Mac Mini 256GB SSD users: How is your experience running MacOS from an external drive?

[hajime]

Hi, I know Apple Intelligence requires MacOS to be installed on the main internal drive. If I don't care about Apple Intelligence and install the entire MacOS on an external drive and run from it, what problems would I encounter besides the need to have an external drive attached to the Mini M4 all the time? Is it approach better than running MacOS from the internal 256GB drive and have some files stored in an external drive? I mean the possibility of less troublesome to do file management, worrying about swap.

Any noticeable drop in overall performance? Any trouble such as system broken whenever Apple updates the OS?

 

[Kenny99]

Why? unless you just want the "FUN" of doing it that way (OS on an external drive) As you said it would be easer to have an external drive for Files. The "Speed" or access time for file read and write would be almost unnoticeable with a Thunderbolt 4 connection. But then again it would be FUN to stay that you did it.

 

[hajime]

I am considering to do it for a stop-gap machine. I want to know what I will get into going this route.

 

[apostolosdt]

I’ve been doing that with all the Macs; in fact, with all the macOSs, since the external SSD can be connected to any Mac compatible with the OS.

There are pros and cons with that procedure. Not all disks are suitable (I use Samsung T7). Such disks are not cheap, either. But I don’t have to worry about swap events or wearing out the SSD with continual R/W.

However, I don’t rely on the external OS only. I first have the latest compatible macOS installed on the internal SSD, plus a few vital utility apps—just in case.

No noticeable downgrade in speed. And, yes, it IS fun!

 

[spaceballl]

Open: Hey! A lot of people here will give you their opinions, but I thought you'd want some perspective from someone who is ACTUALLY doing it right now. Yes that's right... I'm typing this message on a brand new base model Mac Mini M4, with a 1TB TB4 external drive, and I am booting from that drive. The internal SSD is (for now) completely unused. The experience has been fantastic.

Context: I'm traveling a few hundred miles from home, visiting my boomer parents for the holidays, and their current mac, prior to this gift I just gave them, was a 2013 iMac running on the most recently supported version of MacOS, and I upgraded it to 16GB of RAM and an SSD like five years ago. That machine was working "just fine" but it has gotten slow, it makes some noises from time to time, and obviously we're not getting MacOS updates anymore. My parents don't care about Apple Intelligence or speed for video editing. They use the mac for zoom calls, browsing news sites to get fired up about politics, etc. When Costco offered the base model M4 for $500, I hit up my brothers and asked if they wanted to split it for my parents. I decided I'd pre-open it before gifting, wipe out the internal SSD, and get a fresh install of MacOS on the external SSD. I had an extra 1TB NVME drive sitting around. I got it working a few weeks ago, felt satisifed, stuck the SSD (i'm using the Orico TB4 enclosure) in my backpack, packcaged the Mac up carefully so it looked brand new, and stuck it under the tree.

Initial Config / Migration: I plugged the Mac Mini via ethernet directly into the old iMac ethernet port for the migration, and I was pleasantly surprised by how well it went, actually. I was a bit nervous that I'd get some errors or something, since the 2013 iMac was literally over a decade old, and it was running an older version of MacOS (not sure off the top of my head, but multiple years behind). Instead, it went very smoothly. Transfer rates sustained at around 115MB / second, which is basically maxing out the 1G ethernet port. After the migration, it told me a handful of files couldn't be transferred and got deleted. They were like Adobe flash files and java things so that was great to see those files torched. I booted up the computer, and everything was shockingly great. Then I had to do a MacOS update, and I got my first error. This was solved by updating MacOS via terminal, and then everything has been smooth. It has only been a couple days of constantly using the machine, but so far I haven't had any problems with things like sleep / wake from sleep. It has all been super smooth.

Usability: Honestly, I can't tell that this thing is running off an external SSD at all. It's a really fast computer. It's nothing like my M4 Max MacBook Pro, but I've been browsing the web with it and doing some basic tasks, I imported a video and made a small change to it, exported it, etc. Like... Everything has been fine. Better than fine. Great. This base model Mac Mini is potentially the best base model Apple has made in SUCH a long time, and for $500, it's such a darn good computer. My parents had a 512GB SSD before, and with all the photos and crap they could probably just delete, it was getting somewhat full. I had an extra 1TB SSD in my house, so I used that, but even if I had to buy one, getting 1TB from Apple kills the value of the computer for my use-case. So yeah... It's been really nice. My dad is loving it, as he went from a 24" iMac screen to a 27" dell screen, and it's just so fast, quiet, etc.

Going Forward: If something weird happens or my dad calls me up one day and tells me the computer stopped working, etc, I'll update this thread. I'm still here for a couple more days before I leave so I'll continue to tinker with it. Also, when I read that the Mac Mini has its own speaker, I thought that was a waste of money. LOL I forgot to buy speakers because the iMac came with them (i need to buy a webcam too), but the Mac Mini speakers are fine for my dad for now so I think I'll just leave it. I'm curious if that one command line software update fixed the error or if that will happen in the future when I upgrade MacOS. So yeah... so far so good!

Why? unless you just want the "FUN" of doing it that way (OS on an external drive) As you said it would be easer to have an external drive for Files. The "Speed" or access time for file read and write would be almost unnoticeable with a Thunderbolt 4 connection. But then again it would be FUN to stay that you did it.

I don't get the argument that it's easier to have an external drive for files. If I give this to my parents, who are a few hundred miles away from me, that means I'm always risking the fact that they fill up their 256GB drive because a symlink breaks or there's a misconfiguration. Way easier to just boot from a TB4 drive, which is supported by Apple, and know that nothing will get installed on that internal SSD because it's literally not bootable.

 

[smirking]

But I don’t have to worry about swap events or wearing out the SSD with continual R/W.

FWIW, we probably don't need to stress out as much as we've been doing about wearing out the internal SSD. The risk of that appears to be overblown. Check out the stress test done by a MacRumors poster:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/apple-silicon-soldered-ssd-upgrade-thread.2417822/?post=32921841#post-32921841

There are still other benefits to the external of course and I want to give it a try myself.

 

[hajime]

Open: Hey! A lot of people here will give you their opinions, but I thought you'd want some perspective from someone who is ACTUALLY doing it right now. Yes that's right... I'm typing this message on a brand new base model Mac Mini M4, with a 1TB TB4 external drive, and I am booting from that drive. The internal SSD is (for now) completely unused. The experience has been fantastic.

Context: I'm traveling a few hundred miles from home, visiting my boomer parents for the holidays, and their current mac, prior to this gift I just gave them, was a 2013 iMac running on the most recently supported version of MacOS, and I upgraded it to 16GB of RAM and an SSD like five years ago. That machine was working "just fine" but it has gotten slow, it makes some noises from time to time, and obviously we're not getting MacOS updates anymore. My parents don't care about Apple Intelligence or speed for video editing. They use the mac for zoom calls, browsing news sites to get fired up about politics, etc. When Costco offered the base model M4 for $500, I hit up my brothers and asked if they wanted to split it for my parents. I decided I'd pre-open it before gifting, wipe out the internal SSD, and get a fresh install of MacOS on the external SSD. I had an extra 1TB NVME drive sitting around. I got it working a few weeks ago, felt satisifed, stuck the SSD (i'm using the Orico TB4 enclosure) in my backpack, packcaged the Mac up carefully so it looked brand new, and stuck it under the tree.

Initial Config / Migration: I plugged the Mac Mini via ethernet directly into the old iMac ethernet port for the migration, and I was pleasantly surprised by how well it went, actually. I was a bit nervous that I'd get some errors or something, since the 2013 iMac was literally over a decade old, and it was running an older version of MacOS (not sure off the top of my head, but multiple years behind). Instead, it went very smoothly. Transfer rates sustained at around 115MB / second, which is basically maxing out the 1G ethernet port. After the migration, it told me a handful of files couldn't be transferred and got deleted. They were like Adobe flash files and java things so that was great to see those files torched. I booted up the computer, and everything was shockingly great. Then I had to do a MacOS update, and I got my first error. This was solved by updating MacOS via terminal, and then everything has been smooth. It has only been a couple days of constantly using the machine, but so far I haven't had any problems with things like sleep / wake from sleep. It has all been super smooth.

Usability: Honestly, I can't tell that this thing is running off an external SSD at all. It's a really fast computer. It's nothing like my M4 Max MacBook Pro, but I've been browsing the web with it and doing some basic tasks, I imported a video and made a small change to it, exported it, etc. Like... Everything has been fine. Better than fine. Great. This base model Mac Mini is potentially the best base model Apple has made in SUCH a long time, and for $500, it's such a darn good computer. My parents had a 512GB SSD before, and with all the photos and crap they could probably just delete, it was getting somewhat full. I had an extra 1TB SSD in my house, so I used that, but even if I had to buy one, getting 1TB from Apple kills the value of the computer for my use-case. So yeah... It's been really nice. My dad is loving it, as he went from a 24" iMac screen to a 27" dell screen, and it's just so fast, quiet, etc.

Going Forward: If something weird happens or my dad calls me up one day and tells me the computer stopped working, etc, I'll update this thread. I'm still here for a couple more days before I leave so I'll continue to tinker with it. Also, when I read that the Mac Mini has its own speaker, I thought that was a waste of money. LOL I forgot to buy speakers because the iMac came with them (i need to buy a webcam too), but the Mac Mini speakers are fine for my dad for now so I think I'll just leave it. I'm curious if that one command line software update fixed the error or if that will happen in the future when I upgrade MacOS. So yeah... so far so good!


I don't get the argument that it's easier to have an external drive for files. If I give this to my parents, who are a few hundred miles away from me, that means I'm always risking the fact that they fill up their 256GB drive because a symlink breaks or there's a misconfiguration. Way easier to just boot from a TB4 drive, which is supported by Apple, and know that nothing will get installed on that internal SSD because it's literally not bootable.

Thanks for sharing the details.

I read that with the 256GB internal +external route, some programs keep installing and saving files in the internal SSD as they don’t support external drive.

Does the “everything including the Mac OS running from the external SSD” route also has this issue? I wonder if those stubborn programs get fooled into thinking that the external drive were the internal one.

 

[hajime]

Will the performance slow down if I run only one Windows virtual machine via VMware Fusion or Parallels?

 

[spaceballl]

Thanks for sharing the details.

I read that with the 256GB internal +external route, some programs keep installing and saving files in the internal SSD as they don’t support external drive.

Does the “everything including the Mac OS running from the external SSD” route also has this issue? I wonder if those stubborn programs get fooled into thinking that the external drive were the internal one.

No. My MacOS installation doesn't have a concept of "internal or external" drive. There's only one installation, and it's on the external drive. All files go there.

 

[hajime]

No. My MacOS installation doesn't have a concept of "internal or external" drive. There's only one installation, and it's on the external drive. All files go there.

So if everything is on the external, the system gets fooled into thinking that the external were the only drive working inside the Mac?

How does it work when using Time Machine, CCC or SuperDuper to backup? I wonder if these programs distinguish between internal and external drives.

 

[spaceballl]

So if everything is on the external, the system gets fooled into thinking that the external were the only drive working inside the Mac?

How does it work when using Time Machine, CCC or SuperDuper to backup? I wonder if these programs distinguish between internal and external drives.

There's no fooling. You're just running the OS off a drive other than the one inside the machine. So... it's treated like an internal drive. Time Machine would be the same as if you were booting from the internal drive. CCC / SuperDuper are just apps that are installed that back up to other locations.

 

[apostolosdt]

Will the performance slow down if I run only one Windows virtual machine via VMware Fusion or Parallels?

Yes, of course, but that has nothing to do with running the VMs from an external disk. Windows won't run full power because they are virtual.

By the way, the slow in speed will practically affect only the games. People are crazy about speed because of computer games, I guess. Take out that factor and will not worry much then.

 

[brofkand]

I have an M2 base model Mac mini. 8gb ram 256gb ssd. The only files on my SSD is the OS and apps. Everything else is stored on external storage. Yes, sometimes I run out of RAM and swap to disk. Life goes on. The machine runs perfectly well even when swapping to disk. I’m in no hurry to replace it with an M4.

 

[shoarthing2]

I have an M2 base model Mac mini. 8gb ram 256gb ssd. The only files on my SSD is the OS and apps. Everything else is stored on external storage. Yes, sometimes I run out of RAM and swap to disk. Life goes on. The machine runs perfectly well even when swapping to disk. I’m in no hurry to replace it with an M4.

. . . same here: I use an M2 mini (base) booting into a fanless 4TB external NVME/USB4 enclosure. Fast or faster than internal SSD. Sole issue (for my work) is OS/data being outside the Secure Enclave, so you have to accept a (modest) performance hit when enabling Filevault.

 

[brofkand]

. . . same here: I use an M2 mini (base) booting into a fanless 4TB external NVME/USB4 enclosure. Fast or faster than internal SSD. Sole issue (for my work) is OS/data being outside the Secure Enclave, so you have to accept a (modest) performance hit when enabling Filevault.

I boot off the internal SSD and all my apps are stored there just out of convenience. I haven’t brothered to move my home folder to the external storage, so my ~/Library and other files are still on the internal SSD as well. But all my media files, documents, etc., are stored externally.

 

[Jaap]

My 2 cents:
I don't like that the external drive (an Acasis 40Gbps Thunderbolt 3 M.2 NVMe SSD with Samsung 970 Evo Plus) gets hot and stays hot all the time, even when the Mac sleeps.

 

[Thirio2]

My external stays warm all the time and hot most of the time. A few times it would not wake from sleep so I would have to power cycle it, but that hasn’t happened since the last OS update. I do worry that at some point it will break, so I make sure to keep it backed up to 2 different drives. If I had it to do over I would just buy the 1TB version for peace of mind.

 

[ericwn]

I never run of external but store big media files there. This approach gas worked for me for a long time.

 

[macbug]

Hi, I know Apple Intelligence requires MacOS to be installed on the main internal drive. If I don't care about Apple Intelligence and install the entire MacOS on an external drive and run from it, what problems would I encounter besides the need to have an external drive attached to the Mini M4 all the time? Is it approach better than running MacOS from the internal 256GB drive and have some files stored in an external drive? I mean the possibility of less troublesome to do file management, worrying about swap.

Any noticeable drop in overall performance? Any trouble such as system broken whenever Apple updates the OS?

Just put your apps and files on the external drive and leave your main admin user on the main drive. If you absolutely must, add another user, left click and pick 'advanced options', then pick the external home folder you want. Set App Store prefs to use external for apps larger than 1gb. That's it. And there's no difference in performance provided you get a TB4 or TB5 drive ( like the OWC one ), or build your own with a good external Tb4 enclosure.

 

[djbern]

I logged in just to prop your post for the detail and context, and also to ask you if theres a link or a guide you followed to do this install. my 256gb Mac Mini is filled with icloud iMessages so I'd like to do an external install asap

Open: Hey! A lot of people here will give you their opinions, but I thought you'd want some perspective from someone who is ACTUALLY doing it right now. Yes that's right... I'm typing this message on a brand new base model Mac Mini M4, with a 1TB TB4 external drive, and I am booting from that drive. The internal SSD is (for now) completely unused. The experience has been fantastic.

Context: I'm traveling a few hundred miles from home, visiting my boomer parents for the holidays, and their current mac, prior to this gift I just gave them, was a 2013 iMac running on the most recently supported version of MacOS, and I upgraded it to 16GB of RAM and an SSD like five years ago. That machine was working "just fine" but it has gotten slow, it makes some noises from time to time, and obviously we're not getting MacOS updates anymore. My parents don't care about Apple Intelligence or speed for video editing. They use the mac for zoom calls, browsing news sites to get fired up about politics, etc. When Costco offered the base model M4 for $500, I hit up my brothers and asked if they wanted to split it for my parents. I decided I'd pre-open it before gifting, wipe out the internal SSD, and get a fresh install of MacOS on the external SSD. I had an extra 1TB NVME drive sitting around. I got it working a few weeks ago, felt satisifed, stuck the SSD (i'm using the Orico TB4 enclosure) in my backpack, packcaged the Mac up carefully so it looked brand new, and stuck it under the tree.

Initial Config / Migration: I plugged the Mac Mini via ethernet directly into the old iMac ethernet port for the migration, and I was pleasantly surprised by how well it went, actually. I was a bit nervous that I'd get some errors or something, since the 2013 iMac was literally over a decade old, and it was running an older version of MacOS (not sure off the top of my head, but multiple years behind). Instead, it went very smoothly. Transfer rates sustained at around 115MB / second, which is basically maxing out the 1G ethernet port. After the migration, it told me a handful of files couldn't be transferred and got deleted. They were like Adobe flash files and java things so that was great to see those files torched. I booted up the computer, and everything was shockingly great. Then I had to do a MacOS update, and I got my first error. This was solved by updating MacOS via terminal, and then everything has been smooth. It has only been a couple days of constantly using the machine, but so far I haven't had any problems with things like sleep / wake from sleep. It has all been super smooth.

Usability: Honestly, I can't tell that this thing is running off an external SSD at all. It's a really fast computer. It's nothing like my M4 Max MacBook Pro, but I've been browsing the web with it and doing some basic tasks, I imported a video and made a small change to it, exported it, etc. Like... Everything has been fine. Better than fine. Great. This base model Mac Mini is potentially the best base model Apple has made in SUCH a long time, and for $500, it's such a darn good computer. My parents had a 512GB SSD before, and with all the photos and crap they could probably just delete, it was getting somewhat full. I had an extra 1TB SSD in my house, so I used that, but even if I had to buy one, getting 1TB from Apple kills the value of the computer for my use-case. So yeah... It's been really nice. My dad is loving it, as he went from a 24" iMac screen to a 27" dell screen, and it's just so fast, quiet, etc.

Going Forward: If something weird happens or my dad calls me up one day and tells me the computer stopped working, etc, I'll update this thread. I'm still here for a couple more days before I leave so I'll continue to tinker with it. Also, when I read that the Mac Mini has its own speaker, I thought that was a waste of money. LOL I forgot to buy speakers because the iMac came with them (i need to buy a webcam too), but the Mac Mini speakers are fine for my dad for now so I think I'll just leave it. I'm curious if that one command line software update fixed the error or if that will happen in the future when I upgrade MacOS. So yeah... so far so good!


I don't get the argument that it's easier to have an external drive for files. If I give this to my parents, who are a few hundred miles away from me, that means I'm always risking the fact that they fill up their 256GB drive because a symlink breaks or there's a misconfiguration. Way easier to just boot from a TB4 drive, which is supported by Apple, and know that nothing will get installed on that internal SSD because it's literally not bootable.

 

[Alameda]

Open: Hey! A lot of people here will give you their opinions, but I thought you'd want some perspective from someone who is ACTUALLY doing it right now. Yes that's right... I'm typing this message on a brand new base model Mac Mini M4, with a 1TB TB4 external drive, and I am booting from that drive. The internal SSD is (for now) completely unused. The experience has been fantastic.

Context: I'm traveling a few hundred miles from home, visiting my boomer parents for the holidays, and their current mac, prior to this gift I just gave them, was a 2013 iMac running on the most recently supported version of MacOS, and I upgraded it to 16GB of RAM and an SSD like five years ago. That machine was working "just fine" but it has gotten slow, it makes some noises from time to time, and obviously we're not getting MacOS updates anymore. My parents don't care about Apple Intelligence or speed for video editing. They use the mac for zoom calls, browsing news sites to get fired up about politics, etc. When Costco offered the base model M4 for $500, I hit up my brothers and asked if they wanted to split it for my parents. I decided I'd pre-open it before gifting, wipe out the internal SSD, and get a fresh install of MacOS on the external SSD. I had an extra 1TB NVME drive sitting around. I got it working a few weeks ago, felt satisifed, stuck the SSD (i'm using the Orico TB4 enclosure) in my backpack, packcaged the Mac up carefully so it looked brand new, and stuck it under the tree.

Initial Config / Migration: I plugged the Mac Mini via ethernet directly into the old iMac ethernet port for the migration, and I was pleasantly surprised by how well it went, actually. I was a bit nervous that I'd get some errors or something, since the 2013 iMac was literally over a decade old, and it was running an older version of MacOS (not sure off the top of my head, but multiple years behind). Instead, it went very smoothly. Transfer rates sustained at around 115MB / second, which is basically maxing out the 1G ethernet port. After the migration, it told me a handful of files couldn't be transferred and got deleted. They were like Adobe flash files and java things so that was great to see those files torched. I booted up the computer, and everything was shockingly great. Then I had to do a MacOS update, and I got my first error. This was solved by updating MacOS via terminal, and then everything has been smooth. It has only been a couple days of constantly using the machine, but so far I haven't had any problems with things like sleep / wake from sleep. It has all been super smooth.

Usability: Honestly, I can't tell that this thing is running off an external SSD at all. It's a really fast computer. It's nothing like my M4 Max MacBook Pro, but I've been browsing the web with it and doing some basic tasks, I imported a video and made a small change to it, exported it, etc. Like... Everything has been fine. Better than fine. Great. This base model Mac Mini is potentially the best base model Apple has made in SUCH a long time, and for $500, it's such a darn good computer. My parents had a 512GB SSD before, and with all the photos and crap they could probably just delete, it was getting somewhat full. I had an extra 1TB SSD in my house, so I used that, but even if I had to buy one, getting 1TB from Apple kills the value of the computer for my use-case. So yeah... It's been really nice. My dad is loving it, as he went from a 24" iMac screen to a 27" dell screen, and it's just so fast, quiet, etc.

Going Forward: If something weird happens or my dad calls me up one day and tells me the computer stopped working, etc, I'll update this thread. I'm still here for a couple more days before I leave so I'll continue to tinker with it. Also, when I read that the Mac Mini has its own speaker, I thought that was a waste of money. LOL I forgot to buy speakers because the iMac came with them (i need to buy a webcam too), but the Mac Mini speakers are fine for my dad for now so I think I'll just leave it. I'm curious if that one command line software update fixed the error or if that will happen in the future when I upgrade MacOS. So yeah... so far so good!


I don't get the argument that it's easier to have an external drive for files. If I give this to my parents, who are a few hundred miles away from me, that means I'm always risking the fact that they fill up their 256GB drive because a symlink breaks or there's a misconfiguration. Way easier to just boot from a TB4 drive, which is supported by Apple, and know that nothing will get installed on that internal SSD because it's literally not bootable.

Thank you.
Another approach is to run MacOS from the internal, have an Admin account with no data on the internal (in case the external SSD fails), and then create a User account with standard permissions on the external SSD. This frees up about 120 GB on the external, but all of the apps and all user data still installs seamlessly on the external, so you’ll never fill the internal. You also should get better performance, because the System divides reads and writes between the two drives.

But perhaps you prefer the simplicity of your approach.

 

[drrich2]

Then I had to do a MacOS update, and I got my first error. This was solved by updating MacOS via terminal, and then everything has been smooth.

It may be helpful if you expand on this - how did you know to use Terminal, what did you do and how did you know to do that?

I ask because Terminal is practically the antithesis of the Mac experience for many people - a command line 'techie' approach to computing. Gotta wonder how many Mac users even know what it is. Reminds me of the Windows OS Registry, where the warning was stark - don't mess with this unless you know exactly what you're doing because make a mistake and you can cause a bad screwup.

Is what you did something the average Joe who's never used Terminal would readily figure out?

 

[JamesMay82]

Interesting you can do this now but I don’t see the benefits for me or even for most people.

I just keep everything on internal except for photo and music libraries which are stored on external drives.

 

[Alameda]

Interesting you can do this now but I don’t see the benefits for me or even for most people.

I just keep everything on internal except for photo and music libraries which are stored on external drives.

I think it’s a great approach because it is seamless for the end user. There’s no guessing about which drive the data is found on, no worry about whether you’ve copied or moved a file, it’s low cost… the downside is that the external drive must always be connected, but that’s not a big deal for desktop computer use.

Of course, if you’re a more advanced user, it’s not a problem to manage two drives, but that kind of setup isn’t for everybody.

 

[drrich2]

Interesting you can do this now but I don’t see the benefits for me or even for most people.

I just keep everything on internal except for photo and music libraries which are stored on external drives.

I imagine having everything on one drive makes backup simpler. In the distant past I tried Time Machine once and found it rather confusing in practice (I grasped the concept); now I use CarbonCopy Cloner set to update my backup on an external SSD nightly when I'm in bed. No weird alternative universe where each file exists in a series of versions by time, hovering in front of me like some sci-fi warp display. I like it simple. Guessing CarbonCopy Cloner, Super Duper and Time Machine can backup multiple volumes, but how much complexity does it add to the process? Do they backup to a single volume, or do people partition the backup volume?

There are some technically sophisticated people using Macs, and there are some technically unsophisticated people (and shades of gray in between) using Macs.

Here's a thread that may be of use to some: Do external SSDs have more heating issues than internal? Why? Issues addressed:

1.) The often discussed substantial heat given off in Thunderbolt-based external SSD enclosures, and does it matter?

2.) Concerns about routine use of an external boot disc with Apple Silicon Macs (Post #11 has the link provided by PaulD-UK. Disclaimer: I personally don't see how that is a problem if you use the external as your startup disc. I get that making an Apple Silicon Mac boot off a different startup disc than it is accustomed to may be more hassle than it used to be?

It's interesting to me how different people go about using an external in different ways; some make the external their boot drive, some boot from the internal but move their 'home folder' to the external (IIRC, that makes Apple Intelligence work?), some use the internal for app.s and smaller files but the external for large libraries (e.g.: Photos) and big files, etc...

Anyone know if a good online article, Wikipedia page, YouTube! video or other resource that compares and contrasts the pro.s and con.s of each of those approaches?

It seems that simply moving everything to an external SSD as your startup disc would be the easiest way to go, for a desktop Mac like the Mini that's rarely moved. So why doesn't everybody just do that? I get that MacBook owners may want the option to not carry around an external SSD.