Floppy drives weren’t fast enough for professionals or avid amateurs to work with new rich media editing systems, such as audio editors, image editors, or page layout apps. The second common use of a RAM disk back in the Mac Plus days was to create a tiered storage system. The performance increase was amazing, and was achieved for just the cost of a RAM disk utility app. The first prominent use of a RAM disk was to copy the Mac’s slow ROM (Read Only Memory), which contained many of the system’s core components, along with the operating system, which was stored on a floppy drive, and move them both to a RAM disk where they could operate at the speed of RAM many, many times faster than either the floppy disk or the ROM. If you really had cash to burn, you could hook up a 20MB SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) hard drive, which would likely set you back well over $1,200. Remember, back then, most Mac Plus users were getting by with a single 800 KB floppy drive, while those who felt like splurging could add an additional external floppy drive. Other users discovered that a RAM disk could be used to create an amazingly fast storage system. And while many users were happy to just max out the RAM, and enjoy the performance gain of having more memory, which let them run more applications concurrently, some users discovered the joys of using a RAM disk to speed up the system and apps. That was an amazing amount of RAM in 1986, and begged the question: What can I do with all this memory space?Īt the same time, many users were asking how they could speed up their Macs. The Mac Plus shipped with 1 MB of RAM, but users could increase the memory size to 4 MB. The Mac Plus, released in 1986, had quite a few new features, including the use of SIM (Single Inline Memory) modules that users could easily upgrade. RAM disks existed before the Macintosh ever hit the market, but we’re going to predominantly explore how RAM disks were used with the Mac. The system, as well as any installed apps, can write files to or read files from the RAM disk, just as if it really were another storage drive mounted on your Mac.īut unlike any storage drive, a RAM disk can operate at the speed of RAM, which is usually many times faster than most drive storage systems. You can always revert back from your clone.īecause your clone is an exact copy of your Mac before the upgrade.Once a popular option in the early days of the Mac, RAM disks, which were used to speed up the performance of a Mac, have fallen by the wayside.Ĭonceptually, RAM disks are a simple idea: a chunk of RAM set aside that looks, to the Mac system, like just another storage drive.
Or cause problems with your Mac or a piece of crucial software you’re using on your Mac.
You can create a copy of your Mac’s drive ahead of any major operating system update.īecause if the update fails.
You can then replace an older slower Mac drive with a newer, faster hard drive or SSD. Then cloning your internal startup drive gives you an exact copy. If you plan to replace your internal Mac disk drive. A drive that you can boot from should the worst happens and your Mac’s internal drive fails.Ģ. A clone allows you to have a new drive that is a copy of your Mac’s drive. You can choose the drive you want to boot from there. Your Mac will then show you the start up manager screen. Start up your Mac and hold down the option key. When you don’t have access to your internal drive to boot normally.
You’ll need to unlock and type in your main password first. If you’ve a lock on your System Preferences to prevent changes. Have that ready so you plug in your drive. You may need a USB hub with the ports you need. As Mac’s can come with limited USB ports.
‘ How To Check Format Of External Hard Drive On Mac‘.ģ. If you don’t know how, then take a quick look at this post.
Older Mac’s with hard drives inside are Mac OS Extended (Journaled) formatted. The latest Macs have SSD’s inside that are APFS formatted. The drive you want to clone onto – your new, empty drive. So, if there are files on the drive you’re planning to use. And puts on the drive your Mac boot image. Or a SSD (solid state drive formatted for your Mac).Ĭloning erases everything on the new drive. Either a Mac hard drive (a drive formatted for Mac). What You’re Going To Need To Create Your Clone Driveġ. Booting Your Mac Boot Clone When You Want.