New mini - restore from dead iMac Time capsule backup?

[todgoi]

Hello,
I searched the forums for this particular situation and couldn't find a match.

I have a dead 2011 iMac with an almost full 1TB spinner. I think the power supply failed. No response from the power switch. The iMac was "supposedly" backing up to my 1TB Airport Time Capsule. So hopefully that backup exists and is intact.

I would like to get a new base model i3 (256GB) Mac Mini to use as a replacement. However, I don't want to use the small internal SSD. I'd like to get a Samsung T7 2TB SSD (which will hold the contents of the iMac drive and give room to grow) and run the whole thing from that device.

Can I just install Catalina on the new T7 and then use the Migration Assistant to hopefully recover the iMac programs and data files from the Time Capsule? Is this as easy as erasing the T7 and APFS formatting and Option booting to "restore" Catalina to the T7? Then setting it as the permanent boot device?

The Time Capsule was connected by ethernet to my network. Should I leave it that way for the recovery or is there a better (faster) way to access the files?

Is there another way I should be trying to accomplish this? I need a machine up and running and I don't have time to fuss with replacing parts on the iMac right now.

Thanks for the help.
Todd

 

[calderone]

You'll need to allow booting from an external drive due to the T2 chip.

How to make new T2-secured Macs boot from external drives | AppleInsider

Apple's security processor gets in the way when you're trying to use external drives to boot from. Fix this now because if you wait until you need to restart from one, you'll have problems.

appleinsider.com

Once you get that working, you'll need to use System Preferences to force it to default to the external drive.

DISCLAIMER: I haven't done this myself.

 

[Boyd01]

Have not tried booting my new 2018 mini from an external drive, but there are a number of posts on the subject here in the forums. A new 2tb Samsung T7 was just delivered here an hour ago and I'm currently copying files (will not use it as a boot drive). One thing that confused me was that Disk Utility did not offer the option to format the T7 as APFS. Had to Google that, and it turns out you need to pick "show all devices" from the dropdown menu, then choose GUID Partition map.

The T7 is twice as fast as my old Samsung T3's.

 

[todgoi]

Just to close the thread.

Thanks Calderone for the link to the T2 chip fix. Those steps in the link worked great and the T7 is the boot device.

The migration of the old imac backup to the Samsung T7 SSD on the new Mini was easy and successful but it took a long time (overnight) to finish. The connection to the Time Capsule was slow but the Migration Assistant worked the backup was intact and everything showed up in Catalina.

-Todd

 

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote:
"I would like to get a new base model i3 (256GB) Mac Mini to use as a replacement. However, I don't want to use the small internal SSD. I'd like to get a Samsung T7 2TB SSD (which will hold the contents of the iMac drive and give room to grow) and run the whole thing from that device."

There's a problem here.
The Mini will have a VERY fast internal SSD (with read speeds up over 2,000MBps).
The t7 will have maximum read speeds around 965MBps.

My suggestion will be that -- once you have the t7 set up with your stuff -- that you KEEP RUNNING from the INTERNAL drive, and just access your files on the external that way.

Because you will have TWICE THE SPEED by doing so.

 

[Boyd01]

Because you will have TWICE THE SPEED by doing so.

You make a very good point. The 2018 Mini internal SSD is actually closer to THREE TIMES as fast as the T7.

Here's my internal 2tb SSD

Now, this is somewhat dependent on the size of your SSD. I have seen posts by others with the 512gb SSD, and the read speed is about the same but the write speed is closer to 2000MB/sec. Regardless, it's a really fast internal disk and it makes a lot of sense to use it as your system drive.

 

[todgoi]

I’ve been running the new Mini from the T7 for a few days now. It has been solid and I’ve had no glitches. I understand the speed compromises using the external SSD for everything. I ran the BlackMagic speed tests and my T7 numbers, as you’d expect, are very similar to Boyd01’s posted results.

The Mini feels quite responsive compared to my old iMac and I’m happy with the performance. The simplicity of having everything on one device (T7) and not having to manage “remote” libraries and data files is worth the speed penalty for me. So at this point the internal SSD isn’t being used for anything but it does have a configured but empty Catalina install on it.

Thanks for all the help.
-Todd