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First time doing a clean install - Help

LarryJoe33

LarryJoe33

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Jul 17, 2017
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I have created a thumb drive with High Sierra Installer. I erased my internal High Sierra drive after booting into recovery mode/DU/Erase/format as APFS.

I then went to intall MacOS and saw it was installing High Sierra beta so I cancelled. I then tried to reboot to select the thumb drive as the boot drive.

Now I am pretty much stuck with internet recovery mode that wants to install Lion. Am I screwed at this point with having to install Lion and doing this over again?
[doublepost=1522243874][/doublepost]When I boot to the thumb drive with the installer, I get the Apple logo and a progress bar but then it goes to the dreaded circle/slash. I used Disk creator to create the installer.
 
I've only used Lion DiskMaker now called DiskMaker X which I haven't tried. If your bootable USB is bad then yes you will have to use internet recovery and then create a new OS X boot disk. Maybe someone else has a better idea.
 
zone23 said:
I've only used Lion DiskMaker now called DiskMaker X which I haven't tried. If your bootable USB is bad then yes you will have to use internet recovery and then create a new OS X boot disk. Maybe someone else has a better idea.
Click to expand...
Thanks, I am trying to make another on my windows machine using this information:

http://www.wikigain.com/create-macos-high-sierra-bootable-usb-installer-windows-10/
[doublepost=1522250331][/doublepost]I hope the DMG installer is legit.
 
LarryJoe33 said:
Thanks, I am trying to make another on my windows machine using this information:

http://www.wikigain.com/create-macos-high-sierra-bootable-usb-installer-windows-10/
[doublepost=1522250331][/doublepost]I hope the DMG installer is legit.
Click to expand...

I suppose its worth a shot but I too would be skeptical of the installer and would want to get the official from Apple. Also wouldn't spend too much time on that because you could get the OS installed via internet recovery and go that route.
 
zone23 said:
I suppose its worth a shot but I too would be skeptical of the installer and would want to get the official from Apple. Also wouldn't spend too much time on that because you could get the OS installed via internet recovery and go that route.
Click to expand...
Yes, but how would I get the internet installer for High Sierra? I think it only gives me the original OS which is Lion?
 
zone23 said:
Through the App Store it will have the download then before it installs copy the installer to say your desktop.
Click to expand...
I get that, but I believe I need to install lion first. Remember, I have a blank internal drive right now. I have nothing but internet recovery and a bad USB High Sierra drive to work with.
 
LarryJoe33 said:
I get that, but I believe I need to install lion first. Remember, I have a blank internal drive right now. I have nothing but internet recovery and a bad USB High Sierra drive to work with.
Click to expand...

Correct but internet recovery will allow you to reformat the drive and do a clean install of Lion then go get Sierra and create another bootable USB drive.
 
zone23 said:
Correct but internet recovery will allow you to reformat the drive and do a clean install of Lion then go get Sierra and create another bootable USB drive.
Click to expand...
Yup, I got that, thanks. Wondering if there was a workaround.
[doublepost=1522252516][/doublepost]I also have an image before I wiped it. So worse comes to worse, I restore my CCC High Sierra image which is a lot faster than loading Lion.
 
LarryJoe33 said:
Yup, I got that, thanks. Wondering if there was a workaround.
[doublepost=1522252516][/doublepost]I also have an image before I wiped it. So worse comes to worse, I restore my CCC image.
Click to expand...

I know installing Lion and all that is a pain but your going to want to do it the right way don't take a short cut at this point.
 
zone23 said:
I know installing Lion and all that is a pain but your going to want to do it the right way don't take a short cut at this point.
Click to expand...
Thank you again.

So installing Lion, creating a new installer and blowing away the drive is definitely an option, but being my first time at this, I would imagine there is a way to create a High Sierra USB installer without MacOS? Not questioning you, just wondering out loud. I am installing from the Windows link above as I type.
 
LarryJoe33 said:
Thank you again.

So installing Lion, creating a new installer and blowing away the drive is definitely an option, but being my first time at this, I would imagine there is a way to create a High Sierra USB installer without MacOS? Not questioning you, just wondering out loud. I am installing from the Windows link above as I type.
Click to expand...

Yeah that I wouldn't know as I've never tried it. I have had to go though the process I described though when a USB drive didn't work.
 
LarryJoe33 said:
I have created a thumb drive with High Sierra Installer. I erased my internal High Sierra drive after booting into recovery mode/DU/Erase/format as APFS.

I then went to intall MacOS and saw it was installing High Sierra beta so I cancelled. I then tried to reboot to select the thumb drive as the boot drive.

Now I am pretty much stuck with internet recovery mode that wants to install Lion. Am I screwed at this point with having to install Lion and doing this over again?
[doublepost=1522243874][/doublepost]When I boot to the thumb drive with the installer, I get the Apple logo and a progress bar but then it goes to the dreaded circle/slash. I used Disk creator to create the installer.
Click to expand...

I never had much luck creating a bootable OS X installer thumb drive, so I was a little worried when I HAD to make one for work. What DID finally work for me are these instructions:

http://osxdaily.com/2017/09/27/create-macos-high-sierra-bootable-installer-usb/

Good luck!
 
BLUEDOG314 said:
For future reference, once a computer is on Sierra 10.12.4 or higher, which you were before doing all this, internet recovery is changed. You can hold CMD+Option+R and your computer will go to internet recovery for the latest compatible version of MacOS. So you didn't really need to go to Lion first.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204904
Click to expand...
That’s what I was looking for! Fortunately the windows method in the link above did the trick.
 
BLUEDOG314 said:
For future reference, once a computer is on Sierra 10.12.4 or higher, which you were before doing all this, internet recovery is changed. You can hold CMD+Option+R and your computer will go to internet recovery for the latest compatible version of MacOS. So you didn't really need to go to Lion first.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204904
Click to expand...

Now thats some useful information right there. I'm thinking when Apple release the latest version I may do a clean install just for fun. Thanks a lot!
 
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zone23 said:
Now thats some useful information right there. I'm thinking when Apple release the latest version I may do a clean install just for fun. Thanks a lot!
Click to expand...
It's not as bad as I thought with regard to getting back to normal. A lot of settings and configuration are setup in iCloud, so email, calendars, etc are all configured. Just need to reinstall a few things like Office, 1Password, etc. Feels snappier than my legacy build which started as Lion and was upgraded along the way with every OS to High Sierra.
 
OP wrote:
"I have created a thumb drive with High Sierra Installer. I erased my internal High Sierra drive after booting into recovery mode/DU/Erase/format as APFS.
I then went to intall MacOS and saw it was installing High Sierra beta so I cancelled. I then tried to reboot to select the thumb drive as the boot drive."

What I would have done:
Install the beta version you have now.

Then...
UPDATE it using the 10.13.3 "combo updater" available here:
https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1953?locale=en_US

The combo updater should install the latest, "non-beta" version RIGHT OVER THE TOP OF the older beta.
The end result should be the same as if your original installer had been "release, non-beta".
 
Fishrrman said:
OP wrote:
"I have created a thumb drive with High Sierra Installer. I erased my internal High Sierra drive after booting into recovery mode/DU/Erase/format as APFS.
I then went to intall MacOS and saw it was installing High Sierra beta so I cancelled. I then tried to reboot to select the thumb drive as the boot drive."

What I would have done:
Install the beta version you have now.

Then...
UPDATE it using the 10.13.3 "combo updater" available here:
https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1953?locale=en_US

The combo updater should install the latest, "non-beta" version RIGHT OVER THE TOP OF the older beta.
The end result should be the same as if your original installer had been "release, non-beta".
Click to expand...
Thanks, new at clean installs. I probably had the beta on the thumb drive and didn’t realize it was installing it. As I referenced, I ended up finding a work around using windows utilities. I was at work and had access to my Dell. I believe the dmg High Sierra I downloaded (not from Apple, no idea where it came from which made me uneasy) was the first official public release. It went well and then I “updated” it. I believe there were two updates and one was the combo. I then installed the beta profile and got it to beta 7 (I think, the latest beta). I did this purely for messages in iCloud. Got so used to it that it’s a must have. I thought about taking a break from betas and enjoying my new fresh clean install, but I’m not happy unless I’m playing with something, or I guess, f’ing it up lol.
 
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