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Restoring to a new SSD in MacOS High Sierra
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restore.md

Installing a new ssd in MacOS High Sierra

This guide is for upgrading to a new SSD, restoring from Time Machine and keeping your Recovery Partition.

The first time I tried to install a new SSD I just installed the SSD and didn't format anything. I figured the format would be chosen by MacOS but it wasn't and the recovery partition didn't copy over to the new disk. If you don't have a Recovery Partition you can't use Disk Encryption or Find My Mac.

Note: you may have to disable/remove disk encryption but my Disk wasn't encrypted so I don't have steps for that

Preparing your Computer

  • Do a Time Machine Backup and make sure you're not excluding anything you need
  • Shut down your Mac and go through the process of removing the old drive
  • Install the new SSD drive and put the Mac back together

ifixit have some useful guides if you don't know how to upgrade your drive

Formatting your SSD

  • Turn on your Mac and as soon as your see the screen come to life press and hold CMD + Opt + R. This brings you to an upgraded Recovery Mode. CMD + R would bring you to the Recovery Mode your Mac shipped with. Let go of the keys once you see the 'Starting Internet Recovery' or in some cases the Apple Logo and a progress bar.
  • Choose your language if prompted
  • Select the option for Disk Utility
  • Choose View > Show All Devices
  • Choose your SSD, choose the whole disk not a partition and select Erase
  • Enter Macintosh HD for Name, Mac OS Extended (Journaled) for Format and GUID Partition Map for Scheme. Press Erase
  • Shut Down your Mac from the Apple menu

Restoring your Mac

  • Connect your Time Machine Backup Disk
  • Go into Recovery Mode again ( CMD + Opt + R )
  • Choose your language if prompted
  • Choose Restore From Time Machine Backup. Click Continue
  • Click Continue again on the next screen
  • Select your Backup Disk as the source. Click Continue
  • Select the most recent date your backed up on. Click Continue
  • Select your new SSD as the destination. Click Restore
  • Once complete the system should boot into a login screen, if not restart.

Housekeeping

  • You'll likely receive login requests for iCloud, Dropbox and other services
  • Go into System Preferences > iCloud and turn on Find My Mac if desired. Note: if the option is disabled something went wrong and the Recovery Partition wasn't installed

Verify Recovery Partition

  • Open Terminal or iTerm
  • Enter diskutil apfs list
  • Once it completes, check for an entry for your Partition
@Hept0p
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Hept0p commented Jan 6, 2023

Why not formatting the SSD to APFS instead of Mac OS Extended (Journaled) ?

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