Installing OS on new ssd, late 2012 imac

[Neil2018]

Hi everyone. I have a iMac of late 2012 that is currently running El Capitan on its original spinner hdd. I have just myself installed a ssd to the motherboard so I now have the 1tb hdd with the extra 480gb of ssd.

I would like to start using the ssd as the main drive, to have os and a few hefty apple apps like logic installed on it. My Logic Pro 9 is hefty as I use a lot of third party plugins.

Could some one recommend the best approach on this? I have installed os in the past to my hdd from a homemade installer which I still have. Can I just install the os to ssd as I did on the hdd and leave the contents of my current hdd with the os unused on the hdd or do I have to blank both drives in the process. I’m wondering if i install os onto the ssd will the computer always boot the correct drive? Or should delete the original os from the hdd first?

Also should I be installing the latest os or can I stick with El Capitan? The Logic Pro version I have purchased is not supported by high Sierra so if do decide to upgrade the os I’m also having to repurchase the latest Logic Pro too.
I’m a bit lost with the sequence so I’m hoping someone can just fill me in on the correct and best procedure.

All your input will be much appreciated

Neil

 

[MacInWin]

Welcome to the forum.

It's pretty straightforward. If you have a bootable external installer, boot from that and then run partition, format, install to the SSD. Then boot from the SSD and you should get all the "welcome" stuff that Apple includes as this is a new installation. At the very first offer to migrate data, attach the old spinner as the source. Let Migration Assistant migrate everything from the spinner to the SSD that it can. When it is finished, you will have the SSD exactly as it looks on the old spinner with your same account name and password all set for you. Test it out and once you are happy, you can recycle that spinner as an external drive for storage or backup. If you miss the opportunity and create a new account on the SSD first, then Migration Assistant will be harder to use later on and won't really work properly, leaving you a lot of work to do. So look for that first question about migration and take the opportunity.

As for what to install (El Cap or HS), that's up to you. El Cap is getting a bit long in the tooth, and you don't want to be too far behind because eventually Apple will quit supporting it and your internet activity will start degrading. It's generally much better to be as current as you can.

 

[ferrarr]

How much data (GBs) are used on the original HDD? If you have used more space (GBs) than the SSD has available, you may need to use both drives.

The difficult part is, there is no way to only remove the OS off the original drive, you would have to wipe the whole thing. Do you have a backup strategy already in place? If everything is backed up, then you will be fine and can move back all your needed data after the HDD is erased/wiped.

 

[Neil2018]

Welcome to the forum.

It's pretty straightforward. If you have a bootable external installer, boot from that and then run partition, format, install to the SSD. Then boot from the SSD and you should get all the "welcome" stuff that Apple includes as this is a new installation. At the very first offer to migrate data, attach the old spinner as the source. Let Migration Assistant migrate everything from the spinner to the SSD that it can. When it is finished, you will have the SSD exactly as it looks on the old spinner with your same account name and password all set for you. Test it out and once you are happy, you can recycle that spinner as an external drive for storage or backup. If you miss the opportunity and create a new account on the SSD first, then Migration Assistant will be harder to use later on and won't really work properly, leaving you a lot of work to do. So look for that first question about migration and take the opportunity.

As for what to install (El Cap or HS), that's up to you. El Cap is getting a bit long in the tooth, and you don't want to be too far behind because eventually Apple will quit supporting it and your internet activity will start degrading. It's generally much better to be as current as you can.

Hi and thanks for your message. Does migrating from a backup also transfer installed software that will still be licensed and able to run on the new drive?

 

[Neil2018]

How much data (GBs) are used on the original HDD? If you have used more space (GBs) than the SSD has available, you may need to use both drives.

The difficult part is, there is no way to only remove the OS off the original drive, you would have to wipe the whole thing. Do you have a backup strategy already in place? If everything is backed up, then you will be fine and can move back all your needed data after the HDD is erased/wiped.

I currently don’t run a backup strategy. Yes the hdd usage is bigger than the maximum size of the ssd. I can make an external back up of my documents and projects to a external hdd and this will make the remaining content of the internal hdd consist of application data, this will then fit on the ssd.

 

[MacInWin]

Yes, with some limits. Most applications will migrate well, but products that have a registration process that check every time it runs with the mothership don't migrate well and have to be reinstalled and re-registered (I'm looking at you, MicroSoft and Adobe!). And what Bob said about space is a good caution. Your old drive is twice as big as the new one, so maybe you migrate just applications with the Migration Assistant as I described, then copy from that 1tb drive the files you want in your new drive. As for the concern Bob had about the operating system, there is no harm in leaving it there on the external. In fact, I have a bootable external drive that I clone from my internal every day, just as a backup in case the internal one goes south. So if you have room, just leave the old drive alone until you can get a third drive to copy over your important data and then you can wipe the old spinner to use for whatever you want. If the spinner is completely full, then you may need that new external sooner.

 

[Neil2018]

If you imagine I have one external drive which is blank. Then internal to the Mac I have a hdd with a system, apps and person docs and a blank ssd.

Can I place my bulky person docs on the external drive, deleting the originals on the internal system hdd, then install OS X onto the ssd then chose to migrate apps and settings from the internal hdd to the ssd which has fresh os, then blank the internal hdd and then put my person docs back in to it? Is this a correct way.


My question is basically is it possible to migrate from a internal drive that is not specifically a backup drive but was the original and almost current main drive, that has everything I want to keep on it ( minus the person docs, as they are safe on the external drive) to the internal ssd with the new system?

Or must I create a purposely made backup drive

 

[MacInWin]

Basically, yes, you can do that. But I would not delete the originals on the internal HDD right away. The sequence would be:

1. Copy all the personal documents to the extern drive.
2. Install the OS to the SDD.
3. Boot from the SDD (note, the internal HDD, because it has a system on it, will still be the boot disk of preference at that point, so you will have to hold down the Option key while booting and select the SSD to boot from.
4. Use Mig. Asst. to migrate your apps and account to the SSD.
5. Follow the directions on this Apple kb article on how to set the SSD as default boot drive: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202796
6. Reboot, ensure that the boot is the SSD (It should boot very quickly!) and test your applications to see that they work.
7. Use Disk Utility to erase the internal HDD (to get rid of the OS on it, mostly).
8. Copy the personal data from the external to the internal HDD.

At that point, you should be done. Now you can use that external drive as a backup drive. (You DO have a backup, right?)

 

[Neil2018]

I really appreciate the step by step and clarification on this. Obviously I wanted to make sure I can migrate successfully from the old Macintosh HD and your relies have confirmed this. Thank you so much, I can now do this with confidence.

 

[mrgizmow]

HDD/ssd

As not to reinvent the wheel, will see if I can piggy-back atop Neils thread. Same computer 2013/21.5 iMac. Month ago installed High Sierra without any apparent issues. A week or so after seemed to have an issue when booting up. After over an hour turned off machine and rebooted in 'safe mode' verified resident hd and no problem found, but much research suggested I prepare for a hard drive failure. Purchased a 500gb Samsung ssd and used Carbon Copy cloner to prepare as external boot drive. Seems to boot a bit faster but am surprised to see my resident (Mac) hard drive still acquiring 'new' information. Seems in spite of my cloning my 2017 tax was using Turbo Tax (I guess) from my resident hard drive, as well, the tax file was saved to the resident drive even though Turbo Tax was cloned to the SSD or so it appeared. Am not in need of major memory space as my hard drive still has 956gb open. Just why thes hard drive still seems to be utilized even though I cloned it to and list as my SSD boot drive. Appreciate any and all insight. Assume, and hope that Neil has solved his problem. Thanks

 

[MacInWin]

Programs SHOULD take note of the boot drive and work as if that drive were internal, but some applications don't play well that way, and as long as the internal drive is available, will continue to use it for storage, no matter what. But I am surprised to see TurboTax (a bit) in that list as it was usually well-behaved for me when I used to use it. Is there any setting in Turbotax Preferences for where to store the files? If so, change that to point to the SSD.

 

[harryb2448]

gizmow the problem may be using an SSD and a platter drive. High Sierra when installed by default changes the SSD format to Apple File System Profile, AFPS for short. A platter drive cannot be formatted to this format and it may be seeing your two drives similar to a Fusion. Fusion drives, even with a 128GB Blade Drive, a form of SSD, cannot be formatted APFS either. IS the external selected (hioghlighted) as thew Boot Drive in System Preferences > Startup Disk?

I used a Thunderbolt SSD externally years ago in the 2011 iMac as the Boot Drive and updates etc. always went to the internal first which I used as my backup drive so that may be the way things work. All you would have to do is use CCC or SuperDuper to clone the internal to the external to get the tax file number attached to the tax return.

 

[chscag]

Well, anyone working with Turbo-Tax or HR Block software has until Midnite April 17th to get their tax info to Uncle Sam or pay a penalty.

 

[Slydude]

But I am surprised to see TurboTax (a bit) in that list as it was usually well-behaved for me when I used to use it. Is there any setting in Turbotax Preferences for where to store the files? If so, change that to point to the SSD.

I just used the 2017 version to file my returns. As far as I can tell the default save location is in the users home folder inside the Documents folder. If you choose to save the return as a PDF you can choose the Save location. I've used the last several versions and that seems to have been a consistent pattern.

 

[mrgizmow]

Thank you all for a prompt and comprehensive response(s). The SSD in indeed highlighted in preferences as the boot drive. Even though Turbo Tax seemed to get processed from the copy on the resident hard drive, the end result was fine and had no problem being sent to and accepted by the Feds. Sounds like my situation in not likely to cause any major problems (i hope). Now that is clear that my SSD is a clone of my hard drive and bootable once I feel a bit more empowered I will pull the screen and put the SSD in place of the HD. Thanks again folks, you set my mind at ease.

 

[MacInWin]

I just used the 2017 version to file my returns. As far as I can tell the default save location is in the users home folder inside the Documents folder. If you choose to save the return as a PDF you can choose the Save location. I've used the last several versions and that seems to have been a consistent pattern.

What I have seen in some applications, Calibre being one I can think of right now, is that while you can point the location you want in preferences to a different drive, the actual save place reverted to the internal drive no matter what I did. But in that case I was booted there, but trying to use an external as the home directory location. Apparently the path was hard-coded into Calibre to look for the save location at "/<boot>/Users/<user>/Documents and not at the path of the preferences. I think at one point I had the same issue with Photoshop, but it's been a while since that one. Not sure what would happen with an external boot but a hard-coded path. Theoretically, it should work ok, but given the hard coding and not knowing exactly how it was done, almost anything is possible.

All of which is to say that some software hard codes paths, despite the fact that's lousy practice.