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Clean Install Sierra or High Sierra?

T

tech3475

macrumors 6502
Original poster
May 17, 2011
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I've been having some problems with my mac and I'm considering doing a clean install but I'm wondering whether to clean install Sierra or to clean install High Sierra on my 2013 rMBP.

Has most of the problems been solved or is it still problematic?
 
Depends on what kind of issues you want to solve, hardware or software related? If you hear the startup chime your machine is very likely good to go.
 
Has most of the problems been solved or is it still problematic?

Any minor teething issues have long been resolved and I have had no issues with it whatsoever.

Doesn't seem much point in loading an old OS so go for High Sierra, is my advice.
 
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amaze1499 said:
Depends on what kind of issues you want to solve, hardware or software related? If you hear the startup chime your machine is very likely good to go.
Click to expand...

In my case the main issue is bootcamp and vmware not working properly and the odd other minor issue.

Other than that I usually like to clean out my systems about once a year.
 
You don't actually say what OS you are using at the moment but I assume it's Sierra. If you are considering a clean install of an OS in the hope it will cure your problems why not try High Sierra first?
 
OP:
A few words of advice.

BEFORE you try a jump from whatever you're using now to High Sierra, I suggest you do this first:

1. You'll need an external drive.
2. You'll need CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper. Both are FREE to download and use for 30 days.

Then, using either of the above, create a BOOTABLE CLONED BACKUP of your installation AS IT IS NOW.

Then, if you try to upgrade to High Sierra, and things go wrong, you'll HAVE A WAY BACK.
If you don't do this, you can still "get back", but it's NOT going to be easy.

Another suggestion (an alternate route):
Install a "test copy" of High Sierra onto an external drive.
Then, for a period of a week or two, "test run" it BEFORE you commit to installing it onto your primary (internal) drive.
That way, if you "try it but don't like it", you can just erase the test install and "keep going as you are now".
 
Pine Man said:
You don't actually say what OS you are using at the moment but I assume it's Sierra. If you are considering a clean install of an OS in the hope it will cure your problems why not try High Sierra first?
Click to expand...

Sorry, yes I am on Sierra.

Fishrrman said:
OP:
A few words of advice.

BEFORE you try a jump from whatever you're using now to High Sierra, I suggest you do this first:

1. You'll need an external drive.
2. You'll need CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper. Both are FREE to download and use for 30 days.

Then, using either of the above, create a BOOTABLE CLONED BACKUP of your installation AS IT IS NOW.

Then, if you try to upgrade to High Sierra, and things go wrong, you'll HAVE A WAY BACK.
If you don't do this, you can still "get back", but it's NOT going to be easy.

Another suggestion (an alternate route):
Install a "test copy" of High Sierra onto an external drive.
Then, for a period of a week or two, "test run" it BEFORE you commit to installing it onto your primary (internal) drive.
That way, if you "try it but don't like it", you can just erase the test install and "keep going as you are now".
Click to expand...

I'm going to make a DMG of the whole drive using disk utility then verify the image.

I'm going to skip on the 'test run' though since to really try it I'd have to install my software anyway and I have the dmg.
 
OP wrote:
"I'm going to make a DMG of the whole drive using disk utility then verify the image."

I advise AGAINST THIS.

Again, do what I suggested above.
Create a BOOTABLE CLONED BACKUP of your existing setup.

You need something that you can do this (in order):
1. BOOT FROM
2. Get running to the finder (as you were before)
3. Erase the internal drive (if High Sierra goes wrong on you)
4. RE-clone the cloned backup BACK TO the internal drive.

If you do this, you will be "right back where you started from", as if you had never left.

Try any other method -- and you will be back here, cursing.
 
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I second Fishrrman's advice. I recently put High Sierra on an MBA following pretty much the steps he's outlined. Saved my bacon (and avoided much time cursing and swearing) when I had to fall back. OK, I couldn't avoid the 'cursing and swearing' time when battling HS, but at least falling back was painless.
 
Make sure your apps etc are going to work. There’s a guide on macintouch and also other sites how to do an upgrade safely, incl clean install.

There’s a bug in in format for storage and DMG - check this last weeks news.

I’ve been on beta builds and there have been small issues like using external monitor lately, now fixed. Alls good.

I use to always do the CCC clean install in the past. More so than TimeMachine. But multiple backups as safety net - and 5 years on a laptop, I’d be looking at next 2018+ upgrade possibly even Apple refurbished.
 
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tech3475 said:
I've been having some problems with my mac and I'm considering doing a clean install but I'm wondering whether to clean install Sierra or to clean install High Sierra on my 2013 rMBP.

Has most of the problems been solved or is it still problematic?
Click to expand...

Ahh...decisions, decisions.

Well, I had an issue with High Sierra and iMovie crashing every time upon launch, so I went back to Sierra. There are other threads, recent ones, where quite a few people have various other issues. Check them out!

If you're wanting to work with BootCamp, you might run into problems as well, as APFS is not recognized by Windows as of yet, if memory serves. As a workaround, you could force High Sierra to stay on HFS+.

So the bottom line answer to your original questions is: Yes, there are absolutely problems that remain that have not been resolved, and this is six months after the initial release.
 
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Fishrrman said:
OP wrote:
"I'm going to make a DMG of the whole drive using disk utility then verify the image."

I advise AGAINST THIS.

Again, do what I suggested above.
Create a BOOTABLE CLONED BACKUP of your existing setup.

You need something that you can do (in order):
1. BOOT FROM
2. Get running to the finder (as you were before)
3. Erase the internal drive (if High Sierra goes wrong on you)
4. RE-clone the cloned backup BACK TO the internal drive.

If you do this, you will be "right back where you started from", as if you had never left.

Try any other method -- and you will be back here, cursing.
Click to expand...

I just use disk utilty in recovery from a usb drive, is there anything wrong with this other than not booting into my install?

I prefer images because of the ability to verify before a restore and that theyre ‘locked’.

That said, judging by other comments I may just reinstall sierra and stick with something relatively stable.
 
tech3475 said:
I just use disk utilty in recovery from a usb drive, is there anything wrong with this other than not booting into my install?
Click to expand...

When you install High Sierra on SSD drive it will convert your drive to APFS. If you decide to go back to Sierra then you will have to format your drive as HFS+. You need a clone to do this. Booting into Recovery is not nearly as easy to fix a drive so you can revert.

One more reason to stick with Sierra...recent problems with Disk Utility formatting drives in High Sierra. Look for threads about formatting 2TB WD drives here. Personally, I've had issues with external drives after running First Aid in High Sierra. In order to fix, I had to boot back into Sierra to run Disk Utility and fix there.
 
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dianeoforegon said:
When you install High Sierra on SSD drive it will convert your drive to APFS. If you decide to go back to Sierra then you will have to format your drive as HFS+. You need a clone to do this. Booting into Recovery is not nearly as easy to fix a drive so you can revert.

One more reason to stick with Sierra...recent problems with Disk Utility formatting drives in High Sierra. Look for threads about formatting 2TB WD drives here. Personally, I've had issues with external drives after running First Aid in High Sierra. In order to fix, I had to boot back into Sierra to run Disk Utility and fix there.
Click to expand...

You can create usb installer with sierra, which is what I plan to do since Im going to completely wipe the drive to remove any potential partition issues.

Looks like Ill be sticking with Sierra anyway.
 
Fishrrman said:
OP:
A few words of advice.

BEFORE you try a jump from whatever you're using now to High Sierra, I suggest you do this first:

1. You'll need an external drive.
2. You'll need CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper. Both are FREE to download and use for 30 days.
Click to expand...

Note that you do not need any external program to clone your disk: this can be done using Disk Utility
 
dianeoforegon said:
When you install High Sierra on SSD drive it will convert your drive to APFS. If you decide to go back to Sierra then you will have to format your drive as HFS+. You need a clone to do this. Booting into Recovery is not nearly as easy to fix a drive so you can revert.

One more reason to stick with Sierra...recent problems with Disk Utility formatting drives in High Sierra. Look for threads about formatting 2TB WD drives here. Personally, I've had issues with external drives after running First Aid in High Sierra. In order to fix, I had to boot back into Sierra to run Disk Utility and fix there.
Click to expand...

Yes, you're right, but you can force High Sierra to leave your SSD alone. Here's how:

Open Terminal and copy this into the window:

Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/startosinstall --converttoapfs NO

This assumes that your High Sierra installer is in the Applications folder. You need the full installer to accomplish this, i.e. the full 5.2GB file. Laughably, Apple is serving some users up with smaller installers that rely on you downloading the rest immediately before installing. Another creepy psy-op on the part of Apple, as it is seemingly completely random as to who gets which installer.

One thing the folks at Cupertino got rid of for all of us though is the Sierra installer. A sneaky way to force us into their crappy High Sierra installment of macOS.
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tech3475 said:
You can create usb installer with sierra, which is what I plan to do since Im going to completely wipe the drive to remove any potential partition issues.

Looks like Ill be sticking with Sierra anyway.
Click to expand...

Good decision. If you want to be real fancy, download the latest version of Diskmaker X. It's free and you can make one USB drive into a bootable installer for as many OS X versions as you can fit on it. I used to have one USB boot drive for 10.11, 10.12 and 10.13 until I got a newer generation Mac that I could no longer install 10.11 on. It even installs a fancy graphic for each OS X version for you to marvel at in Finder. :D
 
Last edited:
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Fishrrman said:
OP:
A few words of advice.

BEFORE you try a jump from whatever you're using now to High Sierra, I suggest you do this first:

1. You'll need an external drive.
2. You'll need CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper. Both are FREE to download and use for 30 days.

Then, using either of the above, create a BOOTABLE CLONED BACKUP of your installation AS IT IS NOW.

Then, if you try to upgrade to High Sierra, and things go wrong, you'll HAVE A WAY BACK.
If you don't do this, you can still "get back", but it's NOT going to be easy.

Another suggestion (an alternate route):
Install a "test copy" of High Sierra onto an external drive.
Then, for a period of a week or two, "test run" it BEFORE you commit to installing it onto your primary (internal) drive.
That way, if you "try it but don't like it", you can just erase the test install and "keep going as you are now".
Click to expand...


I am 90% installed with High Sierra but the installation has stopped. What to do. Unplug it? Wait? I have all data backed up but want to preserve hard drive. Thanks
 
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