Install OS before my iMac arrives?

[Chupa Chupa]

It's been awhile since I've bought a new desktop so last week I pushed the button on a new iMac. It arrives Wed. I also bought an ext SSD for my boot and documents. I'm going to skip migration assistant and go with a fresh copy of OS X and my apps. To make use of the time I was thinking about installing the OS now so it would be ready to go Wed. Is it possible to do this on a different Mac or will doing so mean some hardware enablers won't get installed or activated?

 

[Taz Mangus]

It's been awhile since I've bought a new desktop so last week I pushed the button on a new iMac. It arrives Wed. I also bought an ext SSD for my boot and documents. I'm going to skip migration assistant and go with a fresh copy of OS X and my apps. To make use of the time I was thinking about installing the OS now so it would be ready to go Wed. Is it possible to do this on a different Mac or will doing so mean some hardware enablers won't get installed or activated?

The later unless the other Mac you will be using has the same hardware as your new iMac. It has been suggested that booting into recovery partition and reinstalling the OS will cause the correct drivers to be downloaded on the new iMac.

 

[EugW]

Won't work. The version of 10.12.5 that's currently available is NOT compatible with the new iMacs. The new iMacs require a slightly later build, which you can't download. It's still 10.12.5, but it's not the same. I think the build numbers are 16F73 (old) and 16F2073 (new).

This will be solved when 10.12.6 is released though.

I did the reverse by the way. I did migration assistant to my new iMac, and then installed that new build on my old iMac. That works fine of course, since it's a later version.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

Thanks for the confirmation it won't work - at least now.