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IMAC external bootable SSD

My Internal HDD crashed in January and I bought an external SSD. After installing the MacOS it works but ends up crashing if I’m doing anything heavy like watch YouTube etc. The external is a USB plug/play non active adapter. Could this be my issue? Do I need a powered external to run the OS more efficiently? It’s OS Catalina and I’m using a ADATA SSD. Otherwise will take other possible advice that it could be.


thanks

iMac 27″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Jun 3, 2021 3:44 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jun 4, 2021 9:21 PM

Notes from EtreCheck:

  • Slow SSD


Between the crashes and the general slowness of the external SSD, I would return your current external SSD and buy a good quality SSD with excellent performance. I use the LaCie Mobile SSD High-Performance External SSD USB-C USB 3.0 - Apple.


Here is a User Tip with more info, instructions, and what external SSD to buy: How to Setup and Use an External SSD as y… - Apple Community.


Also, what purpose does the "Seagate Portable 2TB External Hard Drive Portable HDD" serve?


Cheers,


Jack

Similar questions

8 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jun 4, 2021 9:21 PM in response to KuruptSoldr

Notes from EtreCheck:

  • Slow SSD


Between the crashes and the general slowness of the external SSD, I would return your current external SSD and buy a good quality SSD with excellent performance. I use the LaCie Mobile SSD High-Performance External SSD USB-C USB 3.0 - Apple.


Here is a User Tip with more info, instructions, and what external SSD to buy: How to Setup and Use an External SSD as y… - Apple Community.


Also, what purpose does the "Seagate Portable 2TB External Hard Drive Portable HDD" serve?


Cheers,


Jack

Jun 3, 2021 4:11 PM in response to KuruptSoldr

What is the exact make/model of the SSD?


Also, I believe we need to proceed with an EtreCheck report. EtreCheck is a useful App to diagnose and identify issues, both hardware and software. It is trusted by many users. Please follow the steps outlined below:


  1. Navigate to: https://etrecheck.com and get the free version of EtreCheckPro.
  2. Download it. It is a free and trusted app. It is often recommended here on Apple Support Communities. 
  3. Open EtreCheck, and before running the report, be sure to check “Allow full Drive Access” at the bottom of the EtreCheckPro window.
  4. Run the report, and put it in a post, as seen here: https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-250000211. We will then examine the report for issues in your Mac.


Cheers,


Jack

Jun 3, 2021 4:41 PM in response to Jack-19

EtreCheckPro version: 6.4.4 (6E015)

Report generated: 2021-06-03 13:33:33

Download EtreCheckPro from https://etrecheck.com

Runtime: 3:10

Performance: Good


Problem: Computer is restarting

Description: 

installed new external ssd for bootable drive for Mac OS.  Its causing

 crashes and restarts when using taxing apps or websites like YouTube 

etc


Major Issues:

  Anything that appears on this list needs immediate attention. 

  No Time Machine backup - Time Machine backup not found.

  Obsolete hardware - This computer may be considered obsolete.


Minor Issues:

  These issues do not need immediate attention but they may indicate future problems or opportunities for improvement. 

  SSD too slow - SSD is showing poor performance.


Hardware Information:

  iMac (27-inch, Late 2012) - Obsolete!

  iMac Model: iMac13,2

  3.4 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7 (i7-3770) CPU: 4-core

  8 GB RAM - Upgradeable

   BANK 0/DIMM0 - 4 GB DDR3 1600  

   BANK 1/DIMM0 - Empty  

   BANK 0/DIMM1 - 4 GB DDR3 1600  

   BANK 1/DIMM1 - Empty  


Video Information:

  NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680MX - VRAM: 2 GB

   iMac 2560 x 1440


Drives:

  disk0 - Seagate Portable 2.00 TB

  External USB 5 Gbit/s USB

   disk0s1 - EFI (MS-DOS FAT32) [EFI] 210 MB

   disk0s2 [APFS Container] 2.00 TB

    disk3 [APFS Virtual drive] 2.00 TB (Shared by 5 volumes)

     disk3s1 - U****************************  - Data (APFS) [APFS Virtual drive] (Shared - 9.45 GB used)

     disk3s2 - Preboot (APFS) [APFS Preboot] (Shared - 26 MB used)

     disk3s3 - Recovery (APFS) [Recovery] (Shared - 526 MB used)

     disk3s4 - VM (APFS) [APFS VM] (Shared - 4.30 GB used)

     disk3s5 - U**************************T (APFS) (Shared - 11.09 GB used)


  disk1 - ADATA SD600Q 960.20 GB

  External USB 5 Gbit/s USB

   disk1s1 - EFI (MS-DOS FAT32) [EFI] 210 MB

   disk1s2 [APFS Container] 959.85 GB

    disk2 [APFS Virtual drive] 959.85 GB (Shared by 5 volumes)

     disk2s1 - N************************  - Data (APFS) (Shared - 16.20 GB used)

     disk2s2 - Preboot (APFS) [APFS Preboot] (Shared - 29 MB used)

     disk2s3 - Recovery (APFS) [Recovery] (Shared - 526 MB used)

     disk2s4 - VM (APFS) [APFS VM] (Shared - 5.37 GB used)

     disk2s5 - N**********************C (APFS) (Shared - 11.24 GB used)


  disk4 - WDC WD75 00AAVS-00D7B0 750.16 GB

  External USB 480 Mbit/s USB

   disk4s1 - EFI (MS-DOS FAT32) [EFI] 210 MB

   disk4s2 - S********************l (Journaled HFS+) 749.81 GB


  disk5 - APPLE SSD SM128E 121.33 GB (Solid State - TRIM: Yes) 

  Internal SATA 6 Gigabit Serial ATA

   disk5s1 - EFI (MS-DOS FAT32) [EFI] 210 MB

   disk5s2 [APFS Container] 121.12 GB

Jun 3, 2021 4:43 PM in response to KuruptSoldr

Mounted Volumes:

  disk3s1 - U****************************  - Data [APFS Virtual drive]

   2.00 TB (Shared - 9.45 GB used, 1.97 TB free)

   APFS

   Mount point: /System/Volumes/Data


  disk3s4 - VM [APFS VM]

   2.00 TB (Shared - 4.30 GB used, 1.97 TB free)

   APFS

   Mount point: /private/var/vm


  disk3s5 - U**************************T

   2.00 TB (Shared - 11.09 GB used, 1.97 TB free)

   APFS

   Mount point: /

   Read-only: Yes


Network:

  Interface en0: Ethernet

  Interface en1: Wi-Fi

   802.11 a/b/g/n

  Interface en4: Bluetooth PAN

  Interface bridge0: Thunderbolt Bridge

  iCloud Quota: 4.99 GB available


System Software:

  macOS Catalina 10.15.7 (19H15) 

  Time since boot: Less than an hour


Security:

  Gatekeeper: App Store and identified developers

  System Integrity Protection: Enabled


  Antivirus software: Apple


System Launch Agents:

  [Not Loaded]  15 Apple tasks

  [Loaded]  174 Apple tasks

  [Running]  124 Apple tasks


System Launch Daemons:

  [Not Loaded]  38 Apple tasks

  [Loaded]  174 Apple tasks

  [Running]  125 Apple tasks


Backup:

  Time Machine Not Configured!


Performance:

  System Load: 2.95 (1 min ago) 3.55 (5 min ago) 2.36 (15 min ago)

  Nominal I/O speed: 0.01 MB/s

  File system: 25.24 seconds

  Write speed: 113 MB/s

  Read speed: 120 MB/s


CPU Usage Snapshot:

  Type Overall

  System: 1 %

  User: 1 %

  Idle: 98 %


Top Processes Snapshot by CPU:

  Process (count) CPU (Source - Location)

  system_profiler (2) 65.20 % (Apple)

  trustd (4) 6.94 % (Apple)

  WindowServer 5.54 % (Apple)

  EtreCheckPro 5.34 % (Etresoft, Inc.)

  kernel_task 2.50 % (Apple)


Top Processes Snapshot by Memory:

  Process (count) RAM usage (Source - Location)

  system_profiler (2) 630 MB (Apple)

  MTLCompilerService (35) 561 MB (Apple)

  EtreCheckPro 476 MB (Etresoft, Inc.)

  com.apple.WebKit.WebContent (4) 212 MB (Apple)

  accountsd 166 MB (Apple)


Top Processes Snapshot by Network Use:

  Process (count) Input / Output (Source - Location)

  Safari 143 KB / 5 KB (Apple)

  mDNSResponder 58 KB / 35 KB (Apple)

  apsd 13 KB / 25 KB (Apple)

  netbiosd 13 KB / 10 KB (Apple)

  cloudd 7 KB / 2 KB (Apple)


Top Processes Snapshot by Energy Use:

  Process (count) Energy (0-100) (Source - Location)

  WindowServer 4 (Apple)

  mDNSResponder 0 (Apple)

  opendirectoryd 0 (Apple)

  softwareupdated 0 (Apple)

  com.apple.cmio.registerassistantservice 0 (Apple)


Virtual Memory Information:

  Physical RAM: 8 GB


  Free RAM: 1.45 GB

  Used RAM: 4.47 GB

  Cached files: 2.08 GB


  Available RAM: 3.53 GB

  Swap Used: 0 B


Diagnostics Information (past 7-30 days):


End of report

IMAC external bootable SSD

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