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Apple Silicon Macs can't boot from external drive if internal drive failed

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351–360 of 422 posts

Re: Apple Silicon Macs can't boot from external drive if internal drive failed

#351
post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> or storing critical files in the cloud. No. I refuse to let my vacation photos, hard drive images or hell, even my wallpaper collection to leave my house. No. I refuse. My data is my data.

What if your house burns down?

i keep a copy of my most important files in a safe deposit box

Re: Apple Silicon Macs can't boot from external drive if internal drive failed

#352
post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you upgrade the cpu on a framework laptop, you upgrade the board as well. So Framework owners can upgrade to a 2018 i5 or an AMD or even an ARM cpu if Framework offers it.

At that point I am sure it'll be much cheaper and faster to buy another laptop on sale instead of waiting for framework to make the motherboard with the CPU you want (if they do it at all), and pay extra for custom parts that only fit their latop, therefore locking you into their hardware ecosystem, no different from Apple except the parts are all generic x64 and you don't gain anything other than having in fit in th…

People get attached to their machines. It's like a car.

Re: Apple Silicon Macs can't boot from external drive if internal drive failed

#353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe because not everyone likes to share their most important files with a third party? Or because of providers scanning files or stuff like: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-fbi-icloud-exclusiv...

If you seriously consider a state actor to be a threat, then you likely make many other compromises to your ability to conveniently perform disaster recovery. There is not much overlap between these use-cases: * I need an easy way to recover my family pictures because I didn't make backups and * I have state actors interested in my data If you really have state actor threats, you probably like that M1 Macs are very h…

It feels like you're using "state actor" as a motte and bailey. It usually means targeted espionage affecting very few, with strong motives for why security services are interested in them specifically. Whereas that article is ultimately talking about a dragnet surveillance system, which is technically a state actor but affects literally everyone.

Re: Apple Silicon Macs can't boot from external drive if internal drive failed

#354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The other comment points it out correctly, no one wants it price conscious or not. Between the fact that many of them work without issue for years, and the fact that an new equivalent to your 2011 i3 becomes exponentially cheaper over time, repairing it will never be worth it. A Raspberry PI 4 is a functional computer but costs less than just the CPU of that i3 based machine while trouncing it in performance and powe…

At some point, the CPU is almost irrelevant. A huge issue is software locked to a certain motherboard. And the fact that your Raspberry Pi isn’t going to be running x86 software flawlessly and doesn’t come with nearly the same peripherals as a typical laptop (without a lot more cost… but even then, a 1:1 replacement isn’t possible). The assumption that tech gets exponentially cheaper over time, ie Moore’s Law, only a…

The Pi is just an example, $250 Laptops today have performance that cost $700 a few years ago

And the "extras" you mention also get cheaper due to economies of scale. 4k 30hz monitors used to run just under $1000. Now 4k 60hz monitors run just over $200.

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At the end of the day you cannot compete with how much better we get at making things over time right now.

Broken hardware is only a leading cause of replacing smartphones, and even the most repair unfriendly device can generally be fixed in 30 minutes at your local mall.

Re: Apple Silicon Macs can't boot from external drive if internal drive failed

#355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if your house burns down?

i keep a copy of my most important files in a safe deposit box

I keep my FLAC collection in a safe deposit box. More important files get stored on HDDs and MLC flash. Storage is cheap.

Re: Apple Silicon Macs can't boot from external drive if internal drive failed

#356

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> soldered-to-the-motherboard, everything-utterly-encrypted approach is that it's almost impossible to do data recovery Well, that's kind of the point. > You just have to be damn sure that you back it up correctly. Exactly. And that's as easy as plugging in an external hard drive occasionally, or storing critical files in the cloud.

> Well, that's kind of the point. Being able to yoink the SSD from the original machine, plug it into another compatible one, and decrypt the contents with your password, is not a vulnerability, it's a feature.

I think that’s a joke?

I mean, why even encrypt it in that case?

It’s not like the drive is a web service that will detect and block your password attempts…

Re: Apple Silicon Macs can't boot from external drive if internal drive failed

#357

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you don’t want that, back it up to a cloud service that doesn’t hold the encryption keys. Eg, use tarsnap. It’s your computer and your data.

Thanks, I don't remember trying tarsnap. I use $OTHERBIGVENDOR and its been sticky, because I have ~60T of large files (miniDV .mpg captures/4k video/etc) mixed with an insane number of .5k files from git repos/etc. That combination has broken just about every modern cloud backup application I've tried to use over the ~10 years that meets a short list of minimal features I require (locally stored encryption keys for…

If you have 60T of files, then you're already free from the problem since Apple doesn't sell a machine with 60T of soldered on SSD.

Re: Apple Silicon Macs can't boot from external drive if internal drive failed

#358
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Limited write cycles will produce data corruption, but what the article explains is that Apple is using the Flash in M1 macs in a similar way to other ARM devices, that is, they have the firmware there. I don’t know how much time do you expect your mac to last, but write cycles on your firmware should not be much of a concern.

Right, but I get the impression that the firmware vies for space with the rest of / et al. Sooo that means the wear leveling had better be ahead of whatever lifetime writes you throw at the system, or...

Easy to account for in drive firmware. Not to mention the file system if that were actually being used. Way back when, master boot records were duplicated at know locations for kinda similar reasons.

Re: Apple Silicon Macs can't boot from external drive if internal drive failed

#359
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The SSDs of 2015-2017 macbooks start failing and they are soldered on the board. I have a 12" that I can only boot from external now otherwise the device would be dead. With the M1 models you don't even have the chance to do this. Apple won't even change the failed ssds they will sell you a new logic board for the prize of a new machine. It's infuriating and the only reason I won't buy a machine until they make user…

I noticed that AppleCare, which use to be a one-time purchase of 3-year coverage, is now offered as an annual purchase that can be renewed indefinitely. Presumably this means that, as long as I pay my $150 rent, they will replace my logic board, with its failed SSD, for free?

Maybe a deductible, but otherwise I have to assume yeah. That’s not cheap though.

Re: Apple Silicon Macs can't boot from external drive if internal drive failed

#360
post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW, a 4TB SSD with the same speed (7GB/sec) is currently $1200 ($750 more than the 2TB). So Apple's price is decent for the current market. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08Q54GHTC/ I'm certainly not enthused about being stuck with current market capacities, but at least I don't feel gouged on price.

Yeah but I don't need a 4TB SSD right now. I barely need a 2TB.

I have 2TB of data but use a 1 TB drive and let the OS leave a bunch of files in the cloud, the one I don’t use.
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