mac mini late 2014 with usb3 SSD drive not automatically selected when re-booting

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mac mini late 2014 with usb3 SSD drive not automatically selected when re-booting

I am trying to resolve an issue with rebooting my mac mini when trying to restart / upgrade the o/s.

I successfully moved my mac-mini to boot from an external USB SSD unit (see specs below). The only fly in the ointment so far is that during a system restart, or power-down, the boot sequence does not see the boot SSD drive as the boot drive.

I have made the change in the Settings: Startup Disk options to point to the external SSD (Boot SSD, currently mac OS 10.14.5). Each time, during a re-start, I get the sequence that is asking for me to link up my keyboard/mouse (both apple, and both strangely not linking up no matter how many power off/on cycles I try on the input devices (keyboard or mouse). I am then required to power down the machine, power up the machine, then press the >alt< key during the boot cycle, at which point I may select Boot SSD and continue with the bootup process. Since the platform is pretty stable, there aren't a lot requirements for reboots with the exception of O/S upgrades, which become problematic due to the sequence of re-start, upgrade process (copy/change files), then reboot.

I would appreciate any help and will be glad to provide any additional system information as needed.

Kingston SSD 240GB external drive attached via USB 3 cable to mac mini usb

From the system report re: USB PORTS

ASMT1051:

Product ID: 0x55aa

Vendor ID: 0x174c (ASMedia Technology Inc.)

Version: 1.00

Serial Number: 12345679A918

Speed: Up to 5 Gb/sec

Manufacturer: asmedia

Location ID: 0x14800000 / 4

Current Available (mA): 900

Current Required (mA): 0

Extra Operating Current (mA): 0

Media:

2115:

Capacity: 240.06 GB (240,057,409,536 bytes)

Removable Media: No

BSD Name: disk1

Logical Unit: 0

Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)

USB Interface: 0

Volumes:

EFI:

Capacity: 209.7 MB (209,715,200 bytes)

File System: MS-DOS FAT32

BSD Name: disk1s1

Content: EFI

Volume UUID: 0E239BC6-F960-3107-89CF-1C97F78BB46B

disk1s2:

Capacity: 239.85 GB (239,847,653,376 bytes)

BSD Name: disk1s2

Content: Apple_APFS

Posted on Aug 25, 2019 8:03 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

HWTech

Level 9

60,650 points

Aug 25, 2019 11:58 AM in response to glnorrisjr

I've had issues with external USB3 drives on my Mini 2014. I solved the problem by using a powered USB3 hub to help provide a buffer between the drive and the mini. While your issue is definitely different, it still might help, otherwise it sounds like your external drive & adapter is causing an USB issue which is affecting your keyboard and mouse. Perhaps the extra power the USB3 hub supplies your external drive will resolve the issue.

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Answer 2

den.thed

Level 10

82,570 points

Aug 25, 2019 9:11 AM in response to glnorrisjr

Hmm.... how did you move to the SSD?

One way I've found that works, is to startup in macOS Recovery and

use Disk Utility in Recovery to format the new external SSD drive
use Recovery to Install the latest version of macOS on the external SSD drive
startup from the external SSD and migrate from either your TM or internal drive during the initial macOS setup

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mac mini late 2014 with usb3 SSD drive not automatically selected when re-booting

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