OS X Upgrade to Catalina - Disk Utility - Fusion - Terminal - Expertise PLZ

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Level 1

8 points

OS X Upgrade to Catalina - Disk Utility - Fusion - Terminal - Expertise PLZ

First the history: 5 years ago I bought 2 identical Late 2012 Mac mini 6,2 i7 2.3 w/1TB HDD (not Fusion) w/4GB RAM that I upgraded with 256GB Samsung SSD in Bottom Slot/Boot position and 16GB RAM, moving the HDD into the top slot/non-boot drive position as directed by Apple guidance.

After a past iMac crash issue opted to leave Mavericks installed on the HDD (to run utilities on the SDD or SSD crash recovery rather than wiping it) but use it for general storage of files, downloads, etc.

I formatted the SSD with DU and installed Yosemite then later El Capitan which worked great and was lightning fast booting/launching applications. All was fine until Dec 2019 when Safari started dragging and I found adware (scrlink.cool) which I resolved, but Safari still struggled, so I reinstalled El Capitan.

That was a disaster; OS installer merged both drives into a Fusion config that Disk Utility couldn't Undo rendering the SSD useless. It had somehow installed Yosemite on the HDD and despite countless hours trying to repair or update or recover the previous image and config from Time Capsule, it's been futile.

DU tests report that both drives were fine but I always get a message that 'Update Cannot be Installed', no matter what was tried. Subsequently, after running DU and the OS X Recovery numerous times both drives disappeared and wouldn't mount which left me staring at an empty black screen.

Present issue: I tore down the Mac mini and removed the SSD attached a USB/SATA cable and plugged it into my MB Air which allowed trying to install OS X but despite DU reporting it as perfect, absolutely no approach worked regardless the OS X version. BTW - DU Info reported it as an external volume.

So I wiped it, reformatted as Journal Ext/GUID and with a clean slate tried installing OS X at which time reported ... yet again... the OS could not be installed - I presume because it still thinks it's a Fusion drive.

At which point reassembled the mini exactly the same as before, booted to find neither drive mounted so ran DW - BTW OS X Online Recovery tools were essentially useless - which found/mounted the HDD but not the SSD, maybe because it was formatted on a USB bus? Then I tried (unsuccessfully) for 2 days, hours on end, of downloads and attempts to install/update any version of Mac OS X on the HDD.

So, having nothing to lose, wiped the HDD and reformatted it trying again to install OS X at which point it indicated it qualified to have Mavericks installed!? I just cannot fathom why it took so many hours and tries over one year for Apple to FINALLY disclose that Mavericks was the ONLY OS X that could be installed!?

Voila, after all the wasted time and frustration, Mavericks did install and booted: it looks just like 2015!

Thinking all is well, opened the App Store, downloaded Yosemite again to begin the updating route to Catalina. Wrong! After three 2 hour installation attempts, all of which get to finalizing, reports the mini doesn't qualify for OS X. Why doesn't Apple know that BEFORE jacking around and wasting a user's time?!

Before taking a hammer to it I decided to try installing Yosemite from the DVD one more time... guess what? This time, after abundant whirring and stepping sounds it - for no apparent reason successfully installed Yosemite which launches and seems to operate normally.

After which I again downloaded El Capitan from the App Store (purchases) and discovered it will not install either!!! Really?!! What the **** is going on with these obtuse Mac OS installation packages? At this juncture my Mac mini is back at the exact point it was 5 years ago. At least it works, albeit paralyzed.

But Disk Utility still doesn't see the SSD, nor does Disk Warrior. Is there a set of Terminal commands to access the system to see what is connected to the bus and change/correct pertinent logical attributes of those devices? I suspect that the SSD, having been reported as an External Device on the MB Air DU, has been formatted logically as an external drive and the Mac mini can't see it on the motherboard bus.

BTW: The other identically configured Mac mini is still fully functional, racing along with Mojave OS on the SSD with the factory installed 1TB mechanical HDD used solely as a storage volume. What gives?

I'll be deeply grateful of someone can, please, advise me on how I may proceed to resolve and correct this set of maddening issues. I desperately need to get this Mac fully operational and put back to work.

Thank you, in advance, for any constructive assistance and instruction you may render.

Best regards for a productive 2021.

Mac mini, OS X 10.10

Posted on Jan 14, 2021 3:02 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

alank Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 14, 2021 7:02 PM in response to leroydouglas

Thanks leroydouglas. Would it be accurate to construe your reply as meaning you don't have a clue either? Otherwise, since you went to the effort of responding, aside from indulging me, which part of these issues might you understand well and be able to address knowledgeably with a solution as to 1. what the described hardware/OS problem is, or 2. how to override the issue causing the system's refusal to install the downloaded Combo Updates, 3. if using Terminal commands the issues can all be resolved, and 4. where can one acquire the pertinent set of Terminal commands/utilities to make the hardware/OS whole again and play nicely together like Steve intended. I do appreciate you replying... this helped but I'm hoping a sufficiently geeky forum user might save me hours in a support phone queue. Thanks again. Best, alank

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Answer 2

Jan 14, 2021 7:48 PM in response to alank

alank wrote:

the issue causing the system's refusal to install the downloaded Combo Updates,

The combo update is not a full installer.

older macOS back up on the servers: links here, use the Safri Browser to initiate the download

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT211683

or

How to reinstall macOS from macOS Recovery - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204904

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Answer 3

Jan 14, 2021 4:35 PM in response to alank

alank wrote:

First the history: 5 years ago I bought 2 identical Late 2012 Mac mini 6,2 i7 2.3 w/1TB HDD (not Fusion) w/4GB RAM that I upgraded with 256GB Samsung SSD in Bottom Slot/Boot position and 16GB RAM, moving the HDD into the top slot/non-boot drive position as directed by Apple guidance.

After a past iMac crash issue opted to leave Mavericks installed on the HDD (to run utilities on the SDD or SSD crash recovery rather than wiping it) but use it for general storage of files, downloads, etc.

I formatted the SSD with DU and installed Yosemite then later El Capitan which worked great and was lightning fast booting/launching applications. All was fine until Dec 2019 when Safari started dragging and I found adware (scrlink.cool) which I resolved, but Safari still struggled, so I reinstalled El Capitan.

That was a disaster; OS installer merged both drives into a Fusion config that Disk Utility couldn't Undo rendering the SSD useless. It had somehow installed Yosemite on the HDD and despite countless hours trying to repair or update or recover the previous image and config from Time Capsule, it's been futile.

DU tests report that both drives were fine but I always get a message that 'Update Cannot be Installed', no matter what was tried. Subsequently, after running DU and the OS X Recovery numerous times both drives disappeared and wouldn't mount which left me staring at an empty black screen.

Present issue: I tore down the Mac mini and removed the SSD attached a USB/SATA cable and plugged it into my MB Air which allowed trying to install OS X but despite DU reporting it as perfect, absolutely no approach worked regardless the OS X version. BTW - DU Info reported it as an external volume.

So I wiped it, reformatted as Journal Ext/GUID and with a clean slate tried installing OS X at which time reported ... yet again... the OS could not be installed - I presume because it still thinks it's a Fusion drive.

At which point reassembled the mini exactly the same as before, booted to find neither drive mounted so ran DW - BTW OS X Online Recovery tools were essentially useless - which found/mounted the HDD but not the SSD, maybe because it was formatted on a USB bus? Then I tried (unsuccessfully) for 2 days, hours on end, of downloads and attempts to install/update any version of Mac OS X on the HDD.

So, having nothing to lose, wiped the HDD and reformatted it trying again to install OS X at which point it indicated it qualified to have Mavericks installed!? I just cannot fathom why it took so many hours and tries over one year for Apple to FINALLY disclose that Mavericks was the ONLY OS X that could be installed!?

Voila, after all the wasted time and frustration, Mavericks did install and booted: it looks just like 2015!

Thinking all is well, opened the App Store, downloaded Yosemite again to begin the updating route to Catalina. Wrong! After three 2 hour installation attempts, all of which get to finalizing, reports the mini doesn't qualify for OS X. Why doesn't Apple know that BEFORE jacking around and wasting a user's time?!

Before taking a hammer to it I decided to try installing Yosemite from the DVD one more time... guess what? This time, after abundant whirring and stepping sounds it - for no apparent reason successfully installed Yosemite which launches and seems to operate normally.

After which I again downloaded El Capitan from the App Store (purchases) and discovered it will not install either!!! Really?!! What the **** is going on with these obtuse Mac OS installation packages? At this juncture my Mac mini is back at the exact point it was 5 years ago. At least it works, albeit paralyzed.

But Disk Utility still doesn't see the SSD, nor does Disk Warrior. Is there a set of Terminal commands to access the system to see what is connected to the bus and change/correct pertinent logical attributes of those devices? I suspect that the SSD, having been reported as an External Device on the MB Air DU, has been formatted logically as an external drive and the Mac mini can't see it on the motherboard bus.

BTW: The other identically configured Mac mini is still fully functional, racing along with Mojave OS on the SSD with the factory installed 1TB mechanical HDD used solely as a storage volume. What gives?

I'll be deeply grateful of someone can, please, advise me on how I may proceed to resolve and correct this set of maddening issues. I desperately need to get this Mac fully operational and put back to work.

Thank you, in advance, for any constructive assistance and instruction you may render.

Best regards for a productive 2021.

Can you distill this down to a single sentence or two summarizing / re-stating the meat of the issue..(?)

You can always call Customer Support (800) MY–APPLE (800–692–7753)

or on line https://getsupport.apple.com/

or call AppleCare Support at 1-800-APLCARE (800-275-2273)

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Answer 4

alank Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 15, 2021 11:42 AM in response to leroydouglas

Thanks again leroydouglas. I've been at this for an entire week and have visited hundreds of tech pages and YouTube videos looking for solutions, among them the pages to which you've graciously provided links. None of those Apple downloads have worked and I can't understand why; they go through all the futile motions, downloading and installing, right up until the final seconds then abort reporting that the OS can't be installed. That is/was even after the Online Restore finally allowed Mavericks installation on the HDD but nothing more from online including Yosemite and El Capitan which are both App Store Purchases. After more hours of screwing around, finally, Yosemite installed from the DVD that wasn't allowed in the days before; I simply can't make sense of that. Just between us, I'm of the mind that it will require Terminal reset of BIOS/EFI & blessing both drives.

As of now, it seems Yosemite may be the end of the line for what has been an all but straight forward update path to Catalina.

BTW: According to online guidance, Combo Updates are the best/only way to update your old OS if your don't want to install each and every update individually as the Combo allows you to update from e.g. 10.4.1 to 10.4.7 in one install, instead of 10.4.2, 10.4.3, 10.4.5, 10.4.6, 10.4.7 which would, as we know, take an eternity.

At your suggestion, I've drafted a more succinct explanation of the matter with just enough, I hope, underlying detail to avoid the "have you tried rebooting it?" types of responses to invite deeper insight to causes and perhaps the magic bullet solution.

Fingers crossed. When I get it sorted out I'll try posting back the solution for your assimilation and perhaps future support use.

I've got the Install macOS Mojave Installer on a 32GB SD card that has been used with success with 5 other Mac minis - albeit sans my problems. I'm advised the update will require turning off my wifi and resetting the system clock to 2018 to facilitate installation due to Apple putting expiration dates on their installers. Sounds bizarre, but it is Apple and they do bizarre stuff.

If you happen across any other tidbits that may be helpful ... as if you don't have better things to do ... please let me know.

Thanks leroydouglas!

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OS X Upgrade to Catalina - Disk Utility - Fusion - Terminal - Expertise PLZ

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