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Snow leopard to Sierra with clean install?
- Thread starter myke323
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Download the Sierra installer. DO NOT INSTALL. Quit the installer.
Backup your Snow Leopard install using clone software to an external drive.
Boot from the clone.
Open Disk Utility and erase your internal drive.
Launch Sierra install and select your internal drive as destination.
DO NOT use migration to bring over data. It will bring over too much old baggage.'
You can drag over your files from the clone.
Start a new clone for your Sierra install. Keep the old Snow Leopard clone as a resource incase you missed some files or need to boot back into Snow Leopard to use an app that no longer works in Sierra.
Backup your Snow Leopard install using clone software to an external drive.
Boot from the clone.
Open Disk Utility and erase your internal drive.
Launch Sierra install and select your internal drive as destination.
DO NOT use migration to bring over data. It will bring over too much old baggage.'
You can drag over your files from the clone.
Start a new clone for your Sierra install. Keep the old Snow Leopard clone as a resource incase you missed some files or need to boot back into Snow Leopard to use an app that no longer works in Sierra.
Thanks man. Well that's basically what I planned to do... however because I am running 10.6.8 it won't let me even download Sierra. I guess even though I'm doing a clean install it has to be done from el capitan, so I am downloading that now.
But... quesiton... you say to erase my internal drive before installing Sierra; but I think with a clean install it will erase the drive anyway. I will be installing Sierra from a usb installer drive...
The installer will not erase your drive. The only option when you launch the installer is to install macOS.
You should have two USB ports so you can be booted from the clone and run the installer from the USB drive. Not sure if you will need to drag the installer to your clone to run. Will your Mac support booting from the USB installer drive.
I am curious why you can't download Sierra - unless your Mac won't support installing Sierra.
Which Mac do you have?
If you download Sierra, I don't think you can do an upgrade install from Snow Leopard to Sierra.
But, you can certainly boot to Sierra installer, and erase the drive, then continue on with installing Sierra.
The Sierra install won't erase the drive - you have to do that first from Disk Utility.
Clean install means erasing the drive, which also means that you lose anything that you don't have backed up first, such as pictures, personal files, music, etc. The macOS install does not do an erase, unless you choose to do that erase first, in Disk Utility.
Your first step (before doing anything else) is to download the Sierra installer app, then create a bootable USB installer (an 8GB flash drive is ideal). Boot to that USB stick. Run Disk Utility to erase the hard drive. Continue with the macOS install. THAT'S a clean install.
Which Mac do you have?
If you download Sierra, I don't think you can do an upgrade install from Snow Leopard to Sierra.
But, you can certainly boot to Sierra installer, and erase the drive, then continue on with installing Sierra.
The Sierra install won't erase the drive - you have to do that first from Disk Utility.
Clean install means erasing the drive, which also means that you lose anything that you don't have backed up first, such as pictures, personal files, music, etc. The macOS install does not do an erase, unless you choose to do that erase first, in Disk Utility.
Your first step (before doing anything else) is to download the Sierra installer app, then create a bootable USB installer (an 8GB flash drive is ideal). Boot to that USB stick. Run Disk Utility to erase the hard drive. Continue with the macOS install. THAT'S a clean install.
Yes, but as part of the install it erases the drive...
You boot from the installer drive...
Yes, the macOS installer does not erase your drive for you. You have to do that yourself, with Disk Utility.
It's in the menu when you boot to the installer.
I'm guessing you are remembering older versions of OS X, which had an option to erase the hard drive at the time of the OS X install. Snow Leopard, and later macOS installs do not have that as an option. It's something that you can do with Disk Utility, which is always present in a menu when you are booted to the installer.
It's in the menu when you boot to the installer.
I'm guessing you are remembering older versions of OS X, which had an option to erase the hard drive at the time of the OS X install. Snow Leopard, and later macOS installs do not have that as an option. It's something that you can do with Disk Utility, which is always present in a menu when you are booted to the installer.
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It give me a message saying you must have 10.7 or greater...
Wait, I'm confused... I will be doing a clean install of Sierra from a usb thumb drive. Won't the clean install erase everything on the drive? Why would I have to erase it first?
[doublepost=1489091425][/doublepost]Ok, I got it now. When you boot from the installer drive, disk utility shows up as an option, so at that point you erase the drive, then you select install mas os.
Yes, and I re-read your earlier post which stated it nicely...
By the way, any idea why I have to first upgrade to El Capitan? Since I am doing a clean install from an external drive? Doesn't really make sense but there must be a reason.
So my plan is to upgrade to El Cap, then download Sierra, create the bootable installer and then clean install Sierra. But wish I could just skip the El Cap upgrade...
Yes, you need 10.7 or higher to get the download for Sierra through the App Store.
So, you would solve this easily if you could do an upgrade to Lion first. Apple still sells that Lion upgrade, but then you would have purchased Lion only for the purpose of upgrading to Sierra.
Perhaps it is the Sierra installer app, which might not run on Snow Leopard - but El Capitan will work.
(and you don't pay anything to get the El Capitan installer, so is just an intermediate stop in your upgrade quest
)
But, if you are simply erasing the drive (and installing macOS on that freshly erased drive), then you can get Sierra any way you can, make your USB installer, boot to that, erase the hard drive, reinstall macOS, and you're there!
Bottom line - If you have the Sierra bootable installer, you don't need anything in between, because you are erasing it all anyway.
So, you would solve this easily if you could do an upgrade to Lion first. Apple still sells that Lion upgrade, but then you would have purchased Lion only for the purpose of upgrading to Sierra.
Perhaps it is the Sierra installer app, which might not run on Snow Leopard - but El Capitan will work.
(and you don't pay anything to get the El Capitan installer, so is just an intermediate stop in your upgrade quest
)But, if you are simply erasing the drive (and installing macOS on that freshly erased drive), then you can get Sierra any way you can, make your USB installer, boot to that, erase the hard drive, reinstall macOS, and you're there!
Bottom line - If you have the Sierra bootable installer, you don't need anything in between, because you are erasing it all anyway.
Cool, that's what I was thinking, that it might be something to do with the installer not running on Snow Leopard perhaps.Yes, you need 10.7 or higher to get the download for Sierra through the App Store.
So, you would solve this easily if you could do an upgrade to Lion first. Apple still sells that Lion upgrade, but then you would have purchased Lion only for the purpose of upgrading to Sierra.
Perhaps it is the Sierra installer app, which might not run on Snow Leopard - but El Capitan will work.
(and you don't pay anything to get the El Capitan installer, so is just an intermediate stop in your upgrade quest
But, if you are simply erasing the drive (and installing macOS on that freshly erased drive), then you can get Sierra any way you can, make your USB installer, boot to that, erase the hard drive, reinstall macOS, and you're there!
Bottom line - If you have the Sierra bootable installer, you don't need anything in between, because you are erasing it all anyway.
And I did download El Cap for free, so I will go that route and see what happens! Thanks for you help!
OP:
BE SURE to create a BOOTABLE CLONE on an external drive of your 10.6.8 setup BEFORE attempting to upgrade.
If you're unhappy with Sierra, and want to "get back to where you once belonged", the ONLY WAY to easily do it is with a bootable cloned backup. Otherwise, you may find yourself very frustrated...
BE SURE to create a BOOTABLE CLONE on an external drive of your 10.6.8 setup BEFORE attempting to upgrade.
If you're unhappy with Sierra, and want to "get back to where you once belonged", the ONLY WAY to easily do it is with a bootable cloned backup. Otherwise, you may find yourself very frustrated...
Cool... yes, I have already created a bootable clone, although I tried to boot up from one on that drive in the past and it was quite slow, although it could save me in a pinch. I also have my original 10.6.8 disks so I could clean install that if need be and go from there. I also saved the El Cap installer on an external drive so that could be an option to. I'm going to give the El Cap upgrade a shot in a little bit, which is my intermediary step to downloading sierra installer...
That's what I was thinking! But right now I don't have access to another mac unfortunately.
Could maybe find it online somewhere, but wouldn't feel confident unless it came from the app store...
Good point... I'm gonna do it!
It's just that all my apps like drop stuff, bbedit, garageband, imovie are all working... but with the clean install I have to get and load all that stuff again. Already deactivated CS5 though...
Off to download Sierra...
Personally, I -prefer- El Capitan to Sierra.
El Cap is a "mature" version of the OS.
Sierra seems to be -- for many -- still a "work in progress".
I suggest you run El Cap for a couple of weeks, before "going further".
Just to see how it does for you...
El Cap is a "mature" version of the OS.
Sierra seems to be -- for many -- still a "work in progress".
I suggest you run El Cap for a couple of weeks, before "going further".
Just to see how it does for you...
Well, it really depends. In my experience, Sierra is MUCH more stable than El Capitan. I had many hard freezes and hangs on ElCap (10.11.6!). Upgraded to Sierra 10.12.1, not a single freeze since.
I switched from Mountain Lion to El Capitan just by migrating... as since 8 years.. but only three times (SNOW LEOPARD--> MOUNTAINLION->ELCAPITAN)
BUT:
Nevertheless, I am thinking about a clean install after all the years of just migrating...
Questions:
1) HOW exactly can I "drag over" the whole content of the clone (made using CCC) to the clean ElCapitan installation? I really don´t know how...
2) I have several old HDD as backups over the years.. is there any Software comparing content and Apps of two Harddrives in a way that it shows only content which is NOT already on both HD? Just to really and easily regarding and saving i.e. old Photos still on ONE HD but not existing on the "newest one" ?
This would help me a lot...
Thanks in advance for your advice...
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Yeah, but the problem with that is I have to adapt to a new OS twice. Also, I have to insall Creative Suite and whole lot of other applications and utilities and I don't want to have to do that twice. Plus a clean install of Sierra should be better than just an upgrade to El Cap... Will report back though...
Well, I don't think you want to just drag over the whole clone, that is the point of a clean install, you aren't getting all the bulk which can affect performance. Do a clean install, then reinstall apps, drag over data files etc.
@ myke323
The big advantage of passing through ElCapitan is, that you can still download it as a user of Snow Leopard.
Once you are on a OS X newer than that, you can´t neither download elCap nor go back from Sierra to ElCapitan.
You are not forced to really install ElCapitan, you just load the installer down at the apple Store, copy it elsewhere like on an USB stick and there you have it overtime to install it elsewhere or downgrade from Sierre (but it has to be a clear install then either).
As for me, I upgraded (by migration) from ML to ElCap 2 weeks ago (worked fine) and NOW I appreciate ElCap a lot more than ML.
So - the recommendation of @Fishrrman - is a very good one - in my opinion...
The big advantage of passing through ElCapitan is, that you can still download it as a user of Snow Leopard.
Once you are on a OS X newer than that, you can´t neither download elCap nor go back from Sierra to ElCapitan.
You are not forced to really install ElCapitan, you just load the installer down at the apple Store, copy it elsewhere like on an USB stick and there you have it overtime to install it elsewhere or downgrade from Sierre (but it has to be a clear install then either).
As for me, I upgraded (by migration) from ML to ElCap 2 weeks ago (worked fine) and NOW I appreciate ElCap a lot more than ML.
So - the recommendation of @Fishrrman - is a very good one - in my opinion...