booting from an external hard drive

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Level 1

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booting from an external hard drive

I upgraded my MacBook Pro to High Sierra, but now Logic 9 does not work. (Duh! I should have checked!) Now I need to downgrade to an older MacOS to access my Logic 9 content, not all of which is compatible with Logic X. So I have downloaded El Capitan and installed it on an external USB drive. I can boot from that, but then I do not see my internal data on the MacBook--only the new identity on the external drive. How do I boot from the external drive but still see all my internal data?

Macbook 2.6Ghz 15" Retina late 2013 1Tb SSD--Seagate 4Tb External USB drive

Posted on Dec 10, 2017 8:07 AM

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Answer 1

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Niel

Level 10

726,905 points

Dec 10, 2017 8:58 AM in response to tdolby

Locate the files on the internal drive and move them to the corresponding location on the external drive; for items in your home folder’s library, open the home folder, choose Go to Folder from the Finder’s Go menu, and provide Library as the path.

(155734)

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Answer 2

tdolby Author

Level 1

20 points

Dec 10, 2017 9:03 AM in response to Niel

Sadly this would prove too complicated, as the Logic 9 files require multiple 3rd party plugins, along with all their settings and preferences—it would be near impossible to recreate the complete heirarchy.

How about if I make a Time Machine or Carbon Copy Cloner backup, wipe the internal, do a clean install of El Capitan, and restore my data from the backup?

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Answer 3

Niel

Level 10

726,905 points

Dec 10, 2017 9:31 AM in response to tdolby

That backup will be from a newer OS; other files in it may not be compatible with El Capitan, and the Migration Assistant may refuse to work on it. If you made a backup of the previous OS, restore that completely instead of creating a clean install.

(155735)

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