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Running macOS from an external SSD drive


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Following advice from helpful photographers on Alamy forum.

 

(Previous threadhttps://discussion.alamy.com/topic/10382-photoshop-cs6-nik-collection-high-sierra/?tab=comments#comment-185792)

 

Slowly I carried out what I hato do before I am ready to update to OS High Sierra as below(I am currently running OS Sierra.)

 

  • I purchased a SSD external drive.
  • I formatted the external drive for iMac.
  • I installed 'macOS Sierra' on this external drive. I went to through usual set up process.

 

I reiterate that the only reason why I am doing this is that, even after I update to OS High Sierra or later on to Mojave, etc, I would like to be able to use certain applications, which might work only under macOS Sierra environment.  Also it is a part of process of moving towards Adobe CC subscription (eventually but very slowly).

 

When my iMac was rebooted from this SSD drive (macOS Sierra installed), it looks as if I have a brand new machine, ie, everything is at factory default with no files but only with Apple's bundled applications.

 

My questions are:-

 

  • Do I now have to go through 'migration process' to copy applicationfrom the Macintosh HD to the SSD external drive? Is it possible at all when they are not actually two separate mac machines?
  • When you migrate, does it copy application files or does it physically move files?
  • Is it better to reinstall applications?
  • If I reinstall applications, where are they installed? In the SSDdrive? I only need 4-5 applications in OS Sierra environment.
  • Is there a better way?

 

Given that I am not a techie, I hope my questiondon't sound daft.  One might say why not try and see what happens, but I am worried that I might mess things up completely.

 

I look forward to your advice, suggestions and experiences.

 

Many thanks

 

Sung

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Reinstall definitely. The apps will be reinstalled  in the OS from which you are installing and it will be clean. Given that you have already installed the OS, installing the apps is trivial. It is not clear what apps you are installing without reading back through the entire previous thread so you may need to copy preference files, actions, keyboard shortcuts for Photoshop or the like but that is worth learning about and is not difficult. As your two OSs are on the one machine, you do not need to copy image files as you can access them from either OS if required. 

 

 

 

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7 minutes ago, MDM said:

Reinstall definitely. The apps will be reinstalled  in the OS from which you are installing and it will be clean. Given that you have already installed the OS, installing the apps is trivial. It is not clear what apps you are installing without reading back through the entire previous thread so you may need to copy preference files, actions, keyboard shortcuts for Photoshop or the like but that is worth learning about and is not difficult. As your two OSs are on the one machine, you do not need to copy image files as you can access them from either OS if required. 

 

 

 

 

Thank you, MDM

 

As always very helpful advice.  I will need to find at least a half day free and to sit down and go through the process.  Not particularly looking forward to it.

 

However, when I boot up from the external SSD drive, it is like a totally separate machine, therefore, I cannot access directly any files or apps inside of my iMac.  Yes, It is the same machine but running on an OS from the external SSD drive, so it behaves like another machine.  Hence I will need to reinstall CS6, Parallels (with Windows XP softwares), etc.

 

Luckily all my working data (including photo files and others) are stored in an external hard drive, so I can access them from either OS as long as the drive is plugged in.

 

Sung

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15 minutes ago, SFL said:

 

 

Thank you, MDM

 

As always very helpful advice.  I will need to find at least a half day free and to sit down and go through the process.  Not particularly looking forward to it.

 

However, when I boot up from the external SSD drive, it is like a totally separate machine, therefore, I cannot access directly any files or apps inside of my iMac.  Yes, It is the same machine but running on an OS from the external SSD drive, so it behaves like another machine.  Hence I will need to reinstall CS6, Parallels (with Windows XP softwares), etc.

 

Luckily all my working data are stored in an external hard drive, so I can access them from either OS as long as the drive is plugged in.

 

Sung

 

Yes that is what I meant - there is no need to copy image files (including photo files and others) as you can access them from either OS. Reinstalling PSCS6 is no problem as long as you don't have it installed in a laptop as well where you might run into licensing issues as you can only install it on two machines. As I said you would need to locate the various accompanying prefs files but that is not difficult. 

 

I can't advise on Parallels but I very much doubt you could use the Mac migration process for that as it would be a separate Windows installation.

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