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Running two OS's on a 256 Gb SSD?
#52744 10/24/19 07:46 PM
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Sorry to crash the party, but I just ordered a new iMac and I specified a 256 Mb SSD specifically because of this thread and the fact that my friend has a Fusion drive that failed within the warranty period.

I don't trust Fusion drives. Unnecessarily complicated in my opinion.

I suppose I should ask this question in another thread, but is a 256 Mb SSD big enough to have two partitions? The iMac will come with Mojave (I assume) but I want to run Catalina as well, just to see how many of the apps I really need will have to be replaced.

I've already recreated all of my InDesign files in Pages, for instance. I don't know what I will replace Adobe Bridge with, however...

Last edited by freelance; 10/24/19 11:22 PM.

iMac (19,1, 3.1 GHz i5, 12.7.4, 40 Gb RAM); MacBook Air (1.8 Ghz, 8 Gb RAM, 10.14.6, 256 Gb SSD) Vodafone router and Devolo Wi-Fi Extender, Canon TS8351 printer/scanner.
Re: Running two OS's on a 256 Gb SSD?
freelance #52746 10/24/19 10:34 PM
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When joemike moved your post to a new thread he failed to change the thread's title to a pertinent one.

I think you can do it with an edit to your post.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Running two OS's on a 256 Gb SSD?
freelance #52747 10/24/19 10:44 PM
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Technically a 256GB drive is big enough to support two bootable partitions (although I would much prefer two APFS volumes for numerous reasons). After all MacBook Air’s commonly ship with only a 128GB SSD. Whether it will be big enough to support three boot systems and at least four volumes (Recovery Drive, Mojave, Catalina Boot, Catalina Data) is another matter. It will depend on how many applications you have in the Mojave and Catalina Data volumes, how much data you have, and how much use you make of a common iCloud Drive for your Desktop and Documents folders.

Personally, by making maximum use of iCloud Drive storage including streaming all my music, movies, audio books, books, etc rather than keeping them on the SSD, and only having optimized photos on the SSD I am using just under 200 GB on a 512 GB SSD.

With a 256GB SSD you may want/need to consider an external drive for your Mojave volume.


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: Running two OS's on a 256 Gb SSD?
artie505 #52748 10/24/19 10:47 PM
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Originally Posted By: artie505
When joemike moved your post to a new thread he failed to change the thread's title to a pertinent one.

I think you can do it with an edit to your post.

I thought I had changed it but the change did not stick. Apparently I was not holding my mouth right. To add to my embarrasment I cannot edit posts in this forum and so I am unable to correct the problem.

Last edited by alternaut; 10/25/19 11:29 PM. Reason: Fixed titles

If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: Running two OS's on a 256 Gb SSD?
joemikeb #52750 10/24/19 11:21 PM
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Sorry for the confusion. It was the discussion of struggling to revive a Fusion drive that caused me to post my question.

I think I'll just run whatever comes with the iMac on the internal 256 Gb and use an old 256 Gb SSD I've got in a caddy connected by USB-C or USB-C 3.1. I presume I'll be able to boot from such an external drive?

Any suggestions?


iMac (19,1, 3.1 GHz i5, 12.7.4, 40 Gb RAM); MacBook Air (1.8 Ghz, 8 Gb RAM, 10.14.6, 256 Gb SSD) Vodafone router and Devolo Wi-Fi Extender, Canon TS8351 printer/scanner.
Re: Running two OS's on a 256 Gb SSD?
freelance #52752 10/25/19 09:52 AM
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Originally Posted By: freelance
I think I'll just run whatever comes with the iMac on the internal 256 Gb and use an old 256 Gb SSD I've got in a caddy connected by USB-C or USB-C 3.1. I presume I'll be able to boot from such an external drive?

Macs have been bootable via USB since Apple switched to Intel chips.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Running two OS's on a 256 Gb SSD?
artie505 #52754 10/25/19 12:06 PM
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I bought a USB 3 PCI-e card to add to my 2010 Mac Pro 5,1. Unfortunately, the drivers did not load soon enough in the boot process to allow me to boot from a drive connected to the card. I could still use it for external data drives.

Looking forward to seeing how computers have changed in nine years. I no longer do the work that requires an iMac Pro, so just went with the mid model.

I will be using the old Mac Pro as a server following the instructions I received here, thank you very much.


iMac (19,1, 3.1 GHz i5, 12.7.4, 40 Gb RAM); MacBook Air (1.8 Ghz, 8 Gb RAM, 10.14.6, 256 Gb SSD) Vodafone router and Devolo Wi-Fi Extender, Canon TS8351 printer/scanner.
Re: Running two OS's on a 256 Gb SSD?
freelance #52755 10/25/19 02:42 PM
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Wy couldn't you boot that Mac Pro from one of its USB ports?


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Running two OS's on a 256 Gb SSD?
artie505 #52756 10/25/19 08:29 PM
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I could. The USB 2 native ports worked fine, but didn't have the speed of USB 3. I backed up all my data on USB 3 external drives.


iMac (19,1, 3.1 GHz i5, 12.7.4, 40 Gb RAM); MacBook Air (1.8 Ghz, 8 Gb RAM, 10.14.6, 256 Gb SSD) Vodafone router and Devolo Wi-Fi Extender, Canon TS8351 printer/scanner.
Re: Running two OS's on a 256 Gb SSD?
freelance #52937 11/21/19 08:17 PM
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fusion drives are a bit like zip drives. they made sense for a short timespan as an option for when large storage was needed without the limitations of the other available options. (CDs)

their time has come and gone. the falling cost of flash storage has rendered them obsolete.


I work for the Department of Redundancy Department
Re: Running two OS's on a 256 Gb SSD?
Virtual1 #52939 11/21/19 10:47 PM
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Originally Posted By: Virtual1
... their time has come and gone. the falling cost of flash storage has rendered them obsolete.

I'm keeping an eye out for a 2 Tb SSD in the Black Friday sales, which start tomorrow. I've seen a Samsung for £200 that I can pop into a USB-C caddy. It will hold all my iTunes, photo and movie data and a backup OS.

I am enjoying this new iMac. Gorgeous screen, except that it is over twice the pixels of my old 1920 x 1200 monitor, so when I work on the Mac Pro via Screen Sharing, the window looks half sized.

I thought I would be using the iMac with Catalina when I bought it, but it came with Mojave, which runs all my 32 bit apps. Looks like it will be a while before I make the switch. I reworked all my well-used InDesign documents in Pages for, apparently, no good reason. D'oh!


iMac (19,1, 3.1 GHz i5, 12.7.4, 40 Gb RAM); MacBook Air (1.8 Ghz, 8 Gb RAM, 10.14.6, 256 Gb SSD) Vodafone router and Devolo Wi-Fi Extender, Canon TS8351 printer/scanner.

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