- Joined
- Mar 8, 2015
- Messages
- 69
- Motherboard
- MSI Z370m Mortar; ASUS Zenbook Pro UX535LI
- CPU
- i5-9600k; i7-10750H
- Graphics
- UHD 630
- Mac
Just wanted to pass along a tip that might make it easier to avoid the APFS conversion as described in this thread. May want to include the tip in post #1.
If you install to an external drive using a USB dock/enclosure for your SSD, it will not convert it to APFS (doesn't see it as a SSD?). You don't need to do anything else and you can use the installer GUI to start and select any target.
I discovered this because I was not able to use the suggested method. My drive in the laptop has dual boot partition and updates since Sierra have complained about updating the Mac partition without making the other partition non-bootable and quit. So, my procedure has always been to clone to an external drive with just a single partition, update that drive and then clone back to my mac partition. The latter is also a safe way to test an upgrade without potentially crippling the machine if the install fails.
Unfortunately, Apple has removed the -volume option in the High Sierra command line install so using the suggested command line method to update won't work if you want to target an external drive and updating the main drive won't work because of other partitions on it.
Of course, you can also use a non-SSD in the external drive if that is what you have and the conversion will not be an issue and so it will still work in this clone and upgrade method but I find upgrading with a SSD is so much faster. So, I keep a spare SSD just for that purpose. Just wanted to let people know that you can do this even with an external SSD without automatic conversion using a USB dock/enclosure.
If you install to an external drive using a USB dock/enclosure for your SSD, it will not convert it to APFS (doesn't see it as a SSD?). You don't need to do anything else and you can use the installer GUI to start and select any target.
I discovered this because I was not able to use the suggested method. My drive in the laptop has dual boot partition and updates since Sierra have complained about updating the Mac partition without making the other partition non-bootable and quit. So, my procedure has always been to clone to an external drive with just a single partition, update that drive and then clone back to my mac partition. The latter is also a safe way to test an upgrade without potentially crippling the machine if the install fails.
Unfortunately, Apple has removed the -volume option in the High Sierra command line install so using the suggested command line method to update won't work if you want to target an external drive and updating the main drive won't work because of other partitions on it.
Of course, you can also use a non-SSD in the external drive if that is what you have and the conversion will not be an issue and so it will still work in this clone and upgrade method but I find upgrading with a SSD is so much faster. So, I keep a spare SSD just for that purpose. Just wanted to let people know that you can do this even with an external SSD without automatic conversion using a USB dock/enclosure.