Hi, i have my imac running on an external TB3 ssd. If i go on holiday i take that ssd and connect it to an air. in this way i have the same system on both macs. Now, both of them are intel, and i want to get an m1 air. What will happen if i plug that ssd on it? Will it run normally? Has anyone tried this? And which is the minimum macos needed for m1? Right now i have 11.3.1 on my imac as i stopped updating it.
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Intel MacOS on a M1?
- Thread starter Damian83
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You're not going to be able to do this; it's not a matter of the version of macOS. The two platforms don't use the same boot disk structure and they're not interchangeable.
Rosetta is a part of M1 versions of Mac OS that allows Intel applications to be executed. But this emulation layer is a part of the OS, not the hardware. The M1 has no ability to natively understand or execute Intel instructions, and would have no idea what to do if you took an Intel installation of Mac OS and tried to run it.
so u all mean that there are 2 different macos install files for intel and m1? i thought it was all-in-one like happens with drivers. anyway does someone of you tried this? because i had same answers many years ago when i asked if it was possible (intel-intel in that case) at that time. then ive tried by myself and i'm using this "switching" method till today
here people said its more possible than impossible
EDIT: ok seems its impossible, as always reason its SECURITY, thanks Tim now i feel more safe, even if my mac it's becoming more useless everyday passes...
www.pcworld.idg.com.au
so my question is: is it possible to switch the ssd on 2 m1 macs if the macos was already installed on a m1?
here people said its more possible than impossible
EDIT: ok seems its impossible, as always reason its SECURITY, thanks Tim now i feel more safe, even if my mac it's becoming more useless everyday passes...
How to migrate a startup volume from an Intel to an M1 Mac - Macworld
Apple chose a different startup scheme for its Apple silicon models that prevents booting up from an Intel-targeted disk.
so my question is: is it possible to switch the ssd on 2 m1 macs if the macos was already installed on a m1?
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I’ve done that countless times on Intel and PPC Macs. No idea if it’s still possible on Apple Silicon though.
It's not possible to run a version that was shipped prior to the original release for a particular Mac model. In the case of an M1 MacBook Air, this would be 11.0. With, for example, the 2019 16" MacBook Pro, you can't run something earlier than a special version of 10.15.1, but that computer was sold until 2021 so it would have eventually been delivered with versions of Big Sur. Those computers can downgrade to Catalina.
Currently, M1 Macs are arriving with Monterey on them, but models which came with Big Sur, like the M1 Air, can be downgraded to Big Sur. The 14" and 16" MacBook Pros cannot be downgraded to Big Sur.
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You mean that's possible to boot successfully, let's say a 2020 imac, with, let's say a Sierra (2016) disk?
The answer after yours says not, and its also what i think
Anyway, can someone tell me if i can boot same external disk on 2 different m1/2 macs? Didnt found that info by googling
I tried this. I made a bootable external drive with my intel MacBook Pro 2019, plugged it into my 14inch MacBook Pro 2021, when I selected the startup disk, I got this error:
My intel Mac, M1 Pro Mac and the external SSD all have the same version (Monterey 12.4).
My intel Mac, M1 Pro Mac and the external SSD all have the same version (Monterey 12.4).
and what if u do the opposite (disk made with m1, and plugged to intel), and using a combo install file instead of downloading directly during first installation?
I've run
- Mac OS 8.6 on a Titanium PowerBook G4 that shipped with 9.1.
- OS X Jaguar (10.2) on several Macs that shipped with Panther (10.3) or Tiger (10.4).
- OS X Tiger on an original MacBook Air that shipped with Leopard (10.5).
- OS X Leopard on a 2010 MacBook Air that shipped with Snow Leopard (10.6).
- OS X Snow Leopard and Lion (10.7) on a Retina MacBook Pro that shipped with Mountain Lion (10.8). (Image)
Granted, it's the luck of the draw and you can't expect everything to work, but "it's possible."
Sierra will panic because it doesn't recognise a 2020 iMac's CPU. You'd need to get around that.
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What is a "combo install file"? IIUC, the only way to get a macOS install package is to download it from an Apple server. The Apple server will talk to your Mac, find out what install package it needs and deliver that. There has not been any "fat binary" OS installer for about fifteen years, when MacOS 10.5 Leopard came on a DVD. For Apple to deliver a "combo" install package from its servers would be an enormous waste of resources, since Apple knows what machine it is uploading to.
The main thing that makes your Mac unique is primarily in ~/Library/ (user library directory). That stuff is almost entirely platform-agnostic, so you might be able to do some kind of magic with a symbolic link that points ~/Library/ (or even your entire home directory) to a folder on the external ssd. It is kind of risky, though, because your computer will get confused and misbehave if the external device is not mounted.
i remember that its possible to install/update macos with a system-specific file or with a universal (bigger) one. but dont know if things changed. personally i stopped to update macos from maybe 2 years, and the only time i install it is when i buy a new system...
Apple no longer makes any standalone updaters for macOS Big Sur or later available for download. You can only download the full installer, or update using Software Update.
Didn't work either. Even the full installer downloaded with intel machines (Install macOS Monterey.app) won't work on Apple Silicon, and vice versa.
Another way would be install Intel/Apple Silicon OS'es on different APFS volumes on the same external SSD. I haven't tried that. But I assume what you want is the same OS running on 2 machines, instead of 2 separate operating systems on one disk, right?
Err, likely not, due to security.
Was over my head, but it almost sounded like in default security mode, that the MacOS install for Apple Silicon was paired to the installed computer's CPU. Then had to further be granted ownership by the User to boot.
You can try ... but the hint was to take the alternative approach to booting from the external and sharing data on the drive, to booting from the internal and sharing data on the external drive.
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This isn't true– it's the same installer, regardless of the Mac's architecture.
Great! The n.1 apple killer feature (for me) against windows, has gone, in the name of SECURITY! I begin to regret windows times when u got a virus by visiting porn websites....
We are simply not believing you. The bandwidth needed to transfer an extra ~100Mb of data to make the installer generic does not sound like much until you mutiply it by millions of d/ls. And why should Intel machines get the software to support ANE and the iGPU or M1 machines get dGPU drivers meant for Intel machines? Apple knows what machine is getting the installer, so why would they waste bandwidth on stuff that machine cannot use?
In other words, prove it. Show us an instance of a macOS installer that was downloaded on one machine and later used to install the system on a machine of the other type.
I'm not going to go through great lengths to do any demos here, but /System/Library/Extensions on an Apple Silicon Mac contains the full load of AMD and Intel extensions that are of no use at all on that platform, and conversely, an Intel installation has all the extensions for Apple Silicon machines.
I pretty routinely download installers for the computers I support on whatever computer I happen to be using. With the exception of the ipsw files I'd use for a DFU restoration on an Apple Silicon Mac, I do not keep separate installers for each platform, and they all work on whatever computer I'm updating.
i believe more this than the "custom installer theory". however i think its easy to test it. its enough to download 2 installers on 2 different macs to see if they are different