- #CHANGE YOUR HARD DRIVES BOOT DRIVE MAC HOW TO#
- #CHANGE YOUR HARD DRIVES BOOT DRIVE MAC INSTALL#
- #CHANGE YOUR HARD DRIVES BOOT DRIVE MAC TV#
#CHANGE YOUR HARD DRIVES BOOT DRIVE MAC INSTALL#
macOS users can also install the OS onto a USB drive and work with the same installation that’s on your internal (and faster) drive. Linux users know that booting from a USB drive is a useful way to get into the OS. In short, we don’t recommend it, and it’s likely not supported. We also don’t know whether you’ll experience issues if you look to install an older OS you don’t own.
Though, if your Mac is based on Apple Silicon, you may find incompatibilities.
In theory, there’s no reason why you couldn’t boot an older version of macOS, and Apple does offer ways to install older versions on a USB. Can I boot older versions of macOS from a USB drive? Our testing gave us no issues when using a USB 2.0 to USB-C connector, so you’re able to press your older USB drives into service. Am I able to use a USB connection other than USB-C? We recommend 16GB to give yourself enough “wiggle room” when it comes to the installation process. As such, you’ll need a large enough USB drive to store Big Sur. In our experience, you will not be able to do this. Can I split an installation across multiple USB drives? Disk operations on the boot drive can be performed safely from a USB stick as well. You can now run the operating system as normal and use this USB drive to boot up your Mac. It works well when troubleshooting problems with your Mac, especially if you can’t boot from the primary hard drive to access System Preferences.For Intel Macs, restart and hold the Option key to enter into the boot selection dialog.įor both types of machines, use your keyboard’s arrow keys to select the USB drive from the list of bootable devices, click to confirm, and your USB drive will begin to boot. This is an easy way to select a startup disk before your Mac turns on. Your Mac will boot from the startup disk you selected.
Select the hard disk or partition you want to use as the startup disk.Ĭlick Restart to restart your computer and boot from the selected startup disk.
#CHANGE YOUR HARD DRIVES BOOT DRIVE MAC HOW TO#
Here’s how to change your Mac’s startup disk:Ĭonnect the drive you want to use as a startup disk to your computer.įrom the Apple menu, select System Preferences. Changing Your Mac’s Startup Disk with System Preferences Normally, the startup disk is set as the hard disk inside of your Mac, but you can use an external hard drive, USB thumb drive, or DVD as your startup disk. When your Mac turns on, it loads the operating system on the designated startup disk, a hard disk or partition containing the macOS operating system.
#CHANGE YOUR HARD DRIVES BOOT DRIVE MAC TV#
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