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H2SO4

macrumors 603
Original poster
Nov 4, 2008
5,828
7,105
Hi all. So I'll be getting a replacement notebook tonight, (one without a removable hard disk drive).
On my current machine I have FV2 enabled and separate passwords for the user and for the actual disk. Does anybody know if the following is possible;

BRAND NEW machine, (never booted before). Press ⌘R on boot to take you into the terminal or disk utility.
Reformat the disk using APFS encrypted.
Reboot the brand new machine into target disk mode, connecting the new Mac using, (USBC > USBC to TB2 adaptor > TB2 to old MacBook Pro), which I use to install a new OS on it.
Then I enable Filevault on the new one once booted.

Thanks in advance
 

ApfelKuchen

macrumors 601
Aug 28, 2012
4,335
3,012
Between the coasts
Are you trying to put an older OS on the new Mac than the one it comes with? If the new Mac does not officially support the older OS, then there may be additional challenges (older OS not supporting the newer hardware). There's a forum here dedicated to the topic.

If you're just trying to migrate everything from old to new Mac without changing the OS that came on the new Mac... just use the normal Setup Assistant that boots the first time you turn it on.
 

H2SO4

macrumors 603
Original poster
Nov 4, 2008
5,828
7,105
Are you trying to put an older OS on the new Mac than the one it comes with? If the new Mac does not officially support the older OS, then there may be additional challenges (older OS not supporting the newer hardware). There's a forum here dedicated to the topic.

If you're just trying to migrate everything from old to new Mac without changing the OS that came on the new Mac... just use the normal Setup Assistant that boots the first time you turn it on.
Hi, no.
Ive already downloaded Catalina.
I wasn’t aware that set up assistant gave you the option to set a disk password as different from a login one.
 

H2SO4

macrumors 603
Original poster
Nov 4, 2008
5,828
7,105
It sounds like you're using a firmware password, which is different than Filevault (you can be using both a firmware password and Filevault). In either case, first migrate your data to the new Mac, and then add the firmware password and/or Filevault to the new machine.

Firmware password: https://support.apple.com/HT204455
Filevault: https://support.apple.com/HT204837
Pretty sure it isn’t that.
On my current computer I replaced the hard drive. I formatted it as APFS encrypted before I put it in the Mac.
I then installed the OS and enabled FV.
I can’t do that this time as the disk is not removeable.

If nobody chimes in I might just give it a try so that I know.
I’ll then report back.
 

H2SO4

macrumors 603
Original poster
Nov 4, 2008
5,828
7,105
Just to add to this, what worked for me was;
Boot into recovery on first boot.
Erase the disk and reformat as APFS encrypted.
Reboot into recovery and because the computer has no OS, it'll go for a network recovery.
Allow this to reinstall MacOS and during the process you can import from another disk or just continue as per a new install and enable FV from there.
Either way you get two separate passwords.
 
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