High Sierra upgrade failure on 27" iMac

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Level 1

29 points

High Sierra upgrade failure on 27" iMac

Hello,

A few days ago I tried to upgrade to the latest High Sierra OS on my mid-2009 (I think) 27" iMac and it has failed - somewhat spectacularly I think. I could use some help. The machine ran perfectly fine before the upgrade attempt.

Initially, the same oft-reported hang-up at the "Calculating installation time" prompt was occurring and the installation would crash. This occurred several times (5+) before I decided to try booting in recovery mode. In recovery mode I have run Disk Utility/First Aid on the internal SanDisk Ultra II SSD I installed several years ago and I keep getting an "Operation failed" message. Specifically, the message states, "First Aid process has failed. If possible back up the data on this volume. Click Done to continue." There are a number of "Invalid extent entry," "Incorrect size for file," "Overlapped extend allocation," and other messages in the Details log with the final two being; "An internal error has occurred" and "Operation failed."

I briefly looked into Reinstall macOS in Recovery Mode to simply load a new copy of Sierra on the hard drive, but the SSD drive did not appear on the list of available drives - only my backup drive with my Time Machine backups appeared.

It would seem as though the upgrade attempt has bricked my hard drive. What should I do next?!

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.2)

Posted on Nov 18, 2017 7:36 AM

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Answer 1

den.thed

Level 9

76,942 points

Nov 21, 2017 7:49 PM in response to Ejand22

Ejand22 wrote:

Do you think it would be a good idea to reformat the overall drive or restore the single partition?

Yes that is what you need to do while started up in macOS Recovery.

see "Erase your Startup Disk" at > How to reinstall macOS - Apple Support

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Answer 2

rkaufmann87

Level 10

140,310 points

Nov 18, 2017 7:56 AM in response to Ejand22

On occasion a OS upgrade can push a failing drive over the edge as it has to work quite a bit while doing the upgrade. Mac OS did not cause the failure, it was going to happen anyway if you put a similar load on the drive. If you think the drive is bricked, install a new one and then start over. Assuming you have a Time Machine or even better a bootable clone backup restoring will be a simple matter.

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Answer 3

den.thed

Level 9

76,942 points

Nov 18, 2017 8:49 AM in response to Ejand22

May have simply failed the High Sierra conversion from MacOS Extended to APFS.

(reasons might include: previous drive errors, a full drive, an interruption during the conversion to APFS, etc...)

If that is the case, the SSD may not be a total loss. You actually maybe able to save the SSD by starting up in macOS Recovery and completely re-format it.

1. Startup in macOS Recovery

2. Select Disk Utility

3. Click the View box and select Show All Devices

4. Select the SanDisk SSD

5. Select the Partition tab

6. Name the SSD, Format the SSD to AFPS and click the Apply button.

7. Exit Disk Utility and Install macOS on the SSD

8. Recover from your Time Machine backup during the initial setup.

The following are the SanDisk instructions are for formatting an External SSD, but the steps for an Internal from MacOS Recovery are pretty much the same.

see > https://kb.sandisk.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/20542/kw/apfs

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Answer 4

Ejand22 Author

Level 1

29 points

Nov 20, 2017 4:10 PM in response to den.thed

Thanks for the reply. When in Recovery mode and after selecting Disk Recovery - the option to Partition the drive isn't allowed (it's greyed out). Currently I have a single partition mapped as a GUID Partition Map under the base drive name. In other words, in the Internal list to the right of the dialog box states SanDisk SDSDHII960G Media with a partition below it called New Hard Drive (clever, I know).

I'm wondering if I should try to Restore the single partition (New Hard Drive) on the SSD with the OS X Base System and then restore from my Time Machine backup.

Do you think that would work?

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Answer 5

den.thed

Level 9

76,942 points

Nov 20, 2017 6:52 PM in response to Ejand22

Ejand22 wrote:

When in Recovery mode and after selecting Disk Recovery - the option to Partition the drive isn't allowed (it's greyed out). Currently I have a single partition mapped as a GUID Partition Map under the base drive name. In other words, in the Internal list to the right of the dialog box states SanDisk SDSDHII960G Media with a partition below it called New Hard Drive (clever, I know)

Sounds like your stuck at step 4

Try selecting "New Hard Drive" then the Partition tab

Change the format to something else

Set it back to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) or APFS (for High Sierra)

And then see if you can click on the Apply button.

If that works, then finish up with steps 7 and 8 above.

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Answer 6

Ejand22 Author

Level 1

29 points

Nov 21, 2017 4:40 PM in response to den.thed

That's just it - I can't even select the Partition tab when New Hard Drive is highlighted. It's greyed out. I can select the SanDisk SDSSHII960G. New Hard Drive is a single partition within that drive.

APFS is not an option in the Format pull down menu when SanDisk is selected, but I can select Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

Do you think it would be a good idea to reformat the overall drive or restore the single partition? Sorry for all of the questions, but I sincerely do appreciate the help.

E

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Answer 7

Ejand22 Author

Level 1

29 points

Nov 21, 2017 5:05 PM in response to Ejand22

OK. I just tried to Restore the SanDisk base drive and when that didn't work - I tried to Erase the SanDisk base drive. Both failed. I don't have any idea what to do.

Here are the errors I get when trying to Restore:

Source volume format on device "/dev/disk1" is not valid for restoring

Could not validate source - error 254

Operation failed...

Here are the errors I get when trying to Erase:

Unmounting disk

Couldn't unmount disk.

Operation failed...

I also checked when I purchased the SSD drive and it was only December of 2016. I wouldn't expect the drive to fail after only 11 months...

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Answer 8

Ejand22 Author

Level 1

29 points

Nov 22, 2017 9:26 AM in response to den.thed

I tried to Restore the SanDisk base drive last night. It failed. I then tried to Erase the SanDisk base drive. It failed, too.

Here are the errors I got when trying to Restore:

Source volume format on device "/dev/disk1" is not valid for restoring

Could not validate source - error 254

Operation failed...

Here are the errors I got when trying to Erase:

Unmounting disk

Couldn't unmount disk.

Operation failed...

I don't have any idea what to do at this point.

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Answer 9

den.thed

Level 9

76,942 points

Nov 22, 2017 10:17 AM in response to Ejand22

The drive could very well be toasted like rkaufmann87 suggested earlier....😟

But to be honest, I still think that there is some simple little step that is evading our efforts.

A couple of other options that you can try are,

1. Format and Install macOS on lets say an external USB 3.0 drive, startup from the external drive, then see if you can Repair, Erase, Reformat and Reinstall mac OS on the SSD while running macOS from the external drive.

2. Remove the SSD from the iMac, put it into an external 2.5" enclosure or on a USB to SATA adapter, connect it to another Mac and see if you can Repair, Erase, Reformat and Reinstall macOS.

Then if you are still unable to get the SSD working again, contact SanDisk and see if you can get then to honor their 5 year warranty...?

https://kb.sandisk.com/app/answers/list/kw/SSD%20warranty/search/1

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Answer 10

Ejand22 Author

Level 1

29 points

Nov 23, 2017 4:02 AM in response to den.thed

OK! The startup from an external drive worked! I was able to erase and reformat the SSD drive while running from the external and ultimately used migration assistant to pull my Time Machine backup info onto the machine.

Thanks so much for the help!

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