There are a few different ways to get your Mac to show up as a drive on a flash drive or external hard drive. The easiest way is to create a bootable backup using Time Machine. This will allow you to boot your Mac from the external drive if needed. Here are the steps to create a bootable Time Machine backup:
Use Time Machine to Create a Bootable Backup
1. Connect an external hard drive or flash drive to your Mac that is large enough to hold a full backup of your Mac’s drive. The drive must be formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
2. Open Time Machine preferences on your Mac. This is located in System Preferences.
3. Click “Select Disk” and choose your external drive.
4. Turn on Time Machine and let it complete a full backup. This may take awhile depending on how much data you have.
5. Once the initial backup is complete, your external drive will contain a bootable copy of your Mac’s drive. If you need to boot from the drive, restart your Mac while holding the Option key. This will bring up the boot menu where you can select the external drive.
Create a Bootable macOS Installer
You can also create a bootable macOS installer on an external drive. This allows you to install or reinstall macOS from the drive. Here’s how:
1. Format your flash or external drive as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and name it Untitled.
2. Download the macOS installer from the App Store. This must match the macOS version currently installed on your Mac.
3. Open Terminal and run this command, replacing “Untitled” with your drive name:
sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Monterey.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia –volume /Volumes/Untitled
4. This will turn your external drive into a bootable macOS installer. To use it, restart your Mac while holding the Option key and select the drive.
Use Target Disk Mode
Target disk mode allows you to connect two Macs together using a Thunderbolt or FireWire cable and have one Mac appear as an external drive on the other. Here’s how to use it:
1. Connect the two Macs together with a Thunderbolt or FireWire cable.
2. Restart the Mac you want to use as an external drive and immediately hold down the T key. Keep holding until you see the FireWire or Thunderbolt icon appear.
3. The Mac will now appear as a drive on the other Mac and you can access its files.
4. To exit target disk mode, press the power button on the target Mac and disconnect the cable.
Use Disk Utility to Create a Disk Image
You can also use Disk Utility to create a disk image file containing your Mac’s drive. This disk image can then be mounted on another Mac.
1. Open Disk Utility on your Mac.
2. Click File > New Image > Image from [name of your startup disk].
3. Save the disk image file to your external drive.
4. Connect the external drive to another Mac. Double-click the disk image file to mount it.
5. The disk image will appear as an external drive containing all your Mac’s data.
Conclusion
In summary, the three easiest options for accessing your Mac’s drive on another computer are:
- Create a bootable Time Machine backup
- Make a bootable macOS installer drive
- Use target disk mode to connect two Macs together
A disk image can also provide access to your Mac’s files and data. Choose the method that best suits your needs.