Is this the end?

[MeLlamanHokage]

Hello,



I’m a simple man trying to do a simple install of Mojave on an external drive.



What I did:

1) Formated the 2TB Drive and 16GB USB appropriately on a MacBook Pro 2018

2) Used the USB to create a bootable Mojave installer per Apple’s website

3) From the installer’s Recovery Partition used:

pmset -a sleep 0

pmset -a disksleep 0

pmset -a displaysleep 0



To prevent any sleep mode crashing the install



4) Clicked “Install Mojave” and waited for it to complete

5) Came back to this a few minutes later.



I have the external drive plugged in via USB-C in a inateck drive caddy that I’ve used successfully once before



The drive eventually needs to go into my 2010 Mac Pro where I will attempt a restore from a possibly corrupt backup drive



This backup is supposed to have saved 10 years worth of music, videos schoolwork and general life stuff that I use for work



I originally attempted to fix an iCloud issue per this advice



The solution didn’t pan out and during the restore on that machine, I ended up inadvertently wiping the OS.



Attempting to reinstall it now using my mother’s computer has resulted in that video above



No idea what to do at this point

Also freaking out as I may have bricked two very important machines

For clarity, I’m trying to eventually install the Mojave Drive back into my Mac Pro 5,1 and have it work like it should. It currently chimes and boots to a black screen


Please send help
Also Merry Christmas

E: Spelling, Clarity

 

[madrich]

I am not an expert that can help you, but reading your post it sounds like you need to take both computers to an Apple Genius ASAP. You should bring your Mother’s Apple ID too.

 

[MeLlamanHokage]

I am not an expert that can help you, but reading your post it sounds like you need to take both computers to an Apple Genius ASAP. You should bring your Mother’s Apple ID too.

Thank you for the reply

My mom’s computer is fine.
I was trying to install Mojave on the wrong disk

long story short
I eventually got it installed and booting from the MBP but not in the 5,1

The chime sounds but all I get is a black screen

But if I boot from it on the other computer, it runs 10.14.6 just fine

But the computer i need it to run on isn’t partaking in the Christmas spirit

Happy Holidays

 

[jbarley]

Out of curiosity what is the boot rom version of the 5,1 mac pro you are experiencing the problem with?

 

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote:
"This backup is supposed to have saved 10 years worth of music, videos schoolwork and general life stuff that I use for work"

Let me ask you a question:
Is all "the stuff" you mention above on your INTERNAL drive?
And you just want it "preserved" on a external drive, that can boot as well?

Then... why are you bothering with all the baloney mentioned in your original post????

There's a much simpler solution:

Create a bootable clone of your internal drive, on the external (backup) drive, using CarbonCopyCloner.

CCC is FREE to download and use for 30 days.
Get it here:

Download CCC | Bombich Software

www.bombich.com

Use disk utility to erase the BACKUP drive before you run CCC.
Erase it to APFS, with GUID partition format.
Simple. Then...

Open CCC, accept the defaults, and create the backup.
It should be bootable as well.

Again, why are you making things so difficult?

 

[MeLlamanHokage]

Out of curiosity what is the boot rom version of the 5,1 mac pro you are experiencing the problem with?

View attachment 1700694

Wow! Thank you for the reply!

Unfortunately I have no way to see that Boot ROM Version
The Mac will chime but the display won’t turn on
I’m using a Radeon VII as you probably already know
But I only have an HDMI cable and it’s not showing visual on any display I have

It was like this the very first time I moved from my 2011 MBP but I forgot how I fixed it
the drive is running 10.14.6 so it has the drivers for the Radeon VII however the original card will not support metal

Is there another way to get visual that I’m missing?

E: Do you think I should try an intermediary card and see if that helps?

 

[MeLlamanHokage]

OP wrote:
"This backup is supposed to have saved 10 years worth of music, videos schoolwork and general life stuff that I use for work"

Let me ask you a question:
Is all "the stuff" you mention above on your INTERNAL drive?
And you just want it "preserved" on a external drive, that can boot as well?

Then... why are you bothering with all the baloney mentioned in your original post????

There's a much simpler solution:

Create a bootable clone of your internal drive, on the external (backup) drive, using CarbonCopyCloner.

CCC is FREE to download and use for 30 days.
Get it here:

Download CCC | Bombich Software

www.bombich.com

Use disk utility to erase the BACKUP drive before you run CCC.
Erase it to APFS, with GUID partition format.
Simple. Then...

Open CCC, accept the defaults, and create the backup.
It should be bootable as well.

Again, why are you making things so difficult?

No, I believe you have misunderstood.
The only reason I’ve resorted to installing Mojave on an “external” drive is because the drive won’t boot when it’s installed internally. Also the Radeon VII provides no boot screen to switch drives on startup.

To clarify, the “external” drive is being used externally with a MBP 2018 with its own internal drive and Catalina installed.

I use the Catalina machine with a 16GB bootable flash drive to install Mojave on my “external drive”

In theory, once I erase and reinstall Mojave and then update it to 10.14.6, I should be able to stick it back in my 5,1, boot from it normally and restore my data from a 3TB HDD that I would love to eventually convert to SSD for peace of mind

Please let me know if this helps clarify the situation or if you need more information

E: My original situation is outlined here and this series of unfortunate events have occurred as a result of me trying to get back to the point before I tried that advice

 

[Hombre53]

Is your MacBook Pro 5,1 natively supported on Mojave?

 

[MeLlamanHokage]

Is your MacBook Pro 5,1 natively supported on Mojave?

I have a Mac Pro 5,1 so yes
The only required item for a 5,1 to support Mojave is a graphics card that supports Metal

The Radeon VII is that card.
This is a true 5,1 mind you and not a 4,1 flashed to a 5,1

 

[jbarley]

I have a Mac Pro 5,1 so yes
The only required item for a 5,1 to support Mojave is a graphics card that supports Metal

Not quite true.
You also need the latest boot rom version, which is why I asked in post #4.
Check out this thread.

MP5,1: What you have to do to upgrade to Mojave (BootROM upgrade instructions thread)

Please fully read this first post, you will probably find that you have one or more problems described into the various notes below. Mojave will only install if you have upgraded your BootROM to the current release and your Mac Pro have a Metal capable GPU*. If you are trying to install Mojave...

forums.macrumors.com

Especially post #1 where it states...
"Mojave will only install if you have upgraded your BootROM to the current release and your Mac Pro have a Metal capable GPU*."

 

[MeLlamanHokage]

Not quite true.
You also need the latest boot rom version, which is why I asked in post #4.
Check out this thread.

MP5,1: What you have to do to upgrade to Mojave (BootROM upgrade instructions thread)

Please fully read this first post, you will probably find that you have one or more problems described into the various notes below. Mojave will only install if you have upgraded your BootROM to the current release and your Mac Pro have a Metal capable GPU*. If you are trying to install Mojave...

forums.macrumors.com

Especially post #1 where it states...
"Mojave will only install if you have upgraded your BootROM to the current release and your Mac Pro have a Metal capable GPU*."

Aha!
Thank you

My mistake
So, this exact setup was working swimmingly before I tried the Dropbox transfer

Is there a way now to update the boot rom on that drive when it’s plugged into the MBP?

Or is the bootrom more of a system thing and not a disk thing?

E: This article is huge! When I originally upgraded, I didn’t have an intermediary card (still don’t).

Because of this, I ended up using the dosdude patcher to get to standard Mojave, then I upgraded to 14.6!

The article states that dosdude won’t upgrade the firmware and the 14.6 upgrade probably didn’t do that either

So my long term fix will be to:
1) downgrade to HS
2) get an intermediate card and use it to upgrade to Mojave (which should upgrade the firmware)
3) Put my Radeon VII back in and carry on

 

[MeLlamanHokage]

okay so I got my BootRom set to the correct version, 14.0000 whatever
However, I can't get past the black boot screen if I have all my drives installed

In order from left to right I have a:
2TB SSD startup drive with Mojave 14.6 (APFS) <- only drive with macOS
2TB SSD Storage (Tried APFS and APFS case-insensitive)
1TB SSD Storage
3TB HDD Time Machine

Trying to figure why if I take my second drive out, the computer will boot normally but when I put it in, my screen stays black for ages

When I have the main drive and the problem drive in at the same time, the Mac will boot into recovery

The system restore option is for HS and I have Mojave on my main drive
Is it booting into recovery on the problem drive?
Should the problem drive have a recovery partition if no OS is installed on it?
Is it some sort of system wide recovery that I can update somehow?

 

[MeLlamanHokage]

Got it working finally!
Thanks for the help @jbarley!