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Q: External SSD via USB won't boot by default

Hello Apple Community,

I have an annoying issue with my new external SSD. Since the base model Mac Mini late 2014 comes with an HDD 5400 RPM drive, I wanted to upgrade to an SSD without having to rip the whole unit apart. I wanted to exhaust the "boot from USB" option and I am encountering a strange issue. I cloned my Mac to the new SSD and slapped it in an enclosure case. I plugged it in via USB and changed my "startup disk" to use the external SSD. However, it won't boot to this device automatically. When I reboot and view the "boot manager" I cannot see the USB drive being initialized automatically. After unplugging / re-plugging the drive in, it shows up as a bootable option. Once it is initialized, everything works fine and I can boot into El Capitan without any issues using the SSD.

 

I am trying to figure out a way I can get the Mac to initialize the SSD at boot up and choose it by default. I don't want to have to re-plug the drive every time I want to boot to the SSD... Any help and suggestions are greatly appreciated!!

 

My Equipment

===========================

Mac Mini (Late 2014) Base Model

1.4 GHz Intel Core i5

4 GB of 1600 Mhz DDR3

OS X - El Capitan v 10.11.3

240 GB SanDisk SSD Plus - connected via USB3.0

Mac mini, OS X El Capitan (10.11.3)

Posted on Feb 22, 2016 8:56 PM

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