Not allowed to install update ?

[IA64]

So I've been downloading the 10.14 update and surprisingly, I cannot update due to S.M.A.R.T issue on my SSD.

I am aware of this since 2016 and the driver is still doing fine, I don't use my PC that much as it's a test Mac.

Now how come the installation won't let me pick the drive? on Windows I just finished installing update 1809 for Windows 10.

Is it normal that Apple won't let me decide if I want to take the risk and install the upgrade? I won't pay $500 for an SSD replacement on a 2012 Mac.

Is there anyway to bypass this restriction other than using an external disk and clone everything back?

 

[IA64]

I'm still looking for a solution and so far nothing online can help. Is there any way to edit the installation file so that it can skip the disk checkup ?

 

[chrfr]

I'm still looking for a solution and so far nothing online can help. Is there any way to edit the installation file so that it can skip the disk checkup ?

I ran into this with a disk on a 2014 mini. No utilities reported an error with the disk so I ended up reformatting the disk and then installing Mojave. If you do this, be sure you have good backups.

 

[IA64]

I ran into this with a disk on a 2014 mini. No utilities reported an error with the disk so I ended up reformatting the disk and then installing Mojave. If you do this, be sure you have good backups.

Yes but S.M.A.R.t errors are not affected by formatting or erasing the volume. If I format the drive, I may no longer be able to install anything on the drive.

I came across this tutorial to force install an OS release by removing restrictions however I can't find anything for SMART issues.

https://www.macissues.com/2015/01/28/how-to-force-os-x-10-10-2-to-install-on-your-mac/

 

[chrfr]

Yes but S.M.A.R.t errors are not affected by formatting or erasing the volume. If I format the drive, I may no longer be able to install anything on the drive.

I came across this tutorial to force install an OS release by removing restrictions however I can't find anything for SMART issues.

https://www.macissues.com/2015/01/28/how-to-force-os-x-10-10-2-to-install-on-your-mac/

I'm unconvinced the error that the Mojave installer is reporting is an actual SMART error. I checked the disk with both Disk Utility and the third party SMARTReporter and neither showed any SMART errors at all. The disk is now working fine.

 

[IA64]

I'm unconvinced the error that the Mojave installer is reporting is an actual SMART error. I checked the disk with both Disk Utility and the third party SMARTReporter and neither showed any SMART errors at all. The disk is now working fine.

Yes but I do have S.M.A.R.T issues, that's the issue.

 

[chrfr]

Yes but I do have S.M.A.R.T issues, that's the issue.

Oh, that's a different case. You need to replace your disk. It's going to completely fail soon.

 

[IA64]

Oh, that's a different case. You need to replace your disk. It's going to completely fail soon.

As I said in my OP, the drive has been reporting SMART issues since 2016 however I have 0 bad blocks, wear level is still around 40%, the driver is still pretty quick ( 750MB/s read write ) and the system is very stable since ever on both OSX and Win 10. If it didn't fail in the last 2 years, I don't know why it should soon. I do full/incremental backups everyday anyway.

Back to square one, do I have to replace a disk and pay Apple $500 for something that is still working? That's completely unfair.

 

[chrfr]

As I said in my OP, the drive has been reporting SMART issues since 2016 however I have 0 bad blocks, wear level is still around 40%, the driver is still pretty quick ( 750MB/s read write ) and the system is very stable since ever on both OSX and Win 10. If it didn't fail in the last 2 years, I don't know why it should soon. I do full/incremental backups everyday anyway.

Back to square one, do I have to replace a disk and pay Apple $500 for something that is still working? That's completely unfair.

You could just get an external SSD and run from that for much less money.

 

[BLUEDOG314]

Something that would be incredibly drawn out but probably work is this. Get an external drive large enough to hold all of your stuff TWICE. Boot your system to internet recovery, and partition the drive into two equal partitions, one an APFS container, and the other can be jhfs+ it doesn't matter. Then use hdiutil in terminal to create a disk image of the APFS container on your internal SSD storing it in the jhfs+ partition of the external drive. Then restore that image which is an APFS container to the APFS container on the other half of the drive using 'asr'. You should then be able to boot from the restored APFS container, giving you the chance to run the update. Then you essentially do the process in reverse, creating an image of the updated APFS container on the external drive, and restoring it to the SSD.

Again, it will all be very drawn out and take a crazy long time if you aren't using large external SSDs, but should work. There is also the chance that the stress to the SSD will push it over the edge and cause it to fail, although getting an SSD to fail on its own, without it being defective to begin with, is a crazy feat. I remember I think techreport.com doing a long term endurance test, and the old 840 Pro 256GB drive lasted through over 2PB of writes before failing.

 

[IA64]

Something that would be incredibly drawn out but probably work is this. Get an external drive large enough to hold all of your stuff TWICE. Boot your system to internet recovery, and partition the drive into two equal partitions, one an APFS container, and the other can be jhfs+ it doesn't matter. Then use hdiutil in terminal to create a disk image of the APFS container on your internal SSD storing it in the jhfs+ partition of the external drive. Then restore that image which is an APFS container to the APFS container on the other half of the drive using 'asr'. You should then be able to boot from the restored APFS container, giving you the chance to run the update. Then you essentially do the process in reverse, creating an image of the updated APFS container on the external drive, and restoring it to the SSD.

Again, it will all be very drawn out and take a crazy long time if you aren't using large external SSDs, but should work. There is also the chance that the stress to the SSD will push it over the edge and cause it to fail, although getting an SSD to fail on its own, without it being defective to begin with, is a crazy feat. I remember I think techreport.com doing a long term endurance test, and the old 840 Pro 256GB drive lasted through over 2PB of writes before failing.

Can I just install Mojave on an external SSD - Clone the drive and restore it on my internal SSD drive ?

 

[BLUEDOG314]

Can I just install Mojave on an external SSD - Clone the drive and restore it on my internal SSD drive ?

Yep that would do the same thing, I just figured you would want to have a clone with all of your stuff. The way you suggested would be much faster.