Hello everyone! In today's sharing, I will introduce how to easily install the Mac OS system to an external hard drive to solve the problem of insufficient built-in storage space on devices such as Mac mini. Since it was a spur-of-the-moment idea, I only took some photos, and some of the pictures were added later. At the same time, I will also share my personal views on the 40Gbps Akasis Thunderbolt 4 hard drive enclosure and the 10Gbps USB hard drive enclosure, and by the way, show the hard drive speed of a 2012 MacBook Pro (the first model equipped with an SSD), hoping to provide some reference for everyone.
The operation video is below -
Capacity vs. speed: How do ordinary users choose?
For most of us ordinary users, hard drive capacity is often the primary consideration, which directly determines whether we can store the required files and applications. As for hard drive speed, it is often just a matter of "waiting". Therefore, in my opinion, it is worthwhile to buy a hard drive enclosure to expand storage, but whether or not to choose a Thunderbolt interface is not necessarily absolute.
Seven steps to install a macOS external hard drive
Compared with Windows, the installation process of macOS can be described as "simple". Below I will show the specific steps through 7 pictures:
Step 1: Format the disk
First, we need to format the external hard drive to Apple's APFS file system. Select your external hard drive in "Disk Utility", then click "Erase" and select APFS in the format option.
Step 2: Download macOS
Go to the Mac App Store to search and download the macOS system you want to install. If you are not sure which version you should download, you can check your device information in "Settings" > "General" > "About this device", and then search for the corresponding system version in the App Store. Click "Get" to start downloading.
Step 3: Set full disk access permissions
If you install macOS directly to an external hard drive, or try to install certain apps to an external hard drive, you may encounter a prompt that you do not have sufficient permissions. At this time, you need to open "Settings", select "Privacy & Security", and then find "Full Disk Access Permission". Click the "+" sign in the lower left corner and add the "Install macOS [version name].app" you want to install the system to and the apps you want to run on the external hard drive to the list.
Step 4: Start installation
After setting the disk permissions, you can start installing macOS normally. The installation process takes about half an hour.
Step 5: Restart your Mac and select your startup disk
When the installation is complete, you'll be prompted to restart your Mac. But don't just click Restart at this point. Instead, open Settings, select General, and then click Startup Disk. You'll see your internal and external disks. Select your external disk and click Restart.
Step 6: Wait for the system installation to complete
After restarting, your Mac will boot from the external hard drive and continue to complete the system installation process. It may restart multiple times during this period, please be patient.
Step 7: Complete the setup guide and import data
After the system is installed, you will enter the familiar macOS setup boot interface. Here, you can choose to import data from the Mac mini internal disk to your external hard drive system without making additional backups in advance.
Lightning speed experience and thinking
During the data import process, I finally experienced the speed of the Thunderbolt interface, which reached about 800-900 MB per second. In comparison, when I imported the backup from the old Time Capsule, the speed was less than 100 MB/s. The speed improvement of Thunderbolt is very obvious.
After the installation, my system space has expanded to 1TB, which is no longer as tight as the previous 256GB. In the future, I can install large software such as PR, Jianying, Final Cut Pro, or try various AI models more freely.
External hard drive installation system: a flexible option
Running macOS on an external hard drive is an interesting and practical solution. If you don't mind having an extra "tail" on your device, the experience is actually the same as with a built-in hard drive, and you can even improve the experience by choosing a higher-specification solid-state drive. In addition, for users who need to work in multiple scenarios, an independent system disk that can be plugged in and out at any time is very convenient.
Speed test: Performance of Zhitai 7100 in Thunderbolt 4 external hard drive enclosure
To get a more specific idea of the speed, I tested the read and write speeds of the ZTE 7100 SSD in a Thunderbolt 4 external hard drive enclosure:
- Write speed: about 2500-2600 MB/s
- Read speed: about 2800-2900 MB/s
Compared to the Mac mini's built-in 256GB hard drive, the write speed is about 20% faster, while the read speed is not much different.
Does the USB interface really get stuck? My actual experience
Many bloggers said that using a 10Gbps USB hard drive enclosure to install the system will cause lags because the random read speed is not high. I was curious about this and conducted a practical test. I plugged the Thunderbolt 4 hard drive enclosure into the USB port on the front of the Mac mini and artificially reduced the interface rate from 40Gbps to 10Gbps.
What surprised me was that, in terms of my daily usage habits, whether it was booting up, surfing the Internet, writing articles or editing videos, I didn't feel any obvious lag. This makes me think that for ordinary users, it may not always be necessary to spend a higher price to buy a Thunderbolt hard drive enclosure in pursuit of extreme speed.
The 2012 MacBook Pro: Lessons from the past
I also took out a 2012 MacBook Pro, which is Apple's first laptop equipped with an SSD. Even under the macOS 10.15 system, the read and write speed of this hard drive is only 200 to 300 megabytes, less than one-tenth of today's computers, but the system is still smooth, and commonly used software can run normally, and it can still meet 60 to 70 percent of my work needs. This makes me wonder, are we too obsessed with improving data and ignoring the actual user experience?
Data is important, and it can help us understand things more accurately, but we cannot let data dominate or even replace our own cognition. In addition to data, we need our own understanding, analysis, application and evaluation.
I have read a lot of reviews about Mac mini recently. The structured content seems to have clear logic, but upon careful reflection, many of them are like products on an assembly line. They seem to be rewarding, but in fact they are empty.
Related Reading:Macmini M4 series articles
