Need advices for my new Mac Mini

[Aerodynamic77]

Hi !

I've just bought a Mac Mini and it's my first Apple Computer.
This Mac has an internal 512 Gb SSD storage and I know that it will no be sufficient for what I need so I bought an external 2Tb SSD.

I want to install bootcamp as I need Windows for games particularly.

What I know is that my internal 512Gb SSD will not have the capacity to get Bootcamp with Windows and installed Games (probably 250 Gb) + MacOs Systems + Ipad/Iphone Saves + all Mac installed apps.

At the beginning, I thought that I would install MacOs on the External 2Tb SSD, install Bootcamp on external 1Tb Hard Drive and use another external Hard Drive for Time Machine and use the internal SSD as normal storage but I'm not sure this the best solution. I don't know if 512 Gb will be sufficient for MacOs, Apps + Saves and keep my External 2Tb SSD for storage only or use this external SSD for bootcamp and storage and Time Machine.
My current storage needs are :
Bootcamp + windows : About 250/300 Gb
Mac Mini normal Storage : About 500 Gb
Time Machine : 512 Gb
Total : 1.5 Tb

I know that I can put everything in my external SSD but I don't like to get everything in only one SSD (or HD) in case of the SSD is OOO, that's the reason I initially chose 3 different external SSD/HD.

What do you think ?
Thanks for reading

 

[barbu]

I believe boot camp must be installed on the internal drive. So you will have to fit Windows into your 512 ssd alongside MacOS. Not the end of the world though. You can perhaps split your external ssd into one apple partition and one NTFS, then use those to extend the storage of your two OSes. I keep my Mac home folder pretty empty by using aliases to folders stored elsewhere. Music and movies are on external, as are the archives and documents. Likewise you can install your windows games to the “D” drive on your external disk.

 

[Boyd01]

There are several threads about installing bootcamp on external disks in the Windows forum. Have not tried myself, Parallels is a much better solution for my type of usage.

Windows, Linux & Others on the Mac

Boot Camp and Windows discussion

forums.macrumors.com

 

[Aerodynamic77]

I believe boot camp must be installed on the internal drive. So you will have to fit Windows into your 512 ssd alongside MacOS. Not the end of the world though. You can perhaps split your external ssd into one apple partition and one NTFS, then use those to extend the storage of your two OSes. I keep my Mac home folder pretty empty by using aliases to folders stored elsewhere. Music and movies are on external, as are the archives and documents. Likewise you can install your windows games to the “D” drive on your external disk.

Hi Barbu
thanks for your advice and I think your solution is a good one.

 

[Aerodynamic77]

There are several threads about installing bootcamp on external disks in the Windows forum. Have not tried myself, Parallels is a much better solution for my type of usage.

Windows, Linux & Others on the Mac

Boot Camp and Windows discussion

forums.macrumors.com

I’m afraid that parallels on Mac Mini will not fit with my daily as I will play games on the windows platform and I’m not sure that the Mac will be enough powerful.

 

[Boyd01]

My point was that you should read the posts in the forum I linked to. There are a variety of solutions that have been posted there for installing Windows on an external SSD. If you don't see one that works for you, I'd suggest starting a thread in that forum.