Solved - Mohave Clean install on "New" Hard Drive

[ThrasherOSX]

So I have Clover installed on 1 SSD "MacOSX" and I have a CCC Backup of that drive "SSD Backup" both with working installations of clover and bootable.

I have gotten another SSD (500mb this time) "Mohave" and I am thinking of doing a clean install while booted from "MacOSX", my question is this, if I take my working EFI and move to "Mohave", then while booted into "MacOSX" do an install to the "Mohave" drive, will this work? Or will I break my machine trying to do it this way.

Or do I have to do the new USB stick method and complete the entire setup of clover and all from scratch?

 

[cmn699]

So I have Clover installed on 1 SSD "MacOSX" and I have a CCC Backup of that drive "SSD Backup" both with working installations of clover and bootable.

I have gotten another SSD (500mb this time) "Mohave" and I am thinking of doing a clean install while booted from "MacOSX", my question is this, if I take my working EFI and move to "Mohave", then while booted into "MacOSX" do an install to the "Mohave" drive, will this work? Or will I break my machine trying to do it this way.

Or do I have to do the new USB stick method and complete the entire setup of clover and all from scratch? View attachment 364139

So I have Clover installed on 1 SSD "MacOSX" and I have a CCC Backup of that drive "SSD Backup" both with working installations of clover and bootable.

CLOVER is the boot loader. It is installed on an EFI partition which is Hidden.
What Operating System you have on "macOSX"?
What did you backup from "macOSX" using CCC to "SSD Backup"?
It did not make any sense even after reading this post several times to find what I was missing.

 

[ThrasherOSX]

Yes, clover is copied over on the EFI partition for SSD Backup (from MacOSX "Mohave is the OS on this drive") this drive is bootable on it's own. MacOSX drive is Mohave operating system, I am having some issues that I believe stem from a corrupt user account:
1) Mouse flakes out if 2 users are logged in and you switch accounts
2) Apple Watch option does not show in my main user acount but it shows in a "new user" account

Carbon Copy Cloner was used to backup the entire OSX drive to SSD Backup.

Main question is meant to be, can I just do a clean install from my main boot disk "MacOSX" to the new "Mohave" disk and not touch the current installation. Back in the day, if you were to install (on a real mac) on a different disk, it wouldn't even restart it would just install to the new disk. I am afraid that it would do a restart and mess up a current installation.

 

[cmn699]

Yes, clover is copied over on the EFI partition for SSD Backup (from MacOSX "Mohave is the OS on this drive") this drive is bootable on it's own. MacOSX drive is Mohave operating system, I am having some issues that I believe stem from a corrupt user account:
1) Mouse flakes out if 2 users are logged in and you switch accounts
2) Apple Watch option does not show in my main user acount but it shows in a "new user" account

Carbon Copy Cloner was used to backup the entire OSX drive to SSD Backup.

Main question is meant to be, can I just do a clean install from my main boot disk "MacOSX" to the new "Mohave" disk and not touch the current installation. Back in the day, if you were to install (on a real mac) on a different disk, it wouldn't even restart it would just install to the new disk. I am afraid that it would do a restart and mess up a current installation.

If I understand you right, your Mojave system disk has some software problem for which, you think the best solution is a reformat and reinstall of Mojave on it. As a precaution against unexpected failure, you have made a clone of this ' Problem Mojave disk' on to a new SSD. Basically, you have now 2 'unsatisfactory system disks' but your plan is to try a radical cure on one and hopefully re-clone that good one to its current bad clone twin at a later time.

From your profile I also realize you are dual booting with Mac and Win10.

I assume (since it is not clearly stated) that you are doing dual boot from 2 different hard disks and not sharing a single disk with separate partitions for dual boot.

Since All mac OSes in Hackintosh may boot more than 2 times before the 30-40 minute installation process is completed and you are ready to do post-install steps to make the disk bootable and get all software perform to your satisfaction, please REMOVE all other system disks to minimize the chance of mishaps during the clean reinstallation. Just disconnecting Power or Data cable from the other disk(s) will be so easy and safe to do and would get you going faster to achieve a good reinstall.
I could not really understand what you meant by

can I just do a clean install from my main boot disk "MacOSX" to the new "Mohave" disk and not touch the current installation

I was wondering if you meant to say whether you can just reformat the original bad disk using Disk utility of the cloned disk running now as the System like you do with a USB installer disk creation using a downloaded full version of Mojave from its Application folder. I have never tried that yet to tell you about the outcome of such a procedure. All that it does is to save the time, trouble and cost of creating a new installer disk. I always keep a few Flash disks with fully working OSes and other tools for installation and troubleshoots. I have therefore never attempted to do the above mentioned 'clean install' to say how safe and successful it is going to be.

 

[ThrasherOSX]

I was wondering if you meant to say whether you can just reformat the original bad disk using Disk utility of the cloned disk running now as the System like you do with a USB installer disk creation using a downloaded full version of Mojave from its Application folder. I have never tried that yet to tell you about the outcome of such a procedure. All that it does is to save the time, trouble and cost of creating a new installer disk. I always keep a few Flash disks with fully working OSes and other tools for installation and troubleshoots. I have therefore never attempted to do the above mentioned 'clean install' to say how safe and successful it is going to be.

This paragraph mostly sums it up, but rather than doing a reformat of the original boot disk "MacOSX" or the backup "SSD Backup" I have introduced a brand new disk. You are correct in that I was hoping to use the existing system disk as the "Installer" but the target disk of the install being the New Disk. This was an effort to avoid as you say creating a new USB stick and recreating all of the Config files that make the Hackintosh work (SN, Extension, Boot options, etc.)

I guess my path forward would be this:

1) Back up my existing install to SSD Backup via CCC
2) Remove my existing install (MacOSX)
3) Update my installer USB with the current Mohave/Clover/Multibeast (per instructions in the guide)
4) Ensure I can boot from the USB
5) Restart into my SSD Backup disk
6) Attempt a "Clean install" using the startup disk "SSD Backup" with the Target Disk being "Mohave"(New Disk)
7) if this works > Migrate my user information into the New System
8) if this does not work > remove all system disks, reboot via stick and install per guide

If none of this works, then I still have the original system disk that I can install and act like I never tried any of this lunacy.

Thank you SOOO much for your patience and help.

 

[ThrasherOSX]

Ok, so to the initial question, can you install to a new HD while booted into your normal operating system disk, you can in-fact do this, however, with additional reading on this matter in the forums, changes with mojave, and years of config tweaks from OS 10.9 or 10 (can't quite remember where it started. So I realized is it is not a completely fresh install, my intent is really a completely independent install with it's own bootable system.

What I did:

1) Created USB with updated Mojave installer 10.14.1 (per guide)
2) Disconnected any and all bootable drives (Win, OSX, SSD Backup)
3) Installed Mojave using the guide from scratch on clean drive.
4) Installed Multibeast to boot new install.
5) everything seems to be working, working at a much slower pace than previous efforts trying to get this install "right" rather than haphazardly thrown together because I want to work/play (I have working installs)

Thank you for your help and all the wonderful guides and information on this forum.