Advice needed on new SSD and high sierra

[nippyjun]

Hi.
I have a late 2011 MacBook Pro with a 512gb ssd that I installed when I got the mac.
Now I have ordered a 1tb ssd as I need more room.
The 512 gb ssd that is in the mac has El Capitan.

I want to go with high sierra. I'm hesitant to install (update El Capitan)it on the 512gb ssd that is currently in the mac as I have read of some failed high sierra updates on some older macs.

I use time machine to back up the mac.

What way would you recommend to get high sierra on the new 1tb ssd and have all the info on the 512gb drive on it.

I could probably make a high sierra USB thumb drive. Then I could connect the 1tb drive to the mac using a USB enclosure and then install high sierra on it. Then use time machine to copy my current drive to the new drive. Then put the new drive in the mac.

Or could I boot the mac into recovery mode with the new drive connected to it with a USB enclosure and have download and install high sierra. Then use time machine to restore. Then put the new drive in the mac.

Or I could use carbon copy cloned to clone the current drive to the new one then install sierra on the new one.

Also. I just read that my computer will need a firmware update that the high sierra installer will perform. How does that fit in to what I want to accomplish?

What would you recommend?

 

[prisstratton]

As you have already pointed out, there are numerous ways to do this to get to the same end point.

Here is the way I would proceed.

Clone existing 512 GB SSD >> new 1 TB SSD
Option boot to the new clone to make sure it is working correctly
Physically swap the drives in your MBP
Perform an in-place upgrade to High Sierra

I had ZERO problems with the in-place upgrade on my MBP (see my sig.), going from Mavericks >> High Sierra. If things happen to “go south” on you, you have your existing 512 GB SSD as a backup of everything.

I did not notice anything special about any required firmware update. It just worked without any intervention from me.

It sounds like you know what you need to do and that you understand the whole process and can no doubt work around any problems you might run into.

I know some people on these forums are not happy with how High Sierra is working for them, but for me it has been a VERY positive experience. I jumped on board with Public Beta 6 (on a separate partition) and it worked just great for me. I had no problems, crashes, hang-ups……nothing, with any of the beta software (including FileVault). When High Sierra was officially released I upgraded my Mavericks installation and then deleted the testing partition from the new installation.

I hope it works just as well for you.

 

[MrAverigeUser]

As you have already pointed out, there are numerous ways to do this to get to the same end point.

Here is the way I would proceed.

Clone existing 512 GB SSD >> new 1 TB SSD
Option boot to the new clone to make sure it is working correctly
Physically swap the drives in your MBP
Perform an in-place upgrade to High Sierra

This is the proper way to go the way of least risc.

But:

The TO should perhaps upgrade to CCC5 before.... If there is a (still unknown) problem with HS, CCC5 will help you more than CCC4 ...
take a look at the website of its developer.

BTW: What advantage worth mentioning did you experience in real life i.e. daily practise comparing HS with Sierra? What are your daily work on the machines? We use the same 2012 MBP configuration...

I ask you because I heard only about "no difference" at best and "horrible" at worst...

Thanks in advance

 

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote:
"I could probably make a high sierra USB thumb drive. Then I could connect the 1tb drive to the mac using a USB enclosure and then install high sierra on it. Then use time machine to copy my current drive to the new drive. Then put the new drive in the mac."

THIS is the right way to do it.
Don't bother with any other way.
"Prep and test" the new drive and OS BEFORE you do the drive swap.

Again, do it EXACTLY as you have described above.
That route provides the surest path towards success with the fewest chances for failure.

And -- if something does go wrong on you -- YOU STILL HAVE A WORKING MACBOOK to diagnose and fix things...

 

[nippyjun]

Thanks for all the suggestions.
I think the easiest thing in to clone the current drive to the new drive attached through usb; then boot to the new drive to test that it works.
From this point Can i boot to the new drive attached by usb and go into the app store and download and install high sierra.
Will high sierra know to install on the attached usb drive (does it give me the option of which drive to install it to)?

 

[prisstratton]

You can boot to the new drive via USB and do what you want, but the USB-2 interface is going to be SLOW.

Yes, you will have the option of where you want to install. When I installed the Public Beta I pointed the installation at the partition I had created for testing purposes.

 

[nippyjun]

You can boot to the new drive via USB and do what you want, but the USB-2 interface is going to be SLOW.

Yes, you will have the option of where you want to install. When I installed the Public Beta I pointed the installation at the partition I had created for testing purposes.

Thanks.
I have a thunderbolt to USB 3 adapter that should speed things up.

 

[nippyjun]

An update:
I attached the new drive to my mac through usb (thunderbolt kept disconnecting). I used carbon copy cloner to clone the internal drive to the new drive. Took about 4 hours.
Then I ran the HS installer from the internal drive but it seemed to get stuck w/ 4 minutes left.
I then booted from the external drive and ran the downloaded HS installer on it and it updated.
The only issue is that it did not re-format the APFS
I then swapped the drives and put the new drive in mac and ran the HS installed again and it re-formatted to APFS.