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Will this work?

Fishrrman said:
I see NO reason to pay extra for a "high-performance" Samsung.
Click to expand...

Well, one reason might be that it would have just worked when you plugged it in, and you wouldn't need to spend over a week and create a thread with 50 posts just to discover that what you bought isn't compatible. :D

But seriously, I agree that there are certainly less expensive options that should work just fine.
 
What dock did you purchase this time, and which SSD are you using now?

Is your new setup still doing exactly the same thing? -- installs, but won't boot to complete the install?
Or, is there a different problem now? How is it different from before you tried a different dock, and a compatible SSD>
 
Then, that's pretty much settled, you need to try a different SSD.
The SSD that you have is either faulty, or just firmware incompatible with what you want to do (boot through the external dock)
Did you try the format/reinstall of macOS of your present SSD as part of your testing of the new dock?

(What has OWC suggested about the SSD when you asked their tech support?)
 
wellander1 said:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LY97QE8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I am using the same ssd. Yes it is doing the same thing.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, this type of dock won't work as a bootable drive. I have the same enclosure under a different brand -- Velocity. However, you can try this. Trying to see if this dock has an Option ROM firmware to allow you to boot from this drive. Macs with new firmware don't usually load the Option ROM firmware from the enclosure, so you need to manually trigger it by pressing Option-Shift-Command-Period from the startup manager window (when you see the Apple logo) to load the Option Rom firmware from the drive enclosure. If it fails, then the dock is non-bootable. Ideally you need to find a USB dock enclosure that Apple supports as bootable and not all USB docks can.
 
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wellander1 said:
I will try that when I get home.
What docks are bootable then?
Click to expand...

I can only tell from my experience that my NexStar TX dock works in both High Sierra and Mojave with the latest boot EFI firmware on both my Mac Pro 5,1 and my Macbook Air. It's tricky to recommend any USB dock because since High Sierra, Apple changed the way it supports USB boot drive and now most enclosures that worked in the past with HFS+ are rendered non-bootable with High Sierra/Mojave on an APFS volume. Which was why my velocity enclosure was rendered useless (worked prior to High Sierra) when I upgraded my Air to High Sierra and I was forced to buy the NexStar TX that I have now. It's the only USB dock that I knew would work. Currently, I am running both High Sierra and Mojave (10.13.6/10.14.6) via the NexStar TX dock as bootable partitions (all APFS volumes).

Here's an excerpt from another user who had Mountain Lion on his MBP 2012, upgraded to High Sierra and now no longer can boot off his USB 3 enclosure from OWC which had worked with Mountain Lion for 5 years prior to the upgrade. After the upgrade, the enclosure stopped being bootable. The guy even took out the SSD that Apple installed and was bootable on his MBP and put it inside the enclosure and it wouldn't boot! As I said earlier, stuff like this was very common back then and even now.

https://apple.stackexchange.com/que...-10-13-2-will-not-boot-from-usb-3-0-enclosure
 
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I have seldom run into ANY dock, dongle/adapter or enclosure that I could NOT boot from.

OP -
I can't help but think that something, somewhere you're doing is... wrong.
(of course, the OWC drive itself could be at fault, you have to try a DIFFERENT drive to know that).

May I ask of you a few very basic questions?

You have a 2014 Mini, is this correct?

Does it currently have a drive installed with a bootable OS on it?

If so, which OS?

Answer these questions, and we'll go on from there.
 
Fishrrman said:
I have seldom run into ANY dock, dongle/adapter or enclosure that I could NOT boot from.

OP -
I can't help but think that something, somewhere you're doing is... wrong.
(of course, the OWC drive itself could be at fault, you have to try a DIFFERENT drive to know that).

May I ask of you a few very basic questions?

You have a 2014 Mini, is this correct?

Does it currently have a drive installed with a bootable OS on it?

If so, which OS?

Answer these questions, and we'll go on from there.
Click to expand...
Yes a 2014 Mac mini. The internal drive is bootable with 10.13.6. The external has not os on it at this time as I can not install it.
[doublepost=1566407772][/doublepost]
iluvmacs99 said:
I can only tell from my experience that my NexStar TX dock works in both High Sierra and Mojave with the latest boot EFI firmware on both my Mac Pro 5,1 and my Macbook Air. It's tricky to recommend any USB dock because since High Sierra, Apple changed the way it supports USB boot drive and now most enclosures that worked in the past with HFS+ are rendered non-bootable with High Sierra/Mojave on an APFS volume. Which was why my velocity enclosure was rendered useless (worked prior to High Sierra) when I upgraded my Air to High Sierra and I was forced to buy the NexStar TX that I have now. It's the only USB dock that I knew would work. Currently, I am running both High Sierra and Mojave (10.13.6/10.14.6) via the NexStar TX dock as bootable partitions (all APFS volumes).

Here's an excerpt from another user who had Mountain Lion on his MBP 2012, upgraded to High Sierra and now no longer can boot off his USB 3 enclosure from OWC which had worked with Mountain Lion for 5 years prior to the upgrade. After the upgrade, the enclosure stopped being bootable. The guy even took out the SSD that Apple installed and was bootable on his MBP and put it inside the enclosure and it wouldn't boot! As I said earlier, stuff like this was very common back then and even now.

https://apple.stackexchange.com/que...-10-13-2-will-not-boot-from-usb-3-0-enclosure
Click to expand...
So I got the wrong stuff again?
 
OP wrote:
"Yes a 2014 Mac mini. The internal drive is bootable with 10.13.6. The external has not os on it at this time as I can not install it."

OK.
I'm going to give you the best advice I can.
I suggest you try EXACTLY what I suggest.
PRINT OUT this reply and follow it EXACTLY.
Then come back and give us your report.

First, you will need CarbonCopyCloner.
Get it here:
https://bombich.com/download
You want CCC 5.

CCC is FREE to download, and it's FREE to use for 30 days.
THIS WILL COST YOU NOTHING.

Put CCC into your applications folder.

Now, connect the external SSD that you have. Use the new enclosure that you bought for it.

Open Disk Utility.
Go to the "view" menu and choose "show all devices" (you can also type "command-2").
Select the external drive.
You want to click on the "topmost" line for the drive, because this represents the physical drive itself.
We're going to NUKE IT into oblivion and start over.

Now click the erase button.
Choose "Mac OS extended with journaling enabled, GUID partition format".
Then give it a recognizable name.
Then erase it.
It will take a few seconds, then it should appear on the desktop.
The drive is "empty" and waiting for us to fill it.

OK, we're going to have to take a break here, because I forgot to ask you before.
Please answer these questions before we can go further:
1. How much space is currently used up on your internal drive? (in gb)
2. How large is the SSD that you bought? (in gb)

Again, PRINT THIS REPLY OUT for reference.

Get back with the answers and I'll tell you what to do next.

WHY I need the answers:
We don't know if the SSD can "hold everything" that is on the internal drive.
There are ways around this, but we need to know the answers before proceeding.
 
Fishrrman said:
OP wrote:
"Yes a 2014 Mac mini. The internal drive is bootable with 10.13.6. The external has not os on it at this time as I can not install it."

OK.
I'm going to give you the best advice I can.
I suggest you try EXACTLY what I suggest.
PRINT OUT this reply and follow it EXACTLY.
Then come back and give us your report.

First, you will need CarbonCopyCloner.
Get it here:
https://bombich.com/download
You want CCC 5.

CCC is FREE to download, and it's FREE to use for 30 days.
THIS WILL COST YOU NOTHING.

Put CCC into your applications folder.

Now, connect the external SSD that you have. Use the new enclosure that you bought for it.

Open Disk Utility.
Go to the "view" menu and choose "show all devices" (you can also type "command-2").
Select the external drive.
You want to click on the "topmost" line for the drive, because this represents the physical drive itself.
We're going to NUKE IT into oblivion and start over.

Now click the erase button.
Choose "Mac OS extended with journaling enabled, GUID partition format".
Then give it a recognizable name.
Then erase it.
It will take a few seconds, then it should appear on the desktop.
The drive is "empty" and waiting for us to fill it.

OK, we're going to have to take a break here, because I forgot to ask you before.
Please answer these questions before we can go further:
1. How much space is currently used up on your internal drive? (in gb)
2. How large is the SSD that you bought? (in gb)

Again, PRINT THIS REPLY OUT for reference.

Get back with the answers and I'll tell you what to do next.

WHY I need the answers:
We don't know if the SSD can "hold everything" that is on the internal drive.
There are ways around this, but we need to know the answers before proceeding.
Click to expand...
145.41 GB used on internal
256 GB (roughly) on external.
 
OP wrote:
"145.41 GB used on internal
256 GB (roughly) on external."

OK.
This makes things easier.

Here's what to do next.
Again, print this out and follow.

Assuming you have ERASED the external SSD to HFS+ (Mac OS extended with journaling enabled):

Connect it to the Mac.
Open CarbonCopyCloner.

Accept all CCC's defaults for now.

When you get to the main window, you'll see 3 "spaces" in the middle:
source on the left
destination in the middle
schedule on the right

Click on "source" and select your INTERNAL drive.
Click on "destination" and select your EXTERNAL SSD.
IGNORE the "schedule" box.

Click "clone" down below.
You may have to click a few more things to get going.

Now, just "sit back and wait" a while.

IMPORTANT:
CCC may ask if you wish to clone the recovery partition, too.
YES, you want to do this, so just let CCC do it.

BE PATIENT while the clone is created.
146gb is going to take a little while.

When done, quit CCC.
Open System preferences and check startup disk.
Do you see the SSD there now, as a potentially bootable drive?
If so, proceed.

Now comes the moment of truth.

Power down the computer, ALL THE WAY OFF.

Press the power on button and IMMEDIATELY hold down the option key and KEEP HOLDING IT DOWN until the startup manager appears.

Do you see the external SSD there now?
If so, select it with the pointer and hit return.

Then come back here, and tell us what happens next.
HINT: when you get to the finder, go to "about this Mac" to see which drive you're booted up from...
 
It worked. But when I went to upgrade to Mojave the installer log says this and is stuck at 17 minutes.
Aug 21 23:24:15 Bryans-Mac-mini-2 osinstallersetupd[4281]: osinstallersetupd registered client
Aug 21 23:24:24 Bryans-Mac-mini-2 osinstallersetupd[4281]: isConvertableToAPFS: was called on disk0s3, an APFS disk.
Aug 21 23:24:24 Bryans-Mac-mini-2 osinstallersetupd[4281]: disk0s3 is not convertible to APFS: This volume is not formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
Aug 21 23:24:26 Bryans-Mac-mini-2 osinstallersetupd[4281]: isConvertableToAPFS: was called on disk0s3, an APFS disk.
Aug 21 23:24:26 Bryans-Mac-mini-2 osinstallersetupd[4281]: disk0s3 is not convertible to APFS: This volume is not formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
Aug 21 23:24:29 Bryans-Mac-mini-2 osinstallersetupd[4281]: OSISPredicateUpdateProduct: OS Installation Payload: Multiple matching products found; choosing the one with the latest post date
Aug 21 23:24:29 Bryans-Mac-mini-2 osinstallersetupd[4281]: No native mechanism to verify InstallInfo.plist
Aug 21 23:24:30 Bryans-Mac-mini-2 osinstallersetupd[4281]: Predicate update product fetch succeeded!
Aug 21 23:24:31 Bryans-Mac-mini-2 osinstallersetupd[4281]: Specifier (<PKPackageSpecifier>:
{
URL = "file:///var/tmp/OSISPredicateUpdateProductTemp/Core.pkg";
authLevel = 2;
displayName = macOS;
identifier = "com.apple.pkg.Core";
options = 16;
version = "10.14.6.0.0.1564433732";
}) missing reference.
Aug 21 23:24:31 Bryans-Mac-mini-2 osinstallersetupd[4281]: Specifier (<PKPackageSpecifier>:
{
URL = "file:///var/tmp/OSISPredicateUpdateProductTemp/EmbeddedOSFirmware.pkg";
authLevel = 2;
displayName = macOS;
identifier = "com.apple.pkg.EmbeddedOSFirmware";
options = 16;
version = "10.14.6.0.0.1564433732";
}) missing reference.
Aug 21 23:24:31 Bryans-Mac-mini-2 osinstallersetupd[4281]: Specifier (<PKPackageSpecifier>:
{
URL = "file:///var/tmp/OSISPredicateUpdateProductTemp/SecureBoot.pkg";
authLevel = 2;
displayName = macOS;
identifier = "com.apple.pkg.SecureBoot";
options = 16;
version = "10.14.6.0.0.1564433732";
}) missing reference.
Aug 21 23:24:31 Bryans-Mac-mini-2 osinstallersetupd[4281]: Specifier (<PKPackageSpecifier>:
{
URL = "file:///var/tmp/OSISPredicateUpdateProductTemp/Core.pkg";
authLevel = 2;
displayName = macOS;
identifier = "com.apple.pkg.Core";
options = 16;
version = "10.14.6.0.0.1564433732";
}) missing reference.
Aug 21 23:24:31 Bryans-Mac-mini-2 osinstallersetupd[4281]: Specifier (<PKPackageSpecifier>:
{
URL = "file:///var/tmp/OSISPredicateUpdateProductTemp/EmbeddedOSFirmware.pkg";
authLevel = 2;
displayName = macOS;
identifier = "com.apple.pkg.EmbeddedOSFirmware";
options = 16;
version = "10.14.6.0.0.1564433732";
}) missing reference.
Aug 21 23:24:31 Bryans-Mac-mini-2 osinstallersetupd[4281]: Specifier (<PKPackageSpecifier>:
{
URL = "file:///var/tmp/OSISPredicateUpdateProductTemp/SecureBoot.pkg";
authLevel = 2;
displayName = macOS;
identifier = "com.apple.pkg.SecureBoot";
options = 16;
version = "10.14.6.0.0.1564433732";
}) missing reference.
Aug 21 23:24:31 Bryans-Mac-mini-2 osinstallersetupd[4281]: Specifier (<PKPackageSpecifier>:
{
URL = "file:///var/tmp/OSISPredicateUpdateProductTemp/Core.pkg";
authLevel = 2;
displayName = macOS;
identifier = "com.apple.pkg.Core";
options = 16;
version = "10.14.6.0.0.1564433732";
}) missing reference.
Aug 21 23:24:31 Bryans-Mac-mini-2 osinstallersetupd[4281]: Specifier (<PKPackageSpecifier>:
{
URL = "file:///var/tmp/OSISPredicateUpdateProductTemp/EmbeddedOSFirmware.pkg";
authLevel = 2;
displayName = macOS;
identifier = "com.apple.pkg.EmbeddedOSFirmware";
options = 16;
version = "10.14.6.0.0.1564433732";
}) missing reference.
Aug 21 23:24:31 Bryans-Mac-mini-2 osinstallersetupd[4281]: Specifier (<PKPackageSpecifier>:
{
URL = "file:///var/tmp/OSISPredicateUpdateProductTemp/SecureBoot.pkg";
authLevel = 2;
displayName = macOS;
identifier = "com.apple.pkg.SecureBoot";
options = 16;
version = "10.14.6.0.0.1564433732";
}) missing reference.
Aug 21 23:24:45 Bryans-Mac-mini-2 osinstallersetupd[4281]: Helper tool loaded
Aug 21 23:24:45 Bryans-Mac-mini-2 osinstallersetupd[4281]: Specifier (<PKPackageSpecifier>:
{
URL = "file:///var/tmp/OSISPredicateUpdateProductTemp/Core.pkg";
authLevel = 2;
displayName = macOS;
identifier = "com.apple.pkg.Core";
options = 16;
version = "10.14.6.0.0.1564433732";
}) missing reference.
Aug 21 23:24:45 Bryans-Mac-mini-2 osinstallersetupd[4281]: Specifier (<PKPackageSpecifier>:
{
URL = "file:///var/tmp/OSISPredicateUpdateProductTemp/EmbeddedOSFirmware.pkg";
authLevel = 2;
displayName = macOS;
identifier = "com.apple.pkg.EmbeddedOSFirmware";
options = 16;
version = "10.14.6.0.0.1564433732";
}) missing reference.
Aug 21 23:24:45 Bryans-Mac-mini-2 osinstallersetupd[4281]: Specifier (<PKPackageSpecifier>:
{
URL = "file:///var/tmp/OSISPredicateUpdateProductTemp/SecureBoot.pkg";
authLevel = 2;
displayName = macOS;
identifier = "com.apple.pkg.SecureBoot";
options = 16;
version = "10.14.6.0.0.1564433732";
}) missing reference.
Aug 21 23:24:45 Bryans-Mac-mini-2 osinstallersetupd[4281]: OSISDownloadOperation: totalEstimate=919.000000, significantDownload=1
Aug 21 23:24:52 Bryans-Mac-mini-2 osinstallersetupd[4281]: OSISDownloadOperation: IAL update found. id: com.apple.pkg.IncompatibleAppList.10_14.16U1638 version: 1.0.0.0.1.1540853632
Aug 21 23:25:01 Bryans-Mac-mini-2 osinstallersetupd[4281]: PackageKit: No native mechanism to verify AppleDiagnostics.dmg
Aug 21 23:25:01 Bryans-Mac-mini-2 osinstallersetupd[4281]: PackageKit: No native mechanism to verify InstallInfo.plist
Click to expand...
 
Last edited by a moderator:
and then a line later in the log
Aug 21 23:36:53 Bryans-Mac-mini-2 osinstallersetupd[4339]: disk3s2 is not convertible to APFS: You may not install to this volume because it cannot be converted to Apple File System (APFS).
[doublepost=1566456249][/doublepost]And a fail to install.
 
"it worked"

Ummmmm.....
WHAT worked?

Do you mean that you followed my instructions, and now have a bootable clone of the internal drive on the external drive?

Then... has this not answered the question as to whether the external drive "was bootable"...?

Old song:
You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
But you can try sometimes...
And you might find...
You get what you NEED.

You have an external SSD you wanted to be bootable so you could run the Mini faster.
Assuming the external drive now boots and runs the same OS that runs (the slow) internal drive, you have got "what you need" -- a much faster drive from which to boot and run.

Upgrading the OS might be another issue.
But it doesn't seem to be related to the external (booting) SSD.
 
Since what I am trying to do with my current equipment does not work if I get a real external SSD will it work the way I want it to?
 
My prediction is...
So long as you keep doing things the way you were doing them before, it won't make any difference.

The drive you have IS bootable -- the exercise with CCC proved that.

Looking back to your original post, it seems the reason you want Mojave is?
"I want to boot off the ssd and have most files for I can run Mojave faster due to the APFS filesystem."

Fearless, fearless, fearless prediction:
Mojave will NOT be any "faster" than High Sierra is right now, booting and running using HFS+ on the SSD with the cloned backup you have RIGHT NOW.

Here is another "example" for you to try:
1. Download Blackmagic Speed test. It's free
2. Run it on your internal drive, and take a screenshot of the read/write speeds (or just write them down)
3. Now, do the same for the High Sierra cloned SSD.
4. Post them here for us to see.

You should be seeing read speeds of about 420-430mbps on the SSD.
You will NEVER get any better than that from a USB3 SSD.
That's "as good as it gets" -- regardless of the file system.
 
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