Installling macOS on 2017 iMac with new SSD - Need some help!

[grdh]

I installed a new 1TB SSD drive in my 2017 Intel based 21.5" iMac to replace the 1 TB SATA drive - primarily to improve performance. I am having issues loading macOS on the new drive. The old drive has been repurposed to an external drive and currently still contains all of the operating system and my files. I also have an up-to-date Time Machine backup on an external WD Drive. I run Spectrum internet with a Google Wifi network and one of the mesh connection points on my network (not the one connected to my router) is next to my iMac so I can run a hardwired connection.

Here is the progress to date:

1. I can plug the old SATA drive into a USB port and boot the iMac without issue
2. I can go into disk utility and have erased and prepared the new drive - so the system can see the new drive
3. I originally tried to boot in recovery mode to either reinstall macOS or update the new drive from my Time Machine backup.
4. At first it would bypass the WiFi network selection as I have a hard wired ethernet cable into one of my Google Wifi connection points. I can get to the screen where I can choose - Time machine backup, reinstall macOS, Safari, Disk utillity, etc. however when I select an option nothing happens - so I assume I am not connected to the internet
5. When I disconnected the ethernet cable it asked me to select my network and enter a password which I did. However, I had the same problem as above and the wifi icon seems to be seeking a connection and not finding it as it just is hung up cycling like it is trying to connect
6. I tried creating a second "guest" network with the same results
7. I booted using the external SATA drive and tried to navigate Migration Assistant and it was not clear if I was going to be able to transfer from the external drive to the internal drive or use time machine to load the internal drive. I am concerned it will try to restore my SATA drive and not the internal drive
8. I researched using a bootable USB but it requires an internet connection to use which puts me back to the problem above (5 and 6) so I have not pursued that option
9. I used Carbon Copy Clone to duplicate the SATA drive contents to the SSD drive with no luck after waiting close to 10 hours for the data to transfer. It would not boot at all.

Given I can see the SSD on Disk Utility when I boot using the old SATA drive I believe the new drive to be OK. When I boot on the SATA drive, the internet works fine on both WiFi and ethernet. So, all my hardware works....

I must be missing something on using internet recovery in terms of the internet connection as I feel like restoring my Time Machine backup is still the most viable option at this point.

Thx for any ideas.....

 

[Mr_Brightside_@]

How about holding option at startup to boot to the Time Machine drive? That should allow you to reinstall without the internet.
What OS is the SATA?

 

[grdh]

How about holding option at startup to boot to the Time Machine drive? That should allow you to reinstall without the internet.
What OS is the SATA?

I believe the SATA drive is running the latest OS - Ventura. Will double check.....

I thought Time Machine was just a backup - was not aware that it was bootable?

 

[Mr_Brightside_@]

It should be listed when booting, and allow you to get to recovery. It shouldn‘t require internet.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

Please try this with the iMac, and get back to us with the results.

Can you boot to INTERNET recovery?
This is NOT THE SAME as "the recovery partition".

Before going further, DISCONNECT all external drives.

You must be connected to the internet next.
Then, boot with this key combination:
Command-OPTION-R
at boot.

If you have ethernet, use it.
Otherwise, you will need your wifi password.

The internet utilities take a while to load, be patient as the globe spins.

When loaded, you should see the utilities.

Open disk utility.

VERY IMPORTANT STEP:
Go to the "view" menu and choose "show all devices".
YOU MUST NOT SKIP THIS!

Now look at the list on the left.
The topmost item is the internal drive.
We need to completely erase it and start over.

Click the top line, then click erase.
Choose APFS with GUID partition format.

When the erase is done, quit disk utility and open the OS installer.

Start "clicking through". The Mac will reboot one or more times, and the screen will go dark for a minute or more, with no other indication of activity.
BE PATIENT.
When done, you should see the initial setup screen "choose your language".

At this point, CONNECT your old SATA drive in the external enclosure.
Start clicking through setup.

The setup assistant will ask if you wish to migrate from another drive.
YES... so "point the way" to the external drive, and give sa time to "digest" everything.
Setup assistant will present you with a list of stuff that can be migrated.
At this point, it's "up to you" (I would just migrate everything).

Turn sa loose and let it do the migration.
When done, you should see your original login screen.

Good luck.
Let us know how this works out.

 

[grdh]

First - the process was successful last night, and the new drive is now fully operational. Here is a synopsis of what I did so that if anyone else is doing this, they may find this thread helpful!

The first thing I tried was booting the iMac with the "Option" key held down. This indeed brought up the option to continue using the Time Machine backup to boot the computer. Unfortuately it ended at a black screen with a apple website address for more information. My assumption is there was no bootable data on the Time Machine backup

One thing I had differently last night was I had borrowed a USB wired mouse from our IT department as my Magic Mouse would not function when I worked on this earlier leaving me to navigate with the keyboard that I had to plug into a USB port to be able to use.

I restarted the iMac which still had the ethernet cable hooked up, with the old SATA drive unplugged, and once again attempted to enter recovery mode using Option-Command-R. As before the system eventually offered the normal options: Restore from Time Machine, Reinstall Ventura, Run Safari, and Disk Utility.

Since I had previously erased the internal SSD and chosen APFS with GUID partition, I did not redo the erase/format option using disk utility. Instead, I clicked on Restore from Time Machine. This time I was using the hard-wired mouse (in lieu of the keyboard) and when I chose "continue" I was able to locate my Time Machine backup and it provided me with all the different available backups - Finally Progress!

At this point I was wondering two things:

- In prior attempts I believed I did not have a working internet connection as none of the options yielded progress, but because I did get the options was the internet connection working!
- Having the mouse to select an option and to press the continue button was the real problem that the keyboard strokes were not really selecting and pressing continue to the available options - a total case of user error!!!!

Anyway, Time Machine hit a dead end as the most recent restore option was dated 2020 and the message said that these were the only "complete backups" available?

I backed up out of the Time Machine option and reinstalled macOS Ventura and then reopened Time Machine and was able to reinstall the backup I made before I installed the new hard drive.

The whole project started with an iMac that was very slow to open applications that from some research was attributed to the SATA drive. With the SSD drive applications open very quickly and it is like having a new machine. I would highly recommend this as a DIY project. Watched a lot of YouTube how-to videos - the drive change is simple, the most challenging part is reinstalling the iMac screen

Thanks all for the direction!!!!!!!!!