Boot Mac From External Drive

[ShaneD]

Hi Folks,

I have a Mac Pro (cylinder) which overheated and burned out the 1TB SSD (running SETI on all cores). Apple will only install the same size drive which costs ~$1550. Is it possible to boot and run the Mac from a external drive?

TIA,
ShaneD

 

[honestone]

Yes, it is possible, as long as that external drive has a bootable partition on it. In fact, that is one of the overwhelming advantages of making bootable backups/clones with either SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner.

Also, you can install an SSD yourself inside your Mac. Here on the instructions:

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Mac+Pro+Late+2013+SSD+Replacement/21205

As for booting your Mac from a bootable external hard drive, after you connect the drive to one of the ports, boot your Mac Pro, and hold down the Option key. It should then show you that external drive, which you can then select.