Upgrade from Mojave to Monterey on new hardware or new Monterey install?

[jtnix]

Just purchased a new GA-Z490-UD + 10700K + Asus AMD 6700 XT and have it up and running Windows 10, but I really want to get a Monterey drive going on it so I can migrate to the newer GarageBand, Photos, etc. and get back to MacOS.

I already have a GA-Z390 with a Mojave install on an SSD that may be beginning to fail, so I would like to start a fresh install of Monterey on the new hardware, but from what I have been reading that may not be possible because of USB hardware injection on the installer is broken for Monterey? If that is still true, I also read the best upgrade path is start w/ Catalina and then upgrade to Monterey. I am still reading posts to try and find the best route for a new/fresh installation, but haven't found it yet, they all seem to be upgrade based.

My questions for those who know more than me: Should I..

1) Install Monterey directly on the new machine because there are no problems, I just haven't found the post yet.

2) Install Catalina on the new machine directly, then upgrade to Monterey - copy files from old SSD. Assuming I should set up new machine ID, etc. w/ Catalina, log in to icloud then, before upgrading to Monterey?

3) Copy/Clone my Mojave drive to a new SSD, upgrade it to Monterey on the existing hardware, then move it to new machine and update the bootloader and kexts for new hardware? If this would even work, I am unsure how exactly to clone an existing bootable drive to a new SSD and would need to look into that deeper.

I am guessing it will be either 2 or 3, but I would prefer the last option because it seems to be an easier perhaps better to upgrade rather than fresh install.

Going to keep researching and reading on best approach. If anyone has any suggestions in the meantime, that would be most excellent.

Jt

 

[Middleman]

Just purchased a new GA-Z490-UD + 10700K + Asus AMD 6700 XT and have it up and running Windows 10, but I really want to get a Monterey drive going on it so I can migrate to the newer GarageBand, Photos, etc. and get back to MacOS.

I already have a GA-Z390 with a Mojave install on an SSD that may be beginning to fail, so I would like to start a fresh install of Monterey on the new hardware, but from what I have been reading that may not be possible because of USB hardware injection on the installer is broken for Monterey? If that is still true, I also read the best upgrade path is start w/ Catalina and then upgrade to Monterey. I am still reading posts to try and find the best route for a new/fresh installation, but haven't found it yet, they all seem to be upgrade based.

My questions for those who know more than me: Should I..

1) Install Monterey directly on the new machine because there are no problems, I just haven't found the post yet.

2) Install Catalina on the new machine directly, then upgrade to Monterey - copy files from old SSD. Assuming I should set up new machine ID, etc. w/ Catalina, log in to icloud then, before upgrading to Monterey?

3) Copy/Clone my Mojave drive to a new SSD, upgrade it to Monterey on the existing hardware, then move it to new machine and update the bootloader and kexts for new hardware? If this would even work, I am unsure how exactly to clone an existing bootable drive to a new SSD and would need to look into that deeper.

I am guessing it will be either 2 or 3, but I would prefer the last option because it seems to be an easier perhaps better to upgrade rather than fresh install.

Going to keep researching and reading on best approach. If anyone has any suggestions in the meantime, that would be most excellent.

Jt

Hi @jtnix,

Okay to answer your questions:

1) Yes you can do that totally. I have a working build for Monterey on the Z490 series here. >

[GUIDE] OC Monterey Z490 Gigabyte Aorus Xtreme + Core i5 10500 / i9 10900K

This guide is an updated version of my last guide on the Z490 Aorus Xtreme for Big Sur & Monterey. Please refer to my previous guide to install on High Sierra, Mojave, or Catalina. COMPONENTS Gigabyte Z490 Aorus Xtreme board Thermaltake Toughram RGB 32GB 3200Mhz DDR4 RAM Intel Core...

www.tonymacx86.com

If you want to use Mojave/Catalina I have a build for it here too >

[GUIDE] OC 10.13.6 Z490 Gigabyte Aorus Xtreme + Core i5 10400 / i9 11900K + Nvidia GTX 1060

Not long ago, it was said that it was impossible to boot a Z490 based 11-gen system on High Sierra, and it was also said that it could not run Opencore. Well folks, this is the guide you've all been waiting for! This system is both High Sierra AND Mojave compatible...

www.tonymacx86.com

If you transfer over the SMBIOS UUID serials, MLB and ROM details into the data fields I've marked in the config.plist
you can have a working system in no time at all.

2) & 3) There's actually an easy way to do this. Grab yourself a copy of Clonezilla and use Finder to a CD-R/DVD and boot it up with your PC and set your source/destination drives. It will be able to make perfect clones of the HFS/APFS SSD (even Big Sur and Monterey which have been big issues for the likes of Carbon Copy Cloner/Superduper). They have been unable to do so lately under Monterey because of the system drive access restrictions, since APFS now demands parts of the drive be split into containers (to restrict users to certain parts of the OS).

The biggest issue for you then would only be the RX6700XT. Unfortunately it is not supported under macOS at all (the RX6600, 6800 & 6900 is) so you'll need to use the Intel IGPU instead (unless you decide to swap it for another card). There have been reports of people supposedly successfully spoofing the 6700XT under macOS but I have not yet seen it.

 

[jtnix]

Oof - completely missed the 6700 incompatibility. It looks like that uses a Nuvi 22 core which is unsupported by MacOS, not the 21 which is in the 6600 and 6800 series. That's what I get for ordering up parts late at night. Oh well, replacement ordered, for now I will try to do the fresh install with just the built in Intel HDMI and upgrade when the 6800 gets here.

Thanks for the info @Middleman !
Cheers

 

[jtnix]

Finally got the RX 6800 in after amazon ordering snafu. Thanks @Middleman for the build guides. The last EFI from your first link above got my USB stick going and installed Monterey fresh onto an SSD with no issues.

Still have some issues post-install, I will post in a new thread.