, and a problem, then Apple will almost certainly fix it like they have done with other similar issues covered by their Service Plans. In any case it's looking like that issue is being caused by excessive swapping, which your solution would only help with if you also used your USB drive for swap which would result in a big performance hit (if it's even possible)
Well - if one is really worried - one can use an external almost equally fast Thunderbolt boot drive and run the computer from there. That shouldn’t wear out the internal SSD, no?
Someone has done just that with the M1 Mac Mini in another thread. Obviously it would be less tenable for the M1 Macbooks. Either way, I don't really think this is a problem at this point...