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Level 1

137 points

Can my iMac boot from an external disk?

Hi,

I have a Mid 2010 21.5" iMac that is starting to show its age with slowness. However, I do plan to upgrade the basic 4 GB of Ram to either 8 GB or 16 GB of Ram, depending on price...and my main question. I know that the Mac originally came with a 500 GB Hard Drive, and I'd also like to upgrade that to an SSD as they make a world of a difference from what I've heard, but I don't have the tech skill level to do the whole 20-30 step process. I'm wondering, as I have a 1 TB external USB SSD, if I could install a fresh version of OS X onto the USB SSD and then set that as my boot up disk and just always keep it plugged in. Would that work or does the boot up disk have to be internal instead of being exterior via USB?

Posted on Jul 19, 2016 10:49 AM

32 replies

MichelPM

Level 10

81,004 points

Jul 21, 2016 9:28 AM in response to MichelPM

I had the Seagate drive replaced in my 2009 iMac in late 2012 under Apple's Seagate drive replacement program.

So, the hard drive currently in my iMac isn't quite 4 years old, yet.

I might as well just wait it out until the internal hard drive fails before I make the decision to repair/replace the future faulty internal hard drive with an internal SSD instead.

By then, they maybe better improved and cheaper to purchase and install.

Depending when the drive fails, it maybe money better spent, at least for the time being.

If my iMac undergoes some other catastrophic failure like the logic board or a hard to find/replace GPU module.

I will have a much harder decision to make as I promised my wife no more major money electronics for quite awhile.

If I have spend less money to repair my 2009 iMac, I maybe forced into doing that instead of spending the larger sum of money on a newer Mac.

That is why I am doing everything I can to keep my 2009 iMac functioning and keeping it running as cool as possible.

CBennett2498 Author

Level 1

137 points

Jul 21, 2016 2:24 PM in response to MichelPM

I think you'll end up purchasing a new iMac before your current HDD fails. Usually Macs just becomes outdated in terms of ram, processor type/speed and OS updates as they're built to last. Although those things that really can't be replaced with newer versions, there are some tricks you can perform such as a fresh OS install, upgrading ram and transferring from HDD to SSD to extend the life of your Mac. I say just take it how it is, perform the upgrades that you're capable of and just ride that Mac into the sunset! As for now, it's still definitely a usable machine that's can still perform better than some brand new PCs can. I guess only time will tell...

Can my iMac boot from an external disk?