Boot / Run from External SSD

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Boot / Run from External SSD

I have a 5-6 year old MacBook Air with a bricked drive that won’t boot except to safe mode after an upgrade attempt. I am considering running a clean install of Big Sur from an external SSD while I try and recover the internal drive. A few questions:

Will OS X even allow me to boot a clean install from an external drive while I am stuck safe mode?

I have USB 3.0 (5 GBPS) ports, will using these be adequate for performance? I do not do any real heavy processor work on this machine.

I have read reports from users who have booted from USB and reported very normal performance, but very few of them talk about the version of USB or port speed.

I do have the option of using my Thunderbolt port (20 GBPS) as well.

Any advice, links or guidance much appreciated, thanks!

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 11.6

Posted on Nov 1, 2021 4:13 AM

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Answer 1

karina184

Community Specialist

Nov 2, 2021 6:55 AM in response to sallan_9000

Hey sallan_9000,

We see you have some questions about booting from an external drive to reinstall macOS. We'll be happy to help out.

Yes, the USB 3.0 ports will be fine and you should be able to boot from the external drive in the current situation of the MacBook Air. You'll want to follow these steps: How to create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support.

Have a great day.

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