Start here. It answers your questions in a single handy succinct treatise. Read and re-refer to it as many times as necessary.

Then get stuck into progressively memorising and developing tactility in muscle memory until instinctive, the five patterns of the A Minor Pentatonic [u]hands on[/u]. There is no 'hack'.

Once you understand and assimilate the five patterns based upon the root of A, [u]because it's the most commonly used[/u], you will be able to also play all the other Minor Pentatonic scales too, as the five patterns and respective root notes don't change, only the orientation of where the respective pattern root positions are on the fretboard.