Just wasted 3 hours of my life because of, it appears, the T2 kernel panic hardware bug.
Connected to my 2019 16-inch MBP, I tried to install the Big Sur latest public beta to my very old but fully working and very reliable Seagate 160GB external USB HDD. (It might even be USB 1.0. It doesn't specify on the unit.)
Since basic USB hard drive technology like this hasn't changed and the drive fully works everywhere else, this should have just worked.
Apart from taking 2-3 hours to install on the drive which I guess is understandable (old USB speed), it failed right near the end with a repeating fan blow-out kernel crash. Hello old friend. Tried 3 reboots in a row. Failed after every forced reboot and attempt to continue.
I should have video'd the endlessly reproducible crash to show it, but I've now packed away the external drive to use another day. (I love old tech that 'just works' for 5, 10, or even 15 years in the future without fail. It's why I bought Macs.)
I'm relieved the incident didn't **** up my main macOS on my Mac's internal SSD. That kind of worry is not what we pay $5000 for - for unfixable hardware bugs like this.
But is there anything better - all things considered - to choose from? Not really. Not yet.
Anyway just a warning for anyone else who manages to see this. Hope Google indexes this and puts it near the top.
Connected to my 2019 16-inch MBP, I tried to install the Big Sur latest public beta to my very old but fully working and very reliable Seagate 160GB external USB HDD. (It might even be USB 1.0. It doesn't specify on the unit.)
Since basic USB hard drive technology like this hasn't changed and the drive fully works everywhere else, this should have just worked.
Apart from taking 2-3 hours to install on the drive which I guess is understandable (old USB speed), it failed right near the end with a repeating fan blow-out kernel crash. Hello old friend. Tried 3 reboots in a row. Failed after every forced reboot and attempt to continue.
I should have video'd the endlessly reproducible crash to show it, but I've now packed away the external drive to use another day. (I love old tech that 'just works' for 5, 10, or even 15 years in the future without fail. It's why I bought Macs.)
I'm relieved the incident didn't **** up my main macOS on my Mac's internal SSD. That kind of worry is not what we pay $5000 for - for unfixable hardware bugs like this.
But is there anything better - all things considered - to choose from? Not really. Not yet.
Anyway just a warning for anyone else who manages to see this. Hope Google indexes this and puts it near the top.