Fresh installation of High Sierra

[Trusteft]

I am going to replace my HDDs with SSDs in my late 2012 mac mini. Will I get the option to do a fresh installation of high sierra or will I have to install previous OSes first? Anyone knows?

I don't plan on cloning/backing up my previous installation (not high sierra) as I rather start afresh.

 

[Fishrrman]

Create a bootable USB flash drive installer.
That should work.

But... be careful about jumping up to High Sierra right now, unless you test it first to be sure it will work for you.
Seems like there are A LOT of folks reporting trouble with their installations...

 

[Trusteft]

Create a bootable USB flash drive installer.
That should work.

But... be careful about jumping up to High Sierra right now, unless you test it first to be sure it will work for you.
Seems like there are A LOT of folks reporting trouble with their installations...

As far as I know there is only one way to test it, install it, so, I am not sure how I can test it other than proceed as normal?
Thanks for the suggestion though.

 

[campyguy]

I've got 9 2012 i7 Mini Servers, 8 in my offices and one in my home office. None of my work SW is certified yet for HS - my work Minis are either on 10.11 (2) and 10.12 (6) and they're going to stay that way for awhile.

I do not have a clean install of HS on my home office Mini, but it's pretty close. It was a back up work Mac, still in the box, until several weeks ago. It sat here for a few weeks, then I updated the bottom HHD with a 512GB Samsung 850 Pro; I used a Sabrent SATA hard drive adapter (link) that I bought at a nearby Frys for $12 to install Sierra on the Sammy SSD, then installed the SSD into a NexStar enclosure until I knew that the SSD had no issues. I installed the SSD into the Mini about a week before HS dropped, installing only a couple of apps to keep the cruft down; I still have not added additional apps beyond the Sierra install.

My advice is wait until 11.1 hits the interwebs. Finder/iTunes/Safari/Disk Utility all shipped with bugs and memory leaks - most of my work apps are not certified for HS yet, mainly due to permissions issues or incompatibility with APFS.

I have another Mac, a rMBP that I use regularly. The stock HHD is in a safe place. I have a Samsung EVO 850 in the NexStar enclosure, just in case. IMHO, HS is not ready for prime time and production machines. My 2¢.

 

[Trusteft]

I've got 9 2012 i7 Mini Servers, 8 in my offices and one in my home office. None of my work SW is certified yet for HS - my work Minis are either on 10.11 (2) and 10.12 (6) and they're going to stay that way for awhile.

I do not have a clean install of HS on my home office Mini, but it's pretty close. It was a back up work Mac, still in the box, until several weeks ago. It sat here for a few weeks, then I updated the bottom HHD with a 512GB Samsung 850 Pro; I used a Sabrent SATA hard drive adapter (link) that I bought at a nearby Frys for $12 to install Sierra on the Sammy SSD, then installed the SSD into a NexStar enclosure until I knew that the SSD had no issues. I installed the SSD into the Mini about a week before HS dropped, installing only a couple of apps to keep the cruft down; I still have not added additional apps beyond the Sierra install.

My advice is wait until 11.1 hits the interwebs. Finder/iTunes/Safari/Disk Utility all shipped with bugs and memory leaks - most of my work apps are not certified for HS yet, mainly due to permissions issues or incompatibility with APFS.

I have another Mac, a rMBP that I use regularly. The stock HHD is in a safe place. I have a Samsung EVO 850 in the NexStar enclosure, just in case. IMHO, HS is not ready for prime time and production machines. My 2¢.

The only work related application is FCPX so I shouldn't have any issues with that. At least as far as I know.
Thank you for your input.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote:
"As far as I know there is only one way to test it, install it, so, I am not sure how I can test it other than proceed as normal?"

There are as many ways as you can figure out.
I'd try it on an EXTERNAL drive first, boot and run that way for a week or so, to be sure things were compatible before I committed it to my "main system"...

 

[Trusteft]

OP wrote:
"As far as I know there is only one way to test it, install it, so, I am not sure how I can test it other than proceed as normal?"

There are as many ways as you can figure out.
I'd try it on an EXTERNAL drive first, boot and run that way for a week or so, to be sure things were compatible before I committed it to my "main system"...

That's a good idea. But I will not do that, all in.

 

[ApfelKuchen]

I am going to replace my HDDs with SSDs in my late 2012 mac mini. Will I get the option to do a fresh installation of high sierra or will I have to install previous OSes first? Anyone knows?

I don't plan on cloning/backing up my previous installation (not high sierra) as I rather start afresh.

Do you already have Sierra 10.12.4 (or higher) on that Mac? If yes, then you don't need to install a previous version first.

If you have 10.12.4 or higher:

Control + Option + R will give you the latest version of macOS that is compatible with your machine
Control + R will give you the highest version you previously had on the machine
You need to use Control + Shift + Option + R to get the original version

The keyboard combination you use no longer determines whether you boot to the internal Recovery partition or Internet Recovery - all the key combos will boot you to the internal Recovery partition if you have one, or to Internet Recovery if you do not. (The key combo you use determines which version of the OS you get.)

If you have something earlier than 10.12.4, things still work the old way:

Control + Option + R gives you the original version of OS X that came on the machine
Control + R gives you the highest version you previously had on the machine
(no Control + Shift + Option + R)

However, you might consider creating a bootable thumb drive with High Sierra instead. That way you won't be dependent upon the quality of your internet connection at the time you do the work. It'll take more time, but it's a useful tool to keep in your kit. https://support.apple.com/HT201372

 

[djanym]

I've installed a new SSD on my Mac Mini 2014. So I have a new SSD connected via PCIe and the old OEM HDD via SATA.

I've installed a fresh copy of High Sierra on the new SSD and seems to work well. But after using Migration Assistant (to copy data from HDD OS X installation to the new SSD) the system begins rebooting loop on Apple logo screen.

I've reinstalled it a few times, but the same thing happens after Migration Assistant. Any help?