Some support USB4, others don’t. Some share the controller, others don’t. Some support DFU mode but then can’t be used to create a bootable external disk on Apple silicon.
external drive
Which versions of macOS can you ‘dual boot’, should you install them all on the internal SSD, or is a bootable external disk better, and when would you need to virtualise?
Do external SSDs draw so much power that they’re likely to exceed that available from Thunderbolt or USB4? What would the consequences be in terms of heat?
This has become more complex with increasingly popular hybrid drives that support USB4/Thunderbolt and fall back to USB 3.x.
How well can Time Machine back up other volumes, such as those on external drives? Can it restore them when the original disk fails or goes missing?
Traced from recognition of the cable connection, through establishing PCI streams, to mounting the volume with APFS, and the bonus of a good trim at the end.
To boot from an external disk, Apple silicon Macs need them to have an Owner. Here’s how to investigate ownership, and how it works.
How can you set up a single external bootable disk to start up two different Apple silicon Macs, maybe one in the office and the other at home?
Overall summary of a year’s testing external hard disks and SSDs ranging in cost from $50 to more than $200 per TB. Which is best?
Why can some with Apple silicon Macs create and boot from external disks, while others seem doomed to failure?
