Hi everyone, hope you're all well. I just got a Mac Studio M2 Ultra which came with Ventura. I reset the machine to do a fresh install but when I booted up it installed Ventura not Sonoma. So I updated to Sonoma, wiped it again but it still wants to install Ventura? Is there any way to get the machine to install Sonoma after an erase?
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How can I do a fresh install of Sonoma?
- Thread starter Kristain
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Why are you so concerned to wipe it? why not just upgrade to Sonoma? Are you seeing problems?
"Clean Install" can mean many things, as detailed in this article How to clean install a modern Mac
"Clean Install" can mean many things, as detailed in this article How to clean install a modern Mac
MBA M1 with Monterey installed: I downloaded Sonoma from the App Store, I made a bootable installer, I booted with it, erase the internal storage, booted again from the bootable installer and installed Sonoma. When starting in Recovery, Sonoma in displayed as the reinstall option.
Internet connection is required for the installation. It fails without it.
Sonoma https://apps.apple.com/app/id6450717509
How to download and install macOS https://support.apple.com/HT211683
Create a bootable installer for macOS https://support.apple.com/HT201372
The easiest and only true way to do a clean install is erase the disk with Disk Utility, and then reinstall Sonoma. Make sure any files you care about are backed up and/or stored somewhere else.
Thanks everyone. I did do it with Utility and the image, I wasn't very clear that I knew how to do that. I just thought the machine would automatically pick the latest OS to download and not the last one.
@Mike Boreham I've read so many times that it makes no difference etc. but when I've updated in the past I've always seemed to have niggles which were fixed by a full install. Not even just OS new version, but updates within versions too.
@Mike Boreham I've read so many times that it makes no difference etc. but when I've updated in the past I've always seemed to have niggles which were fixed by a full install. Not even just OS new version, but updates within versions too.
Believe it grabs the OS version that it shipped with; haven't tested to verify this recently.
Clean installs have their place. Upgrades can and do bring unwanted cruft forward.
Create a bootable usb-stick via the terminal.
sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sonoma.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume
sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sonoma.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume
Cruft can only exist on the -Data volume. If by clean install you mean setting up from scratch with no migration then yes the cruft will be eliminated. You can do that very easily any time by Erase all Data and Settings which returns machine to factory state, no cruft.
I think it would be more correct to say it on a separate volume, which is in the same Container as the -Data volume.
Volumes within a Container are elastic but a Container, like a Partition, is a fixed size.
There used to be three types of reinstall: the original factory version, the current version you have, and then the latest possible version your hardware can install. I don't know if that still works or not.
How to Create a macOS Sonoma USB Boot Disk Installer in 5 min!
I will show you how to create a bootable macOS Sonoma USB installer disk. Download Sonoma, Erase USB Disk, Install to USB - Done in 5 Min!
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