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Determine which startup disk for mac is right for you

If your computer has a slot-loading optical drive, you can install the Mountain Lion operating system from the installation DVD. Or, if your Mac computer has an internal hard drive, you can create a bootable macOS Sierra USB flash drive and use that to install the operating system.

By Abraham VerninacPublished 2 years ago 3 min read
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Determine which startup disk for mac is right for you
Photo by Mario Gogh on Unsplash

Gone are the days where you had to worry about which startup disk for mac was right for your computer. The days of chaos are almost over. Soon, you'll be able to depend on me to help (debate with) you choose which startup disk for mac is right for you.

What mac startup disk do i use?

Startup Disk is a utility that allows you to select the startup disk for your Mac. This is a good idea if your Mac has more than one hard drive, or if you have a bootable backup hard drive. If you have only one hard drive, then there is no need to use this tool.

The Mac will automatically choose the startup disk. The Startup Disk preference pane lets you choose which of your drives will be used as the default boot volume. You can also set up multiple user accounts on the same computer and choose which account should be used by default. What is a startup disk? A startup disk is an object that contains information about how Mac OS X should start up when it boots up from power-on or when booting into Safe Mode or Single User Mode.

How does my mac choose the startup disk?

When your Mac boots up, it automatically selects the startup disk that you last used to boot. If you don't want to use this disk, you can change it. If you have more than one startup disk connected to your Mac, it may take a few moments for your Mac to choose the correct disk.

If your Mac still isn't starting up as expected, follow these steps: Verify that the correct startup disk is selected in System Preferences > Startup Disk. If more than one startup disks are available, make sure the correct one is selected. The name of each startup disk matches the name of its storage device (for example, Macintosh HD).

Confirm that each storage device has at least 10 GB of free space available on it. You can check this by opening Disk Utility and selecting the Storage tab in its sidebar.

How to set your mac startup disk with system preferences

The startup disk is the disk that the Mac boots from. This can be a hard disk, a solid state drive (SSD), or even a network volume. The startup disk is set in System Preferences > Startup Disk. For most people, this should be set to the latest internal hard disk or SSD on your Mac.

If you have more than one internal hard drive or SSD installed, you can also choose which one to boot from from there as well. When you select another startup disk, your Mac will not automatically boot from it unless you hold down Command-R when you restart your computer.

How to select a startup disk using startup manager

When you start your Mac, the computer automatically chooses the startup disk that it will use. If you have more than one startup disk installed on your computer, you may want to choose which one to use each time you start up. The Startup Manager is a built-in tool that makes it easy to select which startup disk to use.

You can access this tool by clicking the Apple menu and selecting Restart, or by holding the Option key while booting up your Mac. When you start your Mac using these methods, you'll see a list of available startup disks appear onscreen. Select the disk from this list that has the operating system, application or document you want to open.

If a disk isn't listed in this list, then there are no applications installed on that disk and it isn't bootable without an operating system being present as well.

To conclude

We recommend buying the best one you can afford. If you are concerned about the performance of your Mac because of an older hard drive, you can swap your internal drives out with a Solid State Drive (SSD) and greatly enhance your Mac's performance. And though it might seem like an expensive solution, it is much cheaper than buying a brand new Mac every time your hard drive withers away.

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About the Creator

Abraham Verninac

🤓 I am an entrepreneur who builds brands/influencer. And I want to chat with anyone that is interested in starting their own business/brand or who wants to take it to the next level! You can message me anytime!

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