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I recently got a m1 mac mini with the 256 gb ssd and i have recently started to have trouble managing my music files. I use spectrasonics omnisphere, keyscape and trillian (166-180GB) and logic also takes up 17-18 gb storage. So i wanted to to know if i can reset my mac and make my external SSD as the main drive which it runs from or atleast run music plugins (AUs) from the external SSD. Thanks
Mac mini 2018 or later
Dodo_0620 wrote:
So you’re saying i should reinstall all of my Macos and data on the external drive right?
No. I'm saying the exact opposite. Take whatever spectrasonics omnisphere, keyscape, trillian, and logic files that you have and move them to the external drive, however that works. You may need to contact each of those companies and ask for support and help on how to do that. You may need to use a symlink as suggested above.
However, I do not recommend that you attempt this with any Apple data. For the purposes of this exercise, I'm considering Logic to be non-Apple. Don't screw around with any of the data used by software that comes with the operating system or you'll be sorry you did.
Dodo_0620 wrote:
So you’re saying i should reinstall all of my Macos and data on the external drive right?
No. I'm saying the exact opposite. Take whatever spectrasonics omnisphere, keyscape, trillian, and logic files that you have and move them to the external drive, however that works. You may need to contact each of those companies and ask for support and help on how to do that. You may need to use a symlink as suggested above.
However, I do not recommend that you attempt this with any Apple data. For the purposes of this exercise, I'm considering Logic to be non-Apple. Don't screw around with any of the data used by software that comes with the operating system or you'll be sorry you did.
I think that the easiest way, as etresoft is suggesting, is to keep the internal drive as the boot drive, and copy some of your larger stuff to the external.
For example, copy your Music folder to the external drive, and replace it with a symlink.
Likewise for other folders like Pictures, etc.
First of all, make sure to have an up to date backup.
For the purpose of this example, let's assume you are doing this with the Music folder, and that you are using an external drive called "MyDrive". To make things more organized, we are putting the Music folder inside a "MyStuff" folder in "MyDrive".
1) Create the "MyStuff" folder inside "MyDrive"
2) Drag the Music folder to "MyStuff" to copy it. Depending on the size of the folder and the speed of the drive that may take a little while (but since we are talking about SSD it should not be very long).
3) When the copy is finished, delete the original Music folder [you did make a backup, didn't you?]
4) Open Terminal.
4a) Type "ln -s " (without the quotes but with the trailing space!). Do NOT press enter
4b) Drag the newly created Music folder from the external drive onto Terminal. Do NOT press enter
4c) type "~/Music" (again, without the quotes)
4d) Press enter
This last step creates the symlink. Now for all intents and purposes, it appears that you still have a Music folder in your home folder, but it is quite transparently pointing to the real location.
It is possible, but quite difficult on an M1 computer. It would be much easier to move your data to the external hard drive.
So you’re saying i should reinstall all of my Macos and data on the external drive right?
Could you please explain what to do with the symlink and where do i put this symlink. Also just curious is it possible to erase my mac and setup my external drive as the main drive for everything?
correct me if I’m wrong, symlink is like a shortcut? Would the symlink take any space on the main internal drive?
Yes, a symlink is like an alias or shortcut.
It takes a negliglible amount of space.
One last question, would i need to format and use the drive in a macos formal (afps or something like that) or i can use it in the default format it comes in for the symlinks?
Use APFS or MacOS Extended - preferably APFS.
I have never tried and would not recommend doing this with non-Apple formats.
Is it possible to run Macos through an external ssd?
