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I created a bootable USB and migrated all files to it. But when I choose the disk as startup it defaults to a password screen. But I never setup a password for this HD and the pw for the main mac hd does not work.
I'm using an imac 2017, running Catalina and followed Apple support guidelines when purchasing and setting up the drive.
iMac (2017 – 2020)
Thanks for the reply and sorry for the lengthy delay.
In order to create bootable drive I followed the steps here: Use an external SSD as your startup disk … - Apple Community
I used Migration Assistant to move files to ext drive. I can still boot to the internal drive. I will try to boot to ext drive now to get photo of pw prompt but it is not in Sys Prefs. Its at startup from the ext hd, at login.
Thanks.
If you were not prompted to create a new password during migration, then it should use the same password as the source system. You can try resetting the password by using the instructions in this Apple article:
If you forgot your Mac login password - Apple Support
What do you have to lose? Can't you just perform another clean install of macOS on the external drive and try another migration? I would highly recommend you first create a second admin user account on the main internal boot drive since I'm not sure how that password reset works if you have two nearly identical boot drives for one computer. The default setting is to create a Standard user account, so make sure to turn on "Allow user to administer this computer".
I honestly don't recall whether Setup Assistant/Migration Assistant prompted to have me create a password for the new system or whether it just transferred the old password when I did mine a year ago. I had other issues when migrating so my focus was on other things during the process.
Maybe another more knowledge contributor will chime in here if I am missing anything here, or to provide more information.
I would highly recommend you have a good Time Machine backup just to be safe.
How did you create the bootable USB? And how did you migrate the files to it?
Were you able to boot to the USB drive before migrating your files to it?
Can you still boot to the internal drive?
Can you attach a picture of this password prompt and the app as well (I'm assuming System Preferences)?
Just wanted to resolve this thread. I was able to create and use a bootable SSD HD. When I took the advice to start over beginning with erasing and formatting the SSD. My issue came from starting Migration Asst BEFORE I had actually logged in using the ext HD. On second attempt, I ignored the Mig Asst prompt, was prompted for my PW, which worked, and continued the ext HD account log in and setup. Then I started Migration Asst and let it run over night. When I returned all my files/apps had been transferred to the ext HD and, more importantly, my iMac was blisteringly fast! This old 2017 iMac is still going strong with this fix.
Thanks for your help but I was hoping to avoid having to go thru the trouble of resetting my pw. Espec. if I don't know if it will actually work.
Created bootable SSD HD but is asking for Password?
