USB flash drive as startup disk

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Level 1

5 points

USB flash drive as startup disk

Is there any way to install Big Sur on a USB flash drive? Samsung 64GB, if that matters. This is NOT for creating an installation disk.

What I want to do is install Big Sur on the disk, along with a few programs, to use it as an independent environment to create and store documents, independent of the main Mac installation. When I need to work in this environment, I would choose the flash drive as the startup disk, boot into that, create and update documents as necessary, then when done, boot back into the main installation, and eject the flash drive.

Possible?

Posted on May 11, 2021 7:12 AM

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Answer 1

Old Toad

Level 10

215,196 points

May 11, 2021 2:37 PM in response to mattsh1

What size is your Mini boot drive? I use external OWC drives to have other systems to boot into. These are excellent choices:

Envoy Pro EX with USB-C or USB 3 - best from a speed vs price standpoint

OWC Envoy Pro EX with Thunderbolt 3 - fastest if you have a Thunderbolt 3 port but more expensive

I user both 500 GB and 1 TB sizes as my internal boot drive is only 500 GB in size.

I also use the latest beta version of Carbon Copy Cloner to clone my boot drive to the external SSD.

Flash drives won't do the job.

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Answer 2

Owl-53

Level 10

102,193 points

May 11, 2021 7:17 AM in response to mattsh1

Something to consider before attempting and depends if the machine has the Touch ID Chip and / or Mi Apple Silicon CPU as it is my default not able to boot from anything External - About Startup Security Utility That would have to be Enabled as per instructions in linked Apple Document.

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Answer 3

mattsh1 Author

Level 1

5 points

May 12, 2021 9:48 AM in response to Old Toad

I’ll keep these recommendations in mind, but it’s sort of hard to justify buying a new SSD when I already have 1.5TB of disk space I could use, if Apple would only let me use it. My M1 Mac Mini doesn’t want to boot from a USB flash drive, nor from older hard drives. And at least one commentator has said definitely stick to Thunderbolt drives, (at a 30% premium), because predicting whether any particular USB 3 drive will meet Apple’s requirements is a fool’s game. You may win, but you may end up having to buy yet another SSD. And I really don’t care how slow an alternative may run, since if I use it more than a few hours a month, I’m using it way too much.

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Answer 4

Ronasara

Level 6

15,519 points

May 11, 2021 9:16 AM in response to mattsh1

The only problem I see with doing this is that you may find that when operating from the flash drive, the computer may be slow and not as responsive as you want it to be. I personally would use the flash drive as a back up emergency drive to use when I had problems with the main HD. May I suggest that it is not all that expensive these days to purchase and use an external solid state drive (SSD) with an OS loaded on it? That will be very responsive.

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