Mac Mini 2018 - should I use TB3 drive as boot instead of internal?

[darkslide29]

I have a Mac Mini 2018 128gb SSD. I regret purchasing the smallest hard drive, especially since now I'd like to use bootcamp. I tried to bootcamp and it left me with about 10gb of space. First I considered using a standard SSD to offload some MacOS apps to gain some space.

But I am now looking to purchase the Samsung X5 Thunderbolt 3 drive (either 500gb or 1TB) to use as the main boot drive. I want to format the entire drive for MacOS and then give bootcamp a decent part of it. My question is regarding how its performance and use will compare versus using the internal drive. Is this a bad idea?

I appreciate any insight or advice. Thanks.

 

[Heat_Fan89]

My question is regarding how its performance and use will compare versus using the internal drive. Is this a bad idea?

It should be about the same if not slightly faster than your internal 128GB SSD. A thread was started based around the X5 and it should answer most if not all of your questions.

Samsung X5 Portable SSD - 2TB - Thunderbolt 3 External SSD for a reasonable price

Just posting this for general information in case it may help others in the same situation. I needed a fast high capacity external SSD for my new 2018 Mini for storing and editing a very large number of digital images. I was looking at the Samsung X5. The Samsung X5 2TB Version is currently...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[darkslide29]

It should be about the same if not slightly faster than your internal 128GB SSD. A thread was started based around the X5 and it should answer most if not all of your questions.

Samsung X5 Portable SSD - 2TB - Thunderbolt 3 External SSD for a reasonable price

Just posting this for general information in case it may help others in the same situation. I needed a fast high capacity external SSD for my new 2018 Mini for storing and editing a very large number of digital images. I was looking at the Samsung X5. The Samsung X5 2TB Version is currently...

forums.macrumors.com

Thank you for the response and resource. Very helpful! Have a great day.

 

[Fishrrman]

Even if you get an external thunderbolt3 drive to become your external booter, you should still keep a bootable copy of the OS on the internal drive.

What happens if something goes wrong with the external drive and you can't boot?
In a matter of seconds, you can boot from the internal and be "running again" to work on the problem.

BTW, the external boot drive will run fine.
I used a USB3 SSD to boot my 2012 Mini since the day I took it out of the box in 2013 -- still runs fine using that method.

 

[bernuli]

I would leave internal drive as is and move your home directory to external.

 

[drmeatball]

I don’t use the internal drive (256), not even formatted. External 2TB NVME in a TB3 case. Works perfectly.

 

[Spectrum]

I don’t use the internal drive (256), not even formatted. External 2TB NVME in a TB3 case. Works perfectly.

Do you have link to the TB3 case you are using? We tried to do something similar with HDD iMac, and the iMac doesn't recognise the external drive during boot, nor does the 2018 mac mini. You have to unplug and then replug for it to work for some reason...

 

[Agent OrangeZ]

I use a 512GB NVMe SSD with the JEYI TB3 enclosure from AliExpress as my MacOS boot drive. Works great.

FYI... if you are like me... and intend to use your internal storage for Bootcamp, setup Bootcamp before you get rid of MacOS on the internal drive. Bootcamp Assistant won't run when you have external storage plugged into the machine... even if your boot drive is the external drive. So I used the internal MacOS installation to partition the internal drive and install Windows (I gave Windows as much as Bootcamp Assistant would allow). Then when I had Windows installed, I used a Windows based partition manager to delete the MacOS volume on the internal drive and resize the Windows partition to use up the entire 128 GB internal storage. Then, I plugged in my TB drive and was able to boot Catalina from it again using the Mac bootloader.



[automerge]1571540257[/automerge]

Do you have link to the TB3 case you are using? We tried to do something similar with HDD iMac, and the iMac doesn't recognise the external drive during boot, nor does the 2018 mac mini. You have to unplug and then replug for it to work for some reason...

122.5US $ |M.2 Nvme Ssd Enclosure Thunderbolt 3 | 2 Nvme Ssd Enclosure Thunderbolt 3 - 3 M.2 - Aliexpress

Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com

www.aliexpress.com

 

[thunderstruck]

You may also want to consider this wavlink enclosure:

Thunderbolt 3 M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosures

 

[Zdigital2015]

Do you have link to the TB3 case you are using? We tried to do something similar with HDD iMac, and the iMac doesn't recognise the external drive during boot, nor does the 2018 mac mini. You have to unplug and then replug for it to work for some reason...

Chances are that if you are trying to boot a Thunderbolt 2 iMac with a Thunderbolt 3 enclosure you may run into trouble. You would have less trouble with a TB2 enclosure if you can find one. At least try to find a Thunderbolt 3 enclosure that uses an external power supply by default and is not bus powered.

 

[FilmIndustryGuy]

I just did this using drmeatball advice in another post on here. The X5 would throttle due to heat I read so I got a TB3 enclosure for $125 on Amazon tax free and an Inland 2TB drive just like drmeatball mentioned. both totaled $375. My internal 128gb is sitting empty and everything is running out of the external with no hiccups. drive runs at 1950 write 2500 read.

I was also interested in installing windows on the internal but I may have screwed that up since I wiped it.
Make sure you turn off FileVault and T2 chip security before you wipe the internal drive and install Catalina because it will block you form running OS from an external drive. I originally didn't know this and wasted a day figuring it out.