Q: CREATING A SECOND SYSTEM

I am using a mac mini as a secondary computer at my vacation home and it has limited storage and ram. I almost ran into trouble with it having difficulty finding the system. How can I create a system on an external hard drive in case the original system craps out. Theoretically it should scan externals for a system if it can't find the one on the internal drive.

How can I create and external system.

Mac mini, Mac OS X (10.7.5)

Posted on May 3, 2016 11:42 AM

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Q: CREATING A SECOND SYSTEM

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by Allan Eckert,

Allan Eckert May 3, 2016 11:47 AM in response to davidsgrafix
Level 9 (53,621 points)

Desktops

May 3, 2016 11:47 AM in response to davidsgrafix

Make a bootable clone to an external disk drive using either SuperDuper or CCC.
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by MrHoffman,

MrHoffman May 3, 2016 11:47 AM in response to davidsgrafix
Level 6 (15,627 points)

Mac OS X

May 3, 2016 11:47 AM in response to davidsgrafix

Use the standard Install OS X download from Apple – what you downloaded to install OS X from the App Store — on an available external storage device (or create a separate installer and use that) and you can then use a keyboard boot shortcut — the option key — to boot and select the startup manager to select the particular boot device. You'll want to get Time Machine or some other backup tool going, if there's any data here that matters, too.
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by Allan Eckert,

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