Bootable SD Card with Monterey

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015) - Technical Specifications

MacBook Air (13-inch, Early 2015) - Technical Specifications

tech specs showing,

Connections and Expansion:

...

• Two Thunderbolt 2 ports (up to 20 Gbps) [ each TB2 port is max 10Gbps ]

• Two USB 3 ports (up to 5 Gbps) [ each USB3 port is max 5Gbps ]

• SDXC card slot

• (Optional: Apple Thunderbolt to FireWire Adapter (sold separately) )

• (Optional: Apple Thunderbolt to Gigabit Ethernet Adapter (sold separately) )

...

in above i added the 3rd-sqr-brace comments/notes.

i wud suggest about SSD similar as user Barney-15E.

Get an USB-to-SSD Drive Enclosure, or an USB flash/pen drive, or USB-to-SD-Card Drive/Reader adapter, etc, etc.

( by the way, USB flash drives or USB-to-SD-Reader are usually much slower than USB-to-SSD drive ).

i'm not-suggesting to get a TB-to-SD-Card reader , not-suggesting to get a TB-to-SSD Drive Enclosure , why ?

apple macOS firmware kept that "bootable" option disabled in some mac computers, & in some mac computers it works, etc.

Bootable disk creator software, such as "Balena Etcher", etc, can create a bootable-SD card, in the mac computer's SDXC slot,

but mac computer might not support booting (probably b/c that type of support is disabled inside apple macOS firmware),

so you will need adapter: USB-to-SD Reader/Memory adapter, as USB is allowed to be used as bootable device.

you may use this ggl search link or this ddg search link, for USB-to-SD-Card Reader/adapter.

According to apple's this/below webpage

macOS Monterey is compatible with these computers - Apple Support

your mac computer is compatible with Monterey.

So you should 1st get an external USB based SSD drive (or USN Enclosure with SSD Drive),

and CLONE your existing "Macintosh HD" (macOS 10.12.6) entire drive.

Disk Cloning software (with HFS+, APFS support):

Acronis True Image: requires paying fee.

Clonezilla: is cost-free, here.

Follow below instructions to enable dual boot in macOS.

Use more than one version of macOS on a Mac - Apple Support

Mac startup key combinations - Apple Support

Make sure you are able to boot from the external cloned drive (with macOS 10.12.6) completely.

Do not install macOS Monterey until you are 100% successful in above process,

or else you will not be able to boot from the external drive later or it will be or may be little bit hard to reconfigure, to get back all older settings.

( by the way, i have the Air version mac, i think also same year or more older, also running same 10.12.6 ... but we dont use it anymore, transferred main data into another one ).

How to download macOS - Apple Support

Download Monterey 12.6.1 installer from apple, & run that installer...app file ... but i would suggest to use the version 12.6.1 , as that verison is less buggy than the 12.6.2 (for now, at this moment in Dec 2022, Jan 2023),

or Create a bootable media (by using another USB flash/pen drive) : more info : (in more info linked post instruction, use 12.6.1 in your command-line inside the terminal).

install Monterey in main "Macintosh HD" of your mac computer ( Macbook Pro 13" early 2015).

in that computer, Monterey will be slow as RAM is less : only 8GB . ( apple or apple certified technician center can upgrade it into 16GB RAM ).

Even if it has a 128GB SSD internal-drive, it wud be okay for very general & nominal use of Monterey.

After install Monterey, anything extra you load into Monterey, that should be done in a separate+external Thunderbolt or USB based drive.

with above steps, you will be able to boot from external drive with old iTunes in 10.12.6, when necessary, & also boot into new Monterey when necessary.

There is only one installation of macOS. The destination doesn’t affect the system.

There is no iTunes on Monterey. It was replaced with Music, and all the other content were spun off into their own apps.

I’m not sure if it would boot from an SD card. Get an SSD, instead.

There is a real and possible " Catch ", impenitent with attempting to run Monterey macOS 12 on an Internal Or External NON Apple Original Drive.

That does not mean it is impossible but problematic.

This EFI Boot ROM is included in the Monterey Installer.

During the initial installation process it will verify If an Apple Original Drive is being used.

If it does not detect this type of Drive, it may refuse to install Monterey at all.

Background.

The EFI Boot ROM must Flash the Computer ( Not the Drive ) In-order for the Installation to proceed

The user may consider their position and Run Sierra OS X 10.12 on the External Drive and run Monterey from the Internal Drive

Notation" an easier posting regarding iTunes being Split into three different Applications, 4 if we count Books

it is possible to create bootable SD card in mac computer, but its very very slow,

and afaik, using the SD slot as bootable drive in some mac computer that is supported, but in some mac computer that is not-supported, by the apple macOS firmware.

Use the SD and SDXC card slot on your Mac - Apple Support

but see my earlier post, that explains whats practically usable : you can put existing old macOS 10.12.6 on an external bootable media as a CLONED drive (pls use USB SSD drive), and make sure you can indeed boot & use macOS 10.12.6 from external USB SSD drive , then install new macOS monterey (12.6.1 , at this moment : Dec 2022, Jan 2023) in existing main internal SSD drive, by overwriting earlier macOS 10.12.6.

iTunes as separate software is discontinued by apple, but various functionalities were divided up and put into inside other existing software ... current "Finder" has some portion of older iTunes functionalities , current "Music" has some functionalities of older iTunes, etc in macOS.

in other OS (non-macOS), it still remains as iTunes.

internal drive need to be Monterey as thats required by apple, thats why you need to put existing old macOS in the SDXC or in external USB SSD drive.

after cloning your main internal drive (with old macOS 10.12.6) into an USB SSD drive ... then you wud need to make sure USB SSD is bootable ... then you wud need to install Monterey in main internal ssd drive & overwrite earlier macOS 10.12.6 ... then create a 2nd Monterey installation inside the SDXC card ... then again CLONE back older content (macOS 10.12.6) from USB SSD into your mac computer's main internal drive , without overwriting main boot partitions created by Monterey ... is a , not-easy way to use Monterey on SDXC, & use internal drive for old macOS 10.12.6

Add On.

A computer running from Internal Drive with OS X Sierra 10.12 and attempting to use a Drive of any kind that is Formatted in the APFS / GUID format may be seen in Sierra.

The additional issue arising, if the OS X Sierra 10.12 Operations System would not be able to use the drive for any purpose.

The Oldest version of macOS that can Understand, Boot from or use al Drive in the APFS format would be macOS 10.13 High Sierra

For that reason alone, the original idea of running macOS 12 Monterey from a computer running OS X 10.12 will not work

It is again suggested to reverse this thinking and run OS X 10.12 from the External Drive.

Thanks to P. Phillips to clarify further.

CORRECTION:

i mentioned below (in my this earlier 2nd-post), in last paragraph:

"... then again CLONE back older content (macOS 10.12.6) from USB SSD

into your mac computer's main internal drive , without overwriting main

boot partitions created by Monterey ..."

correct should be:

"... then again CLONE back older content (macOS 10.12.6) from USB SSD

into your mac computer's main internal drive ..."

But steps in (my 2nd-post's) last paragraph, should be avoided , its not practically usable in this way.

Please follow suggestions on my 1st post, & that is also what P. Phillips indicated.

Always make sure you have full "Time Machine" backup made (in an external USB or network drive), of your original macOS (10.12.6), before doing any of these steps.

And using a thunderbolt interface based external SSD drive for Time-Machine backup (to backup your all data+drive etc), is always a better solution, than using an USB interface based external drive or network-drive : more info.

Keep backup purpose data/communication channel and active drive usage purpose data/communication channel separated, by using different channels : thunderbolt (for backup) , USB (for active macOS boot drive), etc.

boismyname wrote:

I have a MacBook Pro 13 (Early 2015) with Sierra 10.12.6 for running specialized software — I cannot upgrade. Is it possible to create a bootable 128gig SD card with a more current OS like Monterey? If so, would a version of iTunes be installed on the 128gig card and other standard apps that come with that system? Thanks.

P. Phillips is totally correct -- it would be best to install 10.12.6 on the external drive (preferably an SSD).

Another thing to watch for: in such a situation it is best to boot from that external drive for the "odd" OS (in this case 10.12.6) and use it minimally just for the specialized purpose you have in mind. The reason being that other apps under Monterey will be upgraded under the newer MacOS and some file formats (such as for Photos, emails, music files etc.) will be different in the newer MacOS and no longer compatible with the older (10.12.6) one. So do almost everything under Monterey on the internal drive, and keep the external 10.12.6 drive just a minimal installation just for that old software that won't run on newer MacOS.

All very good points especially regarding Monterey and Photos etc 👍