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Dual boot new 2020 iMac 27’ with HS

D

Dannydematio

macrumors member
Original poster
May 17, 2016
52
13
Will I be able to boot up high Sierra off an external drive on “as is”shipping 2020 iMac 27?

I need to run a printer, the driver only goes to HS.

Can be done or I need to jump through some hoops first?

thanks.
 
That cannot be done, no - HS does not have the necessary drivers and hardware support for that computer.
Consider a VM, Linux, Windows or checking or alternatives to the company's native driver that work with newer versions of macOS
 
I do not mean to be a smart ass but printers are incredibly cheap now. If yours is "unreproducible" (old dye-sub?) then simply get an old Mac as a printer work station...
 
Ok. Thanks guys.

The printer is large format and I have a lot of expensive inks to use up. I guess need to get an old mac unless epson upgrades the print driver but they probably won’t. They want you to buy a new printer and since the inks are the most expensive part, your screwed if you have a good stock of ink. Makes me wonder if I should forget the 2020 get an older HS iMac and wait for the second generation silicone macs.

What’s VM?

thanks.
 
Dannydematio said:
What’s VM?
Click to expand...

Virtual Machine - Running a "virtual" extra computer inside a currently booted system. You can run HS inside of a Catalina install at less performance, but if your need is just to send print jobs to the printer you don't need the HS system to be as high performance as the main booted system.

As for an HS supported Mac, it'll have to be quite an old one at this stage
 
Ok. I’ll dig into VM! Sounds like a solution.

I do have an old G5 D2.7 lying around somewhere. In theory I could network it to a 2020 iMac, do the editing and transfer it to print, although, come to think of it, because of how older Mac HD were formatted, that probably won’t work. Same gores for modern flash media, unreadable. I guess an ext USB optical drive means I can burn a final image from the 2020, then read/print from a G5 on or any iMac really up to HS.

Very odd where printer manufacturers etc, leave us when they won’t update drivers for the life of the printer. I wonder what application horrors are yet to be revealed when Apple goes full speed ahead with optimised software on their Arm architecture!
 
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Memory is user upgradable via the rear hatch. 21.5" model maximum memory is 16GB on pre 2017 models and Apple advise it is not user upgradable. Some have upgraded but it requires a full strip down on the machine. If you are happy to do that, replace the slow 5400rpm laptop hard drive or an SSD or blade drive.
 
Dannydematio said:
Ok. Thanks guys.

The printer is large format and I have a lot of expensive inks to use up. I guess need to get an old mac unless epson upgrades the print driver but they probably won’t. They want you to buy a new printer and since the inks are the most expensive part, your screwed if you have a good stock of ink. Makes me wonder if I should forget the 2020 get an older HS iMac and wait for the second generation silicone macs.

What’s VM?

thanks.
Click to expand...
I am dyed in the wool HP but every 5 or 6 years they do nut upgrade drivers with a new Mac OS release and I am on my 3rd but I think 4th HP all in one... maddening but these printers are stupid cheap now. (lasers)
 
Dannydematio said:
Ok. Thanks guys.

The printer is large format and I have a lot of expensive inks to use up. I guess need to get an old mac unless epson upgrades the print driver but they probably won’t. They want you to buy a new printer and since the inks are the most expensive part, your screwed if you have a good stock of ink. Makes me wonder if I should forget the 2020 get an older HS iMac and wait for the second generation silicone macs.

What’s VM?

thanks.
Click to expand...

I also have an old model Epson Workforce wf-7110D of which MacOS driver is not available.
But luckily, it can be configured to be a network printer and the generic OSX driver works beautifully. Being a network printer, I can print from my iphone, too.
You can do the same:
If your printer is networkable by itself => done.
If not, do you have a wifi router with USB port? => Hook the printer to that USB port and configure the router as print server.
And last, you can always buy a really cheap mini PC and install window/Linux to be a print server.
 
Dannydematio said:
I do have an old G5 D2.7 lying around somewhere. In theory I could network it to a 2020 iMac, do the editing and transfer it to print, although, come to think of it, because of how older Mac HD were formatted, that probably won’t work. Same gores for modern flash media, unreadable. I guess an ext USB optical drive means I can burn a final image from the 2020, then read/print from a G5 on or any iMac really up to HS.
Click to expand...

The formatting of a file system should not affect whether it can receive or transmit data properly over a network. The networking layer sounds raw data regardless and the OS/FS abstraction layers handle storing that data in the appropriate way -

As an example of this abstraction, x86 and ARM CPUs are "little endian". Most internet protocols however are big endian - Since POWER3, PowerPC chips have been able to run in both Big Endian and Little Endian modes but Big Endian is the most normal - If no "correction" took place, this would result in x86 chips not functioning with most internet protocols. But as you know, both your PPC based Mac and your Intel Mac can visit websites - even if the PPC one may disagree with some of the modern javascript workloads. This is the networking layers abstracting away that difference - If you use higher level constructs when coding tools and apps for these things you never even have to think about this, and in much the same way, file systems are abstracted constructs as well. We tell the OS to save a series of bits to disk, what the underlying file format is, is most of the time irrelevant
 
Dannydematio said:
Ok. Thanks guys.

The printer is large format and I have a lot of expensive inks to use up. I guess need to get an old mac unless epson upgrades the print driver but they probably won’t. They want you to buy a new printer and since the inks are the most expensive part, your screwed if you have a good stock of ink. Makes me wonder if I should forget the 2020 get an older HS iMac and wait for the second generation silicone macs.

What’s VM?

thanks.
Click to expand...

Perhaps you could get a cheap used older Mac Mini, put High Sierra OS on it, and run it as a 'headless' print server for your other newer computer(s).

Of course, as you progress, you could also make it into a file server and backup server ....
 
Dannydematio said:
Will I be able to boot up high Sierra off an external drive on “as is”shipping 2020 iMac 27?

I need to run a printer, the driver only goes to HS.

Can be done or I need to jump through some hoops first?

thanks.
Click to expand...

As far as macOS releases go, you can only run the OS version that was current when that Mac was introduced (10.15.6 in your case) or newer. As was stated earlier, anything older won't have drivers.

As for your printer, are you sure there isn't an AirPrint compatibility there? That eliminates the need for drivers. Otherwise, as also stated earlier, a VM running High Sierra becomes your next best bet.
 
Ok, lots to think about here. I need to be more specific about my problem.

The printer is an Epsom R3000, 17' inkjet around 7 years old which was working beautifully attached to an old 2009 iMac i7 running 10.13.6. The IMac sudðenly went into stalling during start up and had a strange bunch of horizontal lines around the cursor. I initially thought it was the boot drive but I was able to start up in safe mode and discoverd the drive was ok. I tried everything including reinstalling HS, still won't start up. It also won't boot from any external drive, including my Carbon Copy Cloner back up drive. I did manage to select my bootable CCC external as start up disk whilst in safe mode and the iMac subsequently recognises the ext drive and begins start up but then goes into an infinite loop of crashing and restarting.

I came to the conclusion that the graphics card has failed or something else on the logic board. This machine gave me excellent service, never missing a beat in 11 years! so I decided to invest in a new 2020 iMac. I haven't ordered yet but I will shortly. Of course this why I was asking about running HS from an external or perhaps taking the 2020 back to HS but it would have been good to run Catalina and somehow access HS too.

This printer has wifi (never used it) always USB. However, I need the Epsom print driver so that I can access different inkjet papers/profiles etc. The only reason I don't change the printer is that I have lots of expensive ink cartridges for it to use up. I got a recent a tip that Epsom R3000 driver works on Catalina, but I can't check because I only have a bunch of iOS devices and the Epsom site senses your not on a mac/PC so I can't see the driver page!

I use my old iMac for photography editing, printing and surfing and although it was way out of date, It still did most things at an decent speed. afterall, it was the fastest build to order available in 2009 when I got it. Now I'm planning on getting the 2020 iMac as follows...
  • Standard glass
  • 3.8GHz 8-core 10th-generation Intel Core i7 processor, Turbo Boost up to 5.0GHz
  • 8GB 2666MHz DDR4 memory
  • Radeon Pro 5700 with 8GB of GDDR6 memory
  • 1TB SSD storage
  • Gigabit Ethernet
I'll add 32G ram and a 2TB Ext for image storage. Should be a "big jump" experience on my old iMac! but I am old enough to remember when Apple took us away from RISC processors and the issues it caused and now that they are going back to RISC, I'm wondering what is the best spec to keep my 2020 working well for as long as possible, although I am 100% sure that I won't get anything like 11 years going forwards.

Kind regards to all
 
Dannydematio said:
This printer has wifi (never used it) always USB. However, I need the Epsom print driver so that I can access different inkjet papers/profiles etc. The only reason I don't change the printer is that I have lots of expensive ink cartridges for it to use up. I got a recent a tip that Epsom R3000 driver works on Catalina, but I can't check because I only have a bunch of iOS devices and the Epsom site senses your not on a mac/PC so I can't see the driver page!
Click to expand...

You have several options as following:

1. Use your printer as a stand-alone-network printer. (cost $0)
2. Revise your old iMac to use as a print server. (cost min 40$ + extra labour to replace GPU)
3. Buy a cheap old mini PC (I would suggest an HP USDT, but your choices may vary, depending on local market), install Windows on it, and use as a headless Print Server, or attach a monitor and do the print jobs from there.

The above doesn't impact on your decision to buy a new 2020 iMac, if default OS is Catalina, you can use the R3000 right away, just don't upgrade to Big Sur yet.

Epson Connect Downloads | Epson US

Download the Epson Connect™ printer setup utility to use Epson Email Print, Remote Print, or Scan to Cloud.
epson.com epson.com

Have you ever checked with Epson? I saw on their webpage that R3000 receives support upto Catalina, already.

www.epson.eu

Support

Here you find information on warranties, new downloads and frequently asked questions and get the right support for your needs.
www.epson.eu www.epson.eu
 
Last edited:
Seems as long as this is the stylus photo R3000, it has drivers available through 10.15.x .
 
So I have an Epson 3880 which is about 8 years old, similar vintage.
I now run it on Catalina with the new MacOS 10.15.x driver from Epson, and have no problems with using printer/paper profiles. In fact I see no difference in usage from when I was using it under previous 32-bit MacOS such as High Sierra. I use it mainly with Lightroom, but also no problems printing from any other app.
I realize this is not the same epson printer as you have, but I think you may be worrying about a problem that has not yet occurred, and probably will not occur.
 
Very helpful answers many thanks to all.

I couldn't check the Epsom driver page because downloads are not supported on mobile devices so I don't get to click to see what drivers are there. Great to hear that the Catalina driver is there. I expect a wait of maybe a couple of weeks for my new 2020 iMac, so I hope they don't put big sur on before it ships!

Best
 
Dannydematio said:
Very helpful answers many thanks to all.

I couldn't check the Epsom driver page because downloads are not supported on mobile devices so I don't get to click to see what drivers are there. Great to hear that the Catalina driver is there. I expect a wait of maybe a couple of weeks for my new 2020 iMac, so I hope they don't put big sur on before it ships!

Best
Click to expand...
You can actually check the Epson driver page on a mobile (iOS) device.
When in the web page on your iOS device, tap on the aA in the search bar
Then tap on Request Desktop Website

If that does not work,
tap on aA in search bar
tap on Website Settings
enable Request Desktop Website (this makes it permanent)

I just checked the Epson site on my iPhone this way, and it works.

This is a handy tip for sites that have reduced capabilities for mobile devices. Disadvantage is that the text can become really small
 
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