Hoping to make Sierra flash dr. installer.

[3wood]

My understanding is that 2 of my often used programs will continue to run on Sierra but not on High Sierra.

Therefore, I'd like to move from El Cap. to Sierra instead of to High Sierra so to save $100 for now anyway.

Is it still possible to find the Sierra installer software so I can make a flash drive installer for it or is it too late?

Thank you.

Reed
Friday, March 9, 2018 8:41:44 AM EST
[doublepost=1520603915][/doublepost]I looked before in the App Store and did not find it. Just now I clicked on a link that has taken me to the App Store and Sierra is there. Am downloading it now. Tried every which way the other day to find it and couldn't. Will report how the link and download perform.

 

[CoastalOR]

delete

 

[MSastre]

There are a few programs to use to easily make a USB installer if you don't want to get into doing it in Terminal. I have used this one to make several for different OSs I use on different computers. Just takes a few clicks and you are done.

 

[3wood]

There are a few programs to use to easily make a USB installer if you don't want to get into doing it in Terminal. I have used this one to make several for different OSs I use on different computers. Just takes a few clicks and you are done.

Thanks for that. I did make a USB installer for High Sierra. I forget which program I used (probably the one you suggested), but it beat the heck out of using Terminal which I don't use well.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:
Do you have the Low Sierra installer app yet?
If you do, put it into the Applications folder.

Then, do this:
1. Download Boot Buddy from here:
https://sqwarq.com/boot-buddy/
2. Get ahold of a USB flashdrive 8 or 16gb and use Disk Utility to erase it to Mac OS extended with journaling enabled
3. Use Boot Buddy to create the bootable flashdrive installer -- all it takes is a few clicks of the mouse.

At this point, you have a choice to make:
Do you want to "upgrade over" your existing El Cap install?
or
Do you want to do a "completely clean" install?
It's up to you to decide.

What I would suggest in any case:
Download CarbonCopyCloner from here:
Carbon Copy Cloner - Download
CCC is FREE to download and use for 30 days.
Next, use CCC to create a BOOTABLE CLONED BACKUP of your existing El Cap install on an external drive.
Now you are "protected" if anything goes wrong.

At this point, you can boot from the USB flashdrive into the Low Sierra installer.
Then, either install over El Cap,
or
Use Disk Utility to erase the internal drive, then do a completely clean install.

Either way is going to take some time and will probably include an automatic restart or two.

IF you chose #2, you will be presented with the setup screen.
At the appropriate moment, setup assistant will ask if you wish to migrate data from another drive. Connect the CCC cloned backup, and select that.
Select the stuff you want to migrate (I'd check everything), and let setup assistant do its thing. It will take a while to copy everything.

That should do it!

 

[3wood]

OP:
Do you have the Low Sierra installer app yet?
If you do, put it into the Applications folder.

Then, do this:
1. Download Boot Buddy from here:
https://sqwarq.com/boot-buddy/
2. Get ahold of a USB flashdrive 8 or 16gb and use Disk Utility to erase it to Mac OS extended with journaling enabled
3. Use Boot Buddy to create the bootable flashdrive installer -- all it takes is a few clicks of the mouse.

At this point, you have a choice to make:
Do you want to "upgrade over" your existing El Cap install?
or
Do you want to do a "completely clean" install?
It's up to you to decide.

What I would suggest in any case:
Download CarbonCopyCloner from here:
Carbon Copy Cloner - Download
CCC is FREE to download and use for 30 days.
Next, use CCC to create a BOOTABLE CLONED BACKUP of your existing El Cap install on an external drive.
Now you are "protected" if anything goes wrong.

At this point, you can boot from the USB flashdrive into the Low Sierra installer.
Then, either install over El Cap,
or
Use Disk Utility to erase the internal drive, then do a completely clean install.

Either way is going to take some time and will probably include an automatic restart or two.

IF you chose #2, you will be presented with the setup screen.
At the appropriate moment, setup assistant will ask if you wish to migrate data from another drive. Connect the CCC cloned backup, and select that.
Select the stuff you want to migrate (I'd check everything), and let setup assistant do its thing. It will take a while to copy everything.

That should do it!

Man......that is a lot of very good information you gave which I will make sure I keep.

I do keep a CCC bootable clone up to date already as well as Time Mach. A month or so ago I did put the High Sierra install on a flash drive because I thought I was going to install it but as stated before, decided to only go to Sierra due to the fact a couple of my applications will run on S. but not HS

Here's what I did (before your post). I was finally able to find the Sierra installer in App Store. Downloaded it and installed it over El Cap on my 2011 iMac 27 and 2012 MBP.

All went as planned and is running fine with one exception. I have begun to get the spinning ball some on the MBP which has a half full 500GB ssd and 8GB ram. NEVER had that before. If that continues today, I'll need a fix or I'll consider going back and doing the clean install of Sierra or going back to El Cap. I haven't researched how to fix that problem yet.

Have not seen the "beach ball" on the 2011 iMac (also a half full 500GB ssd and 20 GB ram). Hope I don't.

You have helped me before. Many thanks for your reply to this thread. I will update the thread if I feel my ongoing experiences will be of interest or help to anyone. Have a great Sunday!

Reed
Sunday, March 11, 2018 06:54AM EDT