How do I move my Catalina drive to an HFS+ drive?

[nineniner]

I have a working Catalina drive, but it is in APFS. Even when I use carbon copy cloner, it converts the second drive to APFS. Is there a way to move it to a HFS+ drive?

 

[P1LGRIM]

Catalina requires a boot drive formatted as APFS.

 

[itwas]

Since Catalina, HFS+ is no longer an option, that's why carbon copy cloner automatically converts the HFS+ target drive to APFS format

 

[Khaibit]

Since Catalina, HFS+ is no longer an option, that's why carbon copy cloner automatically converts the HFS+ target drive to APFS format

To expand on that a bit -- because Catalina now completely separates the system directories from data, and does so by making them separate APFS volumes within an APFS container and then mounting the system directories read-only, HFS+ is unlikely to ever be an option for Catalina installs; it's simply fundamentally incompatible with the new security systems being enforced.

 

[sincerelysw]

Catalina on HFS+ - a HOWTO

Catalina on HFS+ - a HOWTO

I've just had some success getting Catalina on HFS+: Please ignore that I selected the APFS volume of my main boot drive on the tester Mac. I hadn't noticed when taking the screenshot and when I did notice I'd already erased the volume for my next test. Method: From an image of a working...

forums.macrumors.com

crazybirdy release a tool here:

Catalina MBR HFS Firmware Check Patch

Patched OSInstaller.framework to allow macOS 10.15 installation on MBR HFS+ partition. Please read Readme-10.15.pdf first. How to finish the Catalina installation. 1. Use EasyMBR-Installer1015 to make USB Catalina Installer. 2. Boot to USB Catalina Installer, open Utilities -> Disk Utility, fo...

www.insanelymac.com

 

[Gigamaxx]

Catalina on HFS+ - a HOWTO

Catalina on HFS+ - a HOWTO

I've just had some success getting Catalina on HFS+: Please ignore that I selected the APFS volume of my main boot drive on the tester Mac. I hadn't noticed when taking the screenshot and when I did notice I'd already erased the volume for my next test. Method: From an image of a working...

forums.macrumors.com

crazybirdy release a tool here:

Catalina MBR HFS Firmware Check Patch

Patched OSInstaller.framework to allow macOS 10.15 installation on MBR HFS+ partition. Please read Readme-10.15.pdf first. How to finish the Catalina installation. 1. Use EasyMBR-Installer1015 to make USB Catalina Installer. 2. Boot to USB Catalina Installer, open Utilities -> Disk Utility, fo...

www.insanelymac.com

How is the feedback? Have you tested?

 

[sincerelysw]

The tool made by crazybirdy was already tested, macOS Catalina 10.15.3 19D76 also works on HFS+ volume!
My hackintosh build: i5-6400 + MSI B250M G1 Gamer + Samsumg PM951 256G m.2 SSD. Intel HD530 Graphic , ALC892 audio, Realtek8111 ethernet works fine, except sleep wake. But there is a bug, the icon of my system volume (testOS) is a folder icon. It takes long time before get into desktop for the first time. I'm not sure whether there are any other bugs.

 

[jaymonkey]

If you move Catalina to a HFS+ Volume you need to be aware of the following :-

1. You will not be able to install any Catalina MacOS updates as the update installer checks that MacOS is installed on a APFS volume and will not continue if it is not. So to update you would have to clone your active HFS+ volume to a APFS one, then install the update and then re-clone the updated APFS back to the HFS+ Volume.

2. Some app installers also check that the OS is installed on a APFS Volume and will not continue if not.

Cheers
Jay