I’ve got a Mac Pro 5.1 with a Sonnet Tempo Pro Plus SSD card that has two Samsung 850 EVO drives on it. I’m really looking for support in High Sierra to be able to create a nice RAID 0 drive from them and make it the bootable system drive. It’s a weird omission so far. I’m guessing it relates to what Apple is doing with APFS. I was hoping the RAID 0 boot support might arrive when fusion drive APFS support arrived. I can be patient if I know it’s coming, but it would be very uncool to have bootable raid support not exist in High Sierra as it has in OS’s up till now. I’m not in the beta program and have no inside info on this, but any reassurance that bootable RAID support is coming would sure be nice.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
RAID 0 boot support in High Sierra
- Thread starter Pkavicky
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Highly unlikely. Apple is backing off RAID support in their file systems. I haven’t booted from a RAID for years, but if it’s been removed in HS, it’s most likely never to return.
Have you looked at the built in Raid Assistant?
High Sierra Disk Utility->File->Raid Assistant
High Sierra Disk Utility->File->Raid Assistant
Just a cordial check in to see if anyone might be able to confirm if its possible to do a fresh instal of High Sierra on an SSD, and then RAID 0 two of these SSDs together afterwards?
yes you can install HS with raid0 boot support, meaning a bootable raid with HS installed on it, as long as you use HFS+ and not APFS
Have you done this, and if so how did you do it?, finally have you been able to update HS all the way up to 10.13.4?
yes you can do it like that too, but in order for the raid0 to be bootable it has to be formatted on mac os journaled. so technically if you want raid0 on HS you have to give up APFS
you can install on a single drive then clone that drive to a raid array but you can also create the raid array when you are going to install Mac OS from disk utility in Mac OS installer
[doublepost=1522575553][/doublepost]
yes right now I have Mac OS 10.13.4 in raid0 bootable
I didn't upgrade, I always like to clean install
[doublepost=1522575775][/doublepost]create the usb flash installer, backup all your data, load the installer, once you there
erase the ssd drives and make sure they are on Mac OS journaled and not APFS
now go to raid assistant and select raid0 , select your stripe size and select the drive that you will like to use to create the raid0 volume or array
raid assistant will combined both drives and it will create a raid0 volume
remember it has to be in Mac OS journaled
now simply install Mac OS on the raid0 volume
you can also create the raid0 on you already bootable Mac OS then use carbon copy cloner
to clone your already installed system to the raid0 volume
Last edited:
Ok all noted, thank you. I have a couple more minor questions, of thats ok.
I have Sierra running on my Mac pro booting of 2xApple 512 SSDs in Raid O Mac OS Journaled. All ok
I CC Cloned this bootable drive and have made 2 copies of it on a spare spinning HD's.
I upgraded 1 of these spinning copies of Sierra to HS and it booted fine, system works etc
I still have a copy of the original Sierra
So, does this new raid drive have to be created with the High Sierra installer?, is this important? Or can I just boot on one of the spinning HD's with Sierra, and then CC Clone the High Sierra to my old Raid O SSD?
there is also another way, but it requires that you have the copy of Mac OS 10.13.4 that you downloaded from the app store in applications
you can create the raid0 volume using the Mac OS that you already have installed then use a command to dump Mac OS 10.13.4 installer onto the raid0 drive, now all you have to do is run the installer that is inside the raid0 volume and when you Mac restart it will do everything and you will have to do is wait until it finishes
[doublepost=1522577447][/doublepost]I think I understand your question, I done so many test, betas etc and I do remember some time in the past having some problems, let me explain, yes it should work meaning just erasing the raid not braking the raid but I think is better to break the raid and create it new using High Sierra installer or brake the raid that you already have from HS OS and create a new raid using High Sierra raid assistant, I think is better like this so you can avoid any problem, creating a new raid is better so you know you will not have any problem when installing the system. it might be optional but I will say that is highly recommended, the way I do it , I always create a new raid
yes you can do it like that it should work but like a said in the past I had some problems that I had to create the raid with the same system that I was going to use to install Mac OS, so if I was going to install high Sierra it was better to use HS disk utility and raid assistant to create the raid, instead of using a raid that was created using an old , system, like a said it might still work, it should but is better to do it with the same system that you are going to install, maybe it was a beta problem but I do remember this happening to me once and ever since then I been doing it like that, never had a problem after that, you can use a previous system to create the raid but just make sure that you brake the raid and create it new. I don't want to confused you, hope you understand what I'm trying to say, good luck
you can create the raid0 volume using the Mac OS that you already have installed then use a command to dump Mac OS 10.13.4 installer onto the raid0 drive, now all you have to do is run the installer that is inside the raid0 volume and when you Mac restart it will do everything and you will have to do is wait until it finishes
[doublepost=1522577447][/doublepost]I think I understand your question, I done so many test, betas etc and I do remember some time in the past having some problems, let me explain, yes it should work meaning just erasing the raid not braking the raid but I think is better to break the raid and create it new using High Sierra installer or brake the raid that you already have from HS OS and create a new raid using High Sierra raid assistant, I think is better like this so you can avoid any problem, creating a new raid is better so you know you will not have any problem when installing the system. it might be optional but I will say that is highly recommended, the way I do it , I always create a new raid
yes you can do it like that it should work but like a said in the past I had some problems that I had to create the raid with the same system that I was going to use to install Mac OS, so if I was going to install high Sierra it was better to use HS disk utility and raid assistant to create the raid, instead of using a raid that was created using an old , system, like a said it might still work, it should but is better to do it with the same system that you are going to install, maybe it was a beta problem but I do remember this happening to me once and ever since then I been doing it like that, never had a problem after that, you can use a previous system to create the raid but just make sure that you brake the raid and create it new. I don't want to confused you, hope you understand what I'm trying to say, good luck
Last edited:
Ok, again noted, thanks.
I would ideally like to do this as an upgrade so I can keep my prefs and software installs, I am not fussed on a fresh install right now.
Im just trying to plan a strategy in my head on how to do this.
I have a Raid O SSD with Sierra 10.12.6 and all my apps and prefs on it.
I have a clone spinning HD with Sierra 10.12.6 and all my apps and prefs on it.
I have a clone spinning HD with Sierra 10.12.6 updated to High Sierra 10.13.4 and all my apps and prefs on it.
In your experience, how would you suggest get to High Sierra 10.13.4 on my Raid 0 ssd?
use the hard drive that you updated from 10.12.6 to 10.13.4
go to disk utility raid assistant
delete the old raid
create a new raid
clone the hard drive to the new raid
during the clone process, do not make any changes or use the computer
don't even move the mouse lol
wait for it to finished
then reboot and boot from your raid0
remember Mac OS journaled on the raid0
that should do it
go to disk utility raid assistant
delete the old raid
create a new raid
clone the hard drive to the new raid
during the clone process, do not make any changes or use the computer
don't even move the mouse lol
wait for it to finished
then reboot and boot from your raid0
remember Mac OS journaled on the raid0
that should do it
Ok pal, noted and thank you, "Don't move the mouse! really? I feel like I am in a Lethal Weapon movie now on the phone to Mel Gibson, cut the red wire, no! cut the blue, no wait, the brown wire....
Ok all clear above, so what strategy would you suggest if it all goes pear shaped and I need to go back, just in case!!!!
[doublepost=1522579298][/doublepost]Opps 1 last question, any reason why you fresh installed 10.13.4? could you have updated?
Ok pal, noted and thank you, "Don't move the mouse! really? I feel like I am in a Lethal Weapon movie now on the phone to Mel Gibson, cut the red wire, no! cut the blue, no wait, the brown wire....
Ok all clear above, so what strategy would you suggest if it all goes pear shaped and I need to go back, just in case!!!!
[doublepost=1522579298][/doublepost]Opps 1 last question, any reason why you fresh installed 10.13.4? could you have updated?
Last edited:
just did this yesterday with my old 2010 Mid MacBook Pro MacOS Sierra 10.12.6 Raid-0 setup updated to (not clean install) MacOS High Sierra 10.13.4 HFS+ Raid-0,trim enabled, very zippy indeed, boot times from power button to desktop took 33.5 secs. i've used SuperDuper to cloned Sierra 10.12.6 raid-0 setup to external single drive updated thru App store to 10.13.4 and cloned back to ssd raid-0 HFS+ format.
Last edited:
thanks for the feedback, just in case it doesn't work for spacedesign911 , so you just confirmed that the method works, I really hope that spacedesign911 can get it to work , I had 8 Samsung 960 m.2 hitting over 17,000 in read and around 10,000 in write, using 2 amfeltec 16x 3.0 pci-e cards in my hackintosh but I had a problem with the m.2 drives because I had the Evo's and not the pro's. so I returned everything and got a refund
Using the cloned drive method outlined here
I am able to get the RAID 0 10.13.4 disk to boot and everything seems to work fine.
But...
When I attempt to install the latest OS security update via the App Store, the installation hangs at around 30% on the grey apple / progress bar screen.
It says “Installation in progress. Calculating time remaining...”
Has anyone else run into this kind of issue?
I am able to get the RAID 0 10.13.4 disk to boot and everything seems to work fine.
But...
When I attempt to install the latest OS security update via the App Store, the installation hangs at around 30% on the grey apple / progress bar screen.
It says “Installation in progress. Calculating time remaining...”
Has anyone else run into this kind of issue?
Yes, the exact same thing has happened to me on my cMP 5,1. I've tried several times, different ways with the same result. The only thing you can do to get around it is the clone method for now -- backup your RAID to a single HDD --> apply update there --> restore HDD back to RAID. PITA! Good news is that it sounds like Apple is going to be working on some Fusion/RAID support in some future updates. <holding breath>
High Sierra can't be installed or UPDATED on a RAID.
Update HS on a non-RAID drive, then clone it to the RAID.
You say High Sierra can't be installed or updated on a Raid....
But the truth is that you're wrong.
Did you ever get a reply to this?
Is cloning to a RAID volume the only way or can I use the 10.13.6 Installation USB to create a HFS+ RAID 0 volume and then install High Sierra directly to it?
Thanks!
Cloning seems to be the only way to create a bootable HS RAID. Be aware though, when cloning to RAID, the recovery partition cloud be left out. It’s a good precaution to backup to a non-raid in case something goes wrong with the RAID 0.
After waiting with my 10.12.6 iMac 27" 2011 with a RAID 0 boot drive for 2 YEARS, I've finally given up (since 10.14 doesn't support this Mac). I purchased a 1TB SSD and an 8TB HD and am installing 10.13.6 on it now. Ugh.
Last edited: