OSX installation on USB-Stick

[dennis88]

Hi there,

since i did not find anything regarding experiences with this topic i thought i open up a new thread.

 

I'm using a Mac mini for music playback. I think of getting a small SSD, remove the DVD-drive and use it as the Boot-volume. The second internal disk would be a large conventional harddrive for music storage.

 

Now yesterday it came to my mind that it is also possible to boot from a USB drive. So here's the questions:

Has anybody tried this? Any drawbacks to this method? How's the speed compared to a "normal" harddrive? Which USB-Sticks are preffered? Any quality improvements regarding audio output?

 

Thanks

 

[silverlight]

Yes, I've done this booting from my little backup image of my OS on my mini using a Patriot Xporter XT Boost thumbdrive (apparently one of the fastest available). My OS is the Mach2Mini software build, and in order to run smoothly, I load Amarra and iTunes into a RAM drive reducing disc access requirements. Also used the cache feature (which was helpful at 176/192 to avoid any stutter from the thumbdrive speed). In my mini I've stripped out the Superdrive, the Bluetooth/Wifi card/antenna, use a linear psu, and have been tempted to run off USB and strip out the internal frame (should note this my '09 mini). What I have noticed is that running from the thumbdrive dropped the noise floor, but made the music sound a little more forward and a slight edge. So both pro's and con's, it's a fun experiment, and depending upon one's power situation, it may vary in impact (and haven't tried on the 2010 mini yet).

 

[dennis88]

Thanks for this informative reply. I think i'm gonna check this out. What size was your thumbdrive?

 

[Rcanoe]

I used a 16GB Kingston drive with OSX 10.6.4 loaded on it. It worked but it was very slow to load load compared to a hard drive disk. Using a memory player Audirvana I played WAV files off another USB Stick. Results: The soundstage degraded significantly to the point it sounded like a cassette recording (remember those). I keep the 16GB flash drive with OSX for computer recovery only now. My guess is that USB drives are not in the same league as SSD

 

[dennis88]

Thanks for the answer. I think i'll pass on that one then. Seems like it's not worth the effort (sound quality-wise).

 

 

[blueixus]

From a lot of the posts on this site it may seem best to place this outside the MacMini say on Firewire.

 

This way you will have less heat/emf/vibration etc in the Mac and you can provide a separate PSU for the harddrive.

 

There are a host of options for external drives, our great leader Chris recommends the Oyen Digital Mini Pro although I notice the chipset has changed from the Oxford 934 to the 943 since he made this recommendation!

 

[Wavelength]

Tyler,

 

Not really a good idea!!!!!!

 

With every operating system there comes several modules and tons of virtual memory that also reside on the system disk. This is why we talk about putting an SSD inside as the boot drive. This allows us to operate the OS at the highest speed possible.

 

Booting from a USB stick would be deadly slow and would cripple the operating system for the speed required to make this a good sounding system.

 

The library does not need to be that fast. Using a really good 800 Firewire drive is really the best way to go for the Library. Just replace the system drive with an SSD.

 

Here are my notes saved off from the like 30 units I have converted:

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It is easiest to install an SSD from a new computer instead of upgrading your present system. If you have a new MAC, turn it on and verify it works then close it down remove the power and then look on line on how to remove the cover. I would suggest the Newer Technologies Mac Tool Set.

 

Open and swap the SSD drive for the one that came with the unit. Get out your DVD initialization disks and power up the Mac with the DVD in the drive. You can press C when you hit the power key and that will speed the boot from CD (in this case DVD).

 

After you select the language go to the Ultiies menu and run Disk Utility.

 

Initialize: Use Disk Utility to Erase the new drive and format it to Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Next go to the Partition tab and select the entire disk and go to the options and make sure it is set to Partition Map Scheme : GUID Partition Table. Then partition it... both places will as for a disk name I usually call it macSSD or something like that.

 

Quite Disk Utility and then do a full system install with applications. This takes a long time but worth it.

 

~~~~~~

 

Upgrade: Buy a USB to SATA II unit, make sure it comes with a power adapter. You will use this to initialize and move all your current data to your new SSD. Also get a copy of Super Duper. Attach the USB to SATA II to your new SSD drive make sure the drive comes up.

 

Initialize: Use Disk Utility to Erase the new drive and format it to Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Next go to the Partition tab and select the entire disk and go to the options and make sure it is set to Partition Map Scheme : GUID Partition Table. Then partition it... both places will as for a disk name I usually call it macSSD or something like that.

 

Now run Super Duper and basically clone your internal drive to your new SSD drive.

 

Shut down the computer take it apart and swap the two disks and you should be good to go.

 

~~~~~~~~~~

 

When you are done run Disk Utility again and do Repair Disk Permissions on the new drive. This will align all the UNIX file structure.

~~~~~~~~~~

 

Make sure you get a good SSD drive. Newegg has specs on most of these and user reviews that will help you. They also have good prices. OWC (MacSales.com) is also another great place for these and also has video's for doing the teardown as well well as iFixit.

 

Thanks

Gordon

 

[dennis88]

Thanks for your long reply Gordon