#Macbook external hard drive enclosure mac os x#
#Macbook external hard drive enclosure pro#

I am an experienced MacOSX user, and I have just experienced some issues with booting off of an external USB 3 drive. Since 'intel', USB is supported as well as firewire. Before intel macs (2006), the external boot was generally supported on Firewire and not usb. Various generations of Macs have different capability booting from different external drives. My current Boot Rom Version is: 08Д«ut didn't find a description of this USB 3.0 boot issue (yet). Perhaps we'll see an updated firmware that solves this problem. It boots, but offers absolutely no advantage on the newer MacBook with USB 3.0 support. This makes the USB 3.0 support far less valuable, in my view, since booting to an external USB 3.0 device may be a very handy way to have a backup of the internal drive that can be used a reasonable speeds.ДЄt this point, I have to put the external drive in a USB 2.0 enclosure. USB 3.0 is supported only in the operating system, and not in the firmware.

#Macbook external hard drive enclosure pro#

USB 3.0 is NOT supported by the internal firmware in the newest MacBook Pro so it cannot boot to the drive, but the Operating System itself clearly adds the support for the USB 3.0 device once it is loaded.

Once the OS is fully up and running, the USB 3.0 disk shows up fine as a device in Finder, it works at USB 3.0 speed, etc. In fact, when booting holding down the option key, even then the external USB 3.0 drive is not visible on the newer MacBook, but is visible on earlier MacBook. The USB 3.0 drive will NOT boot on the newer MacBook (but it boots fine on the earlier MacBook with only USB 2.0). The USB 3.0 drive is clearly an option in System Preferences, Startup Disk, and I can select the drive just fine. It does support USB 3.0 on the newer MacBook Pro. The USB 3.0 external case drive can be read by both machines. In some testing on a MacBook Pro with USB 3.0 and an earlier MacBook Pro with USB 2.0 (no USB 3.0) I've foundД«oth will boot to an external disk (a clone of the internal drive) if the drive is in a USB 2.0 case. Use the arrow keys to select which one you want to boot from, and hit the Return key to boot from that volume.

#Macbook external hard drive enclosure mac os x#

Your Mac will show you a row of icons of each volume or partition currently connected to the Mac (internally or externally) that holds a Mac OS X installation that you can successfully boot from. When you boot your Mac, immediately after the startup chime, hold down the Option key.

Booting from an external USB 2.0 drive, whether a flash/thumb drive or a spinning hard drive, is, however, quite slow. I have not specifically measured drive speeds in this scenario I'm just saying that it performs quite well.ДЄs far as I know, all Macs with USB have been capable of booting from an external drive connected via USB-all the way back to the first iMac circa 1998, which only made use of USB 1.0.

When booting from an external spinning hard drive over USB 3.0 on my new MacBook Pro, the external hard drive sends data back and forth to the Mac about as fast as it would if it were installed internally. I know of no reason why it would not work on a MacBook Air. Yes, I just got a new Mid-2012 MacBook Pro 13' and did this very thing over USB 3.0.