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Huiu

macrumors member
Original poster
May 22, 2012
83
3
I have a Macbook with Catalina and want to use Mojave on an external HD to play some 32-bit games. I have read that I only have to download Mojave from the app store, copy it to the external HD and then restart and install it from there on the external HD. Is it really that simple? I want to make sure, not that I end up deleting files and downgrade from Catalina on my main HD.
 
You need to tell us which MacBook you have, and what year it was made.

If it's one of the newest, that require Catalina to boot, you CANNOT boot from Mojave or any "earlier version" of the OS on it. (exception: you can run an older OS using a "virtual machine" such as Parallels or VMWare Fusion -- but you still can't BOOT from the older OS).

If the MacBook originally came with Mojave or earlier installed "from Apple", then yes, you can do this.
 
I have read that I only have to download Mojave from the app store, copy it to the external HD and then restart and install it from there on the external HD. Is it really that simple?

What you're describing wouldn't work at all even if your Mac can boot Mojave from an external drive. You download the "Install macOS Mojave" app from the App Store, run the app, and select the external drive as the target of the installation. Or, you create an USB installer (via Terminal) with the downloaded app, boot from that and select the external drive as the target of the installation.
 
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