OWC Aura for Mac Pro

That is same as mine.

I would if you can (may not because of size), get the Mojave installation you want on the old SSD. Then with the Aura in the MP clone the original SSD to the Aura. Carbon Copy Cloner work and maybe Super Duper will work.

That is what OWC recommended here, a little past half through the second page.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mojave-install-issue-on-2013-mac-pro.2143738/page-2

Seems that the MP sees the Aura as RAID 0 and now the Mojave installer will not install on a RAID volume.

What is the firmware version MP?Click on the apple icon in upper left and select About this Mac. Then System Report. The firmware version is listed as Boot ROM version.

The Mojave installer will not install on a RAID volume but based on the the MacRumors forum you can clone a Mojave installation to an Aura SSD.

Thus you need to get what you want on an external drive updated top Mojave and then clone that to the Aura.

Cloning a Mojave install to the Aura may work because the OS is already setup and doesn't see the Aura as a RAID. The installer on the other hand is querying the SSD and it sees a RAID configuration so it doesn't allow it as Apple no longer supports RAID.

I fault both Apple & OWC here, but OWC is more at fault for making a drive which requires a special driver to work. If they are implementing a RAID internally on the Aura, then that should be hidden from the OS. The OS should only see a standard storage device.

I just successfully started installing Mojave on an USB connected SSD on my 2013 MP. I terminated the install and I am now clonige my Mojave installation to the SSD as a backup.

Just what is on the 4TB SATA drive and what is the format?

However, the message may be due to having the Aura installed in your MP. Reinstall the original SSD and it appears you can then install Mojave on an external drive.

What does Disk Utility show about the Aura drive? Make sure that under View in upper left Show all devices is selected.

1. Assuming the Aura has the files you want with Aura installed clone the Aura to an external drive.
2. Then install the original SSD and run the Mojave installer to upgrade the external drive to Mojave.
3. Install the Aura drive and boot from the external drive and clone the external drive to the Aura.

Please post the list for all your drives, internal and external. (edit out the names if you wish).

I think lllaass is onto something, looking at all the funky little partitions required for EFI, for whole-drive encryption, for RAID, and and for APFS file format (introduced in High Sierra 10.13) which requires another funky little partition to do the encapsulation needed for Apple File System, and a different set if you were using an SSD for APFS.

Nothing strange there.

Open Terminal and type: diskutil list

Post a screenshot of what is returned. YOu do not need to post the info for the external drives.

Is that 4TB drive just a simple drive, or is it also a RAID, pretending to be a "regular" drive (but faster) ?

Can you get your hands on a simple drive in a USB enclosure?

Did you get an enclosure with your new SSD that would allow you to treat the old drive as your boot drive, and update that, then clone it back to the new Aura?

If that is a regular rotating drive in a USB enclosure, why can't you install on it? It should not be complaining about wonky proprietary drive, contact manufacturer. You CAN install Mojave on a regular rotating drive, I have done it on an Internal 1TB in a bay in my Mac Pro silver tower.

Perhaps it is confused. Maybe you should try an SMC reset and PRAM reset and try installing again on the 4TB drive.

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I don't understand how "all of your stuff is gone" if you clone your drive.

Cloning creates an additional copy on the destination drive, it does not change the original in any way.

For example, you could clone your old drive to the 4TB external drive, boot from that external drive, then clone it to the new Aura drive.

What is current macOS version on the Aura?

Do you still have the original SSD?