I have a question I hope you wonderful people can help me with. I’ve read many (and unfortunately conflicting) articles.
Simply, I want to speed up my 2017 iMac by booting from, and running all apps from an external SSD. I would use the internal 2T HDD only for things likes storing music. Is that prudent? If so, what drives to folks find the most stable?
iMac 27″ 5K, macOS 12.3
Welcome to Apple Support Community.
Using an external SSD is a great way to improve system responsiveness on an older Mac. Here's a User Tip, with SSD recommendations, on the matter: How to Setup and Use an External SSD as y… - Apple Community.
Regarding your Music Library, I would recommend you move it to the external SSD, along with all your other files (steps in User Tip). However, if you would rather keep it separate, it would be easier to simply point the Music app on your external SSD to the Library on your internal HD.
Jack
Welcome to Apple Support Community.
Using an external SSD is a great way to improve system responsiveness on an older Mac. Here's a User Tip, with SSD recommendations, on the matter: How to Setup and Use an External SSD as y… - Apple Community.
Regarding your Music Library, I would recommend you move it to the external SSD, along with all your other files (steps in User Tip). However, if you would rather keep it separate, it would be easier to simply point the Music app on your external SSD to the Library on your internal HD.
Jack
I ran my iMac from an external NVME drive in a Thunderbolt enclosure. Used Carbon Copy Cloner to make the clone. Works great with Intel Macs.
Erase the internal drives in Recovery Mode: About macOS Recovery on Intel-based Mac computers - Apple Support.
Jack
WOW!!!! My computer is SOOOO much faster! Night and day difference. Took about 6 minutes to load everything after rebooting. Now, it takes 30 seconds. THANKS!
I do have one problem:
I can't erase/format the internal drive. I get the error below. Again - Thanks for making my iMac perform better than new!
Jack - that did it. Thanks so much for all your help. I'd buy you a sixer of importer beer if I could. :) Hope someone helps you out as you did me.
Using an external SSD as my “everything” disk for a 2017 iMac
