External Boot Drive Inquiry

[At_Op45]

The SATA flex cable of my former daily driver died so instead of replacing it and potentially damaging something else in the system, I removed the upgraded internal SSD and placed it in an external USB enclosure. Everything seems fine with my Mac Mini except that the SSD is recognized as a removable disk. Is this a problem? If so, what steps should I take to correct it? Thank you.


 Specs:
Mac Mini A1347
Late-2012 i7 2.3GHz
16GB (2X 8GB) 1600MHz DDR3
Intel HD Graphics 4000
500GB Crucial SSD (w/ Orico 2.5 External Harddrive Enclosure)

 

[Fishrrman]

By "removable", do you mean that its disk icon is that of a DVD/CD drive?

Or if not, what is leading you to this assumption?

In any case...
Assuming the drive boots the Mac as intended, and assuming the drive "tests out" at the proper speeds for an SSD in an external USB3 enclosure (read speeds should be up in the 420MBps range), I'd just "let it be" and keep using it.

 

[At_Op45]

Thank you for your reply. By "removable" I mean it shows as an external drive, the same default icon as that of an external backup.

So far it seems to boot up and perform just fine. My main concern is what would happen if I accidentally "eject" the boot drive since it shows the option to do so.

 

[Fishrrman]

"My main concern is what would happen if I accidentally "eject" the boot drive since it shows the option to do so."

If you're booted up from it, you CAN'T eject it. The OS won't permit it.
The only way would be to physically disconnect it, and you don't want to do that...