From APFS to HFS + Extended Journaled and back to APFS?

[lanzbulldog]

Please advise on the following problem;
Have a normal external HD spin drive (no SSD) formatted in HFS + Extended Journaled

1. did a clean install on it with Mavericks
2. have installed all my software, knowing that it will work with High Sierra even later
3. then in stages (Yosemite, El Capitan etc. etc.) i did all updates and upgrades, both from MacOs and the other apps installed, High Sierra included.


Everything works fine! Of course its also bootable!

Now I would like to clone this HD with SuperDuper to my internal Macintosh HD (SSD).
Problem is this High Sierra clone is HFS + Extended Journaled, while my Macintosh HD (SSD) is currently APFS formatted. I hope I manage to delete the APFS volume (including diskcontainer) in Recovery mode? and reformat to HFS + Extended Journaled to install the clone. However, my Macintosh HD (SSD) is still HFS + Extended Journaled even after the clone has been restored!

The question now is: How do I get the Macintosh HD (with new High Sierra clone on it) again APFS formatted for a better and optimal performance?

Please give your advice
Thanks in advance

 

[KeesMacPro]

How do I get the Macintosh HD (with new High Sierra clone on it) again APFS formatted for a better and optimal performance?

Supposing the external Os is High Sierra and works:
-boot from the external HDD
-go to disk utilities and erase the Macintosh HD (=the device not the partition)
-format the Macintosh HD(SSD) to APFS
-clone your external HDD to the Macintosh HD

I've never felt the need to try SuperDuper, but have been using Carbon Copy Cloner for many years.
With CCC I guarantee that your clone will work 100%, and will not change the format of the Macintosh HD to HFS+.
There's a 30days trial version (for free) you can download.

 

[lanzbulldog]

=the device not the partition)
-format the Macintosh HD(SSD) to APFS

Thanks for your reply! Can you explain a little more, sorry i don't get it? I would take minimal risk by doing something like that especially if I don't quite understand.

 

[KeesMacPro]

There's no risk once you are absolutely certain about the following:
-the external HDD boots correctly ,works great and got all your data
-the internal SSD doesn't contain data anymore you might need in the future

If this is the case, follow the steps written below.
Carbon copy cloner will clone the HDD to the SSD independent of the format , so format the SSD to APFS before you clone, and you'll have a APFS clone of the HDD.
Once you open Disk Utilities be sure to delete the device and not a partition of the SSD( The blue one in the screenshot)
Depending on the preferences setting you might only see one volume and not the subdivision ,thats okay too.

So the steps are :

-boot from the external HDD
-download and install Carbon copy cloner on the HDD
-go to disk utilities(applications>utilities>Disk utilities) and erase the Macintosh HD (=the device not the partition>see screenshot)
-format the Macintosh HD(SSD) to APFS
-clone your external HDD to the Macintosh HD with Carbon copy cloner.

Enjoy your APFS SSD

 

[lanzbulldog]

Thank you again very much!
I'm definitely going to try this later.
But I currently have another problem. My old Lacie 2Big has stopped working today, first of all I will have to buy 2 new disks for it and configure it again in RAID 1. And transfer my data again. Hope I can do that too. After all, I am not such a super user . It is now also configured RAID 1 and there is currently 1 HD defect. Don't you know if its possible, and how I can replace the failed drive without loss of data? I was thinking of to buy 2x 1TB Seagate Baracudas myself?

 

[KeesMacPro]

You're welcome!


Sorry but to be honest, I've never used RAID ,for several reasons ...
But since it's a RAID 1, at least all your data is still on the working HDD...

 

[lanzbulldog]

Sorry but,to be honest I've never used RAID ,for several reasons ...

May I ask for those reasons, for learning. When it makes no sense, I don't use the Raid 1 anymore!

 

[KeesMacPro]

- The speed improvement was (for me) relevant when I still used HDD , with NVMe its not anymore
- AFAIK in most cases it's not possible to make it bootable (without workarounds)
- I always got at least 1 clone and 2 TM backups, so for reliability I don't need it either
-RAID hardware vs software : hardware is accompanied by extra costs, software is a lit of fiddling
You'll need a certain amount of HDDs too, so extra costs, extra GB with not much benefit for my purposes..

 

[lanzbulldog]

I see you are using 2 TM backups. I myself have no experience with TM. I can make Clones from my internal HD, this works great for me in case of some troubles. But reliable backups from data is most of time an issue. I thought that Raid 1 would be the perfect way for a backup, but now after 9 years in use it is the question if the restore process wil work when I replace the defect HD. After reading your reply about Raid i am convinced that this is a much better solution. I'm thinking also about making 2 TM backups instead of using RAID 1 again. Maybe you could help me also with it. I would very appreciate that. I have a few questions about making TM backups;
1. Can I make only TM backups of only my data, whiteout the system files?
Can TM also make incremental backups?
2. Could I also use my Lacie 2big to make these 2 TM backups, on 2 different disks without Raid 1 of course.

I hope I'm not too difficult. Sorry for my bad English.

 

[KeesMacPro]

Your English is fine, mine isn't better

If you'd like to replace 1 drive from the LaCie, you could still use it.
AFAIK the LaCIe can be setup as RAID 0,RAID 1 ,or just 2disks.
This way you could make 2 TM backups.
TimeMachine is a very nice and easy app for backing up your data.
If you keep a clone uptodate too, this is very save.

To answer your questions:
1-TM stores all data and all user preferences etc, so this can be used to restore your data to a clean install of the same ,an older or newer OS version. Every time you update the TM backup it only stores what has been changed since the last backup. This way you also can restore e.g. an accidentally deleted folder. TM keeps all updates stored until the disc is almost full, then with a new backup it deletes the oldest backup.
2- yes, I would consider to replace the defective HDD , and set it up as just 2 drives.
This way you'll still have a nice thunderbolt enclosure with 2 HDD, without much costs.

 

[lanzbulldog]

Thanks for the explanation!

Let me explain my system setup. I use one SSD internal for my Macintosh HD, only for the system and software.

A second internal spin drive i use only for the Data (separate partition). But i also moved my Home folder to it on a separate partition.This works great for me since years.Now a would like to have 2 identical TM backups from the Data and Home folder partition.


I don't need backups from the system so much, because of my system clones, that I can restore in some case of trouble!

But how/do can i configure that TM makes 2 identical backups at the same time, from these 2 different partions (Data and Home folder) on 2 different hard drives in 1 Lacie storage ? 😳