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ksq1307

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 14, 2015
9
3
I need help, please.

I've just bought a Mac Pro 2010, 5.1 Tower (Cheesegrater), 3.33 GHz 6 core on Ebay at a very good price to replace my Early Mac Pro 2006, 1.1 (Cheesegrater) which is now crashing all the time. The replacement 5.1 2010 is a genuine Westmere, mid 2010 release. I checked the serial number before buying. I've bought the replacement 2010 5.1 Tower without hard drives. My plan is to take my existing drives out of the Mac Pro 2006 1.1 and upgrade the SSD to Sierra and then to High Sierra.

The two drives I'm moving over are a 250GB SSD (drive bay 2 not PCIe) and a 2TB Seagate spinning plate hard drive (drive bay 3).

My SSD which I'm moving out of the 1.1 into the 5.1 is a Samsung EVO 250GB which runs the 2006 1.1 with a 32bit boot EFI hack install of El Capitan.

I hope to avoid having to go right back to scratch with a clean install of Sierra on the SSD - by upgrading the 32bit EFI install of El Capitan on my SSD to a 64bit upgrade of Sierra on the new 2010 5.1 Tower machine after it is delivered later this week. So my question is:

How do I install Sierra over the 32bit boot EFI install of El Capitan (which has up to now run the 1.1 Cheesegrater) on the replacement 2010 5.1 Tower? Would putting Sierra on a USB and doing a USB install update onto the SSD work WITHOUT WIPING THE SSD? I want to update Sierra on the SSD - not do clean install and lose everything and have to go right back to scratch. Is that possible? Again, my main concern is to keep what I have on the SSD and UPGRADE to Sierra. NOT do a clean install and wipe the drive. If possible.

From research, I understand that I have to begin that process in with the replacement 5.1 2010 Tower in 32bit mode. Then after upgrading to Sierra, I can upgrade the 5.1 2010 Tower back to 64bit. Is that correct and will it work? Or is there a simpler way?

I would be grateful if you could advise me on simpler methods. Such as perhaps installing a 64bit update of Sierra onto the SSD using a USB drive.

Many grateful thanks for all responses.
Keith
 
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Make a clean install of macOS version you need on a separate drive. And than move the data / settings from the old disk using Migrate Assistant.
 
Make a clean install of macOS version you need on a separate drive. And than move the data / settings from the old disk using Migrate Assistant.

I second this. Migration Assistant will flawlessly bring over applications, accounts, files, wallpapers, settings—everything from the old install. It is so seamless that you will think you’re still using your old system; I think I once had to reinstall a driver for a 3rd-party device and that was the extent of things that Migration Assistant couldn’t handle.

You will be prompted to migrate your data during the installation of macOS. Do this when prompted. It is technically possible to run Migration Assistant after installation completes and the system is up and running, but this can cause difficulties.

Let us know how it turns out.
 
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I second this. Migration Assistant will flawlessly bring over applications, accounts, files, wallpapers, settings—everything from the old install. It is so seamless that you will think you’re still using your old system; I think I once had to reinstall a driver for a 3rd-party device and that was the extent of things that Migration Assistant couldn’t handle.

You will be prompted to migrate your data during the installation of macOS. Do this when prompted. It is technically possible to run Migration Assistant after installation completes and the system is up and running, but this can cause difficulties.

Let us know how it turns out.
Grateful thanks for your eloquent input! Keith
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Make a clean install of macOS version you need on a separate drive. And than move the data / settings from the old disk using Migrate Assistant.
Many thanks for pointing me the right way. Much appreciated.
 
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