How to install the Mac OS installer package onto a 2nd volume of a partitioned (2-volume) internal HD

Question

Level 1

115 points

How to install the Mac OS installer package onto a 2nd volume of a partitioned (2-volume) internal HD

I have a Mini that has an internal HD partitioned into 2 APFS volumes. I have Mojave installed on one volume. The other volume has been erased using Disk Utility.

I have downloaded the installer for Mojave on a different computer and have it, at this time, as a file ("Install macOS Mojave.app") on an external drive. I have read about how to create an external installer USB using Terminal.

Rather than go that route, can I simply boot up the Mini from its current (single) boot volume and, from there, launch "Install macOS Mojave.app" and direct it to install Mojave on the currently-empty other HD volume? (Do I first need to copy the installer file into the Mini's Applications Folder?)

Since the one bootable volume on the Mini is already running Mojave I want to confirm that I can install using the installer app onto the EMPTY volume (i.e., without confusing the installation).

Earlier Mac models

Posted on Oct 13, 2023 5:27 PM

Reply

Answer 1

keriah Author

Level 1

115 points

Oct 15, 2023 10:27 PM in response to BDAqua

BDAqua wrote:

Etrecheck may help us figure out the BeachBalls. :)

I have Good News and Bad News. Today I cleared the 2nd partition and did the install of OS Mojave from the installer file. Then, when prompted, I migrated the apps and data from the 1st partition. I wasn't planning to run seriously from the new, partition-2 file ... only do some short tests. But things went so smoothly I went ahead and spent the afternoon running my typical workflow. No beachballs; nothing major amiss.

I already had EtreCheck, in fact, the Pro (& Pro Power User) app and I have run that. I didn't spot anything surprising but perhaps you may see something of note.

Tomorrow my plan is to boot into the partition-1 system and run EtreCheck there ... just to see if something leaps out. But at this point I'm happy with how everything's running. Whew!

EtreCheck from newly-installed Partition-2

Reply

Answer 2

keriah Author

Level 1

115 points

Oct 13, 2023 6:24 PM in response to BDAqua

Of course!

I typically run two different versions of the OS in the 2 partitions -- most recently that's Monterey in one and Mojave in the other. I do always need a functioning rev. of Mojave because I have some critical legacy apps that won't run under anything later than Mojave.

Recently I messed up the Monterey partition and erased it, planning to reinstall Monterey from a backup. However, before re-installing Monterey (or a later OS), I thought I'd take this opportunity to install Mojave completely afresh in the empty partition to see if that might fix some of the pokey things I'm experiencing on the current Mojave boot drive.

After I experiment around a bit, my plans are to erase & install the latest rev of the OS that the Mini will support on that 2nd volume.

Reply

Answer 3

BDAqua

Level 10

250,259 points

Oct 13, 2023 6:35 PM in response to keriah

Good idea to Install Mojave, that get all your PWDs etc. over to the new Install, then you can easily, install Monty over the top of that... I know what you're thinking about the clean install, but there are simpler methods than starting on the ground floor!

What I don't like about your idea is putting 2 handles on a Basket that only has one bottom! ;)

One thing that slows an OS down after time is lack of free space on a spinning drive, also drives die...

You can use Drive DX to possibly get a better view of Drive health…

https://binaryfruit.com/drivedx

Thanks to Jack-19…

It may be wise to run SMART Utility to check the drives' health.

If you'd like to work on what may be slowing things down...

We need to see what all is running, a report from this will not display any personal info...

EtreCheck is a FREE simple little diagnostic tool to display the important details of your system configuration and allow you to copy that information to the Clipboard. It is meant to be used with Apple Support Communities to help people help you with your Mac. It will not display any personal info.

https://www.etrecheck.com/

Thanks for Old Toad’s etrecheck instructions…

Slow iMac 2017 - Apple Community

Use the Note tool on the bottom of this editor's toolbar, as shown in the image, to copy and paste the output from EtreCheck. In a Reply before you click post, look for this to add longer texts...

Reply

Answer 4

keriah Author

Level 1

115 points

Oct 13, 2023 8:08 PM in response to BDAqua

BDAqua wrote:

One thing that slows an OS down after time is lack of free space on a spinning drive, also drives die...

FWIW, the internal drive on the Mini is a 'relatively new' SSD so it's not exactly "spinning" -- but I get what you're saying and I'm always up to checking out new health-related utilities. Thanks for the pointer.

The main issue I'm running into is the too-frequent spinning-beachball-of-death at very random times. And as I track it via Activity Monitor it's most often showing up as "Finder not responding."

This Mini is dedicated pretty much to 2 apps: EyeTV and Handbrake. Handbrake can tie up the machine (running often at 300% CPU) so I know to just walk away when it is churning away.

Reply

Answer 5

keriah Author

Level 1

115 points

Oct 16, 2023 11:31 AM in response to BDAqua

BDAqua wrote:

Didn't spot anything big, but...

Delete this file & restart...

/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.adobe.fpsaud.plist

Thanks. Will do once I'm booted on that system.

I just booted into the initial (1st Partition) Mojave system that was problematic (slow-running, frequent beach balling) and ran Etrecheck, with a mix of my typical workflow apps running. The report is attached. (Yes, I'm aware that it reports Flash installed - I had removed that from the Partition 2 system yesterday.)

If anything obvious jumps out I'd be interested but if my new (Partition 2) system continues to perform as well as it did yesterday then in a few days I'll be erasing Partition 1 and installing Monterey afresh there.

Etrecheck of problematic Partition 1 (Mojave)

Reply

Answer 6

keriah Author

Level 1

115 points

Oct 16, 2023 11:53 AM in response to BDAqua

BDAqua wrote:

Didn't spot anything big, but...

Delete this file & restart...

/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.adobe.fpsaud.plist

Hmmm... I just booted onto the new Mojave system to delete the file you pointed out, and I don't find that .plist file there. However, it is on the backup volume that I ran last night before shutting down:

Reply

Answer 7

keriah Author

Level 1

115 points

Oct 30, 2023 8:25 PM in response to BDAqua

I've been running EtreCheck routinely and most things that are clean-up-able have been tended to. Given that this Mini is older and is dedicated to running two apps that are reporting as being very high maintenance (high CPU usage) it looks like this is about as good as I can expect.

I do have one lingering curiosity: at startup I get this alert box:

What a useless message ... it doesn't leave me with any way to examine what "This disk" refers to, and the icon isn't helpful in letting me identify the source of the message. The only option presented is to "Close" the alert, which I dutifully do each time.

Reply

Answer 8

HWTech

Level 9

69,134 points

Oct 31, 2023 4:37 PM in response to keriah

The crashes are occurring with Spotlight ("mds") and "suggestd" which also has some ties to Spotlight and other apps. Perhaps you should try rebuilding the Spotlight index.

Rebuild the Spotlight index on your Mac - Apple Support

Try disconnecting all external devices (except display, keyboard & mouse) in case one of them is causing a problem. An external drive could be an issue especially if Spotlight is indexing it.

Reply