OS update alternative to download?

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Level 1

41 points

OS update alternative to download?

2 questions;

Can I get a disk with high Sierra on it? I have a 12 GB cap on my satellite account. The OS takes 5.5 GB. I Have a MBA and an iMac. What are my alternatives?

What causes a "firmware defect" that prohibits High Sierra from installing. I am at my daughters for TG and downloaded HS. After 20 minutes of install time and 2 restarts it tells me it can not install HS because of a firmware problem. It suggest trying again. Does this mean I can't use HS? I can't re-download because I forgot my power supply at home. Thus back to question 1 if question 2 answers to go ahead and try again.

MBA late 2010.

Geoff

MacBook Air, OS X El Capitan (10.11)

Posted on Nov 23, 2017 1:32 PM

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Answer 1

Nov 23, 2017 1:52 PM in response to Geoff K

I highly suggest you first backup your MBA before updating. You'll need an external drive formatted as HFS+ Mac OS Extended Journaled. This is a bootable backup. Time Machine is not bootable. If there is a problem with your upgrade to High Sierra, you'll need to boot from the external drive to fix your problem. The change from HFS+ to APFS has not gone smoothly for some users. Since your MBA barely meets the requirements to upgrade, you might have issues like the failure to upgrade your firmware in the installer for High Sierra.

Software used to Clone:

CarbonCopyCloner http://www.bombich.com/download.html (All options are available free for 30 days)
SuperDuper! http://www.shirt-pocket.com/ (Free forever to do an erase and install. Purchased version allows for smart updates and schedules)

Try updating your firmware

About the SMC Firmware Updates - Apple Support

If you have a small thumbdrive you can create a bootable High Sierra installer. See these links for help creating a bootable installer. You will not have to download again.

How to Create a Bootable Install Drive for macOS High Sierra

Create a Bootable macOS High Sierra Install Drive with DiskMaker X 7 | Other World Computing Blog

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Answer 2

Barney-15E

Level 10

124,366 points

Nov 23, 2017 2:09 PM in response to Geoff K

High Sierra requires a firmware update to your hardware (I think all Macs). Some people have problems with the firmware update, but I cannot explain why. Do you hear a long, loud tone on restart? That is it attempting to install the firmware update.

You can move the High Sierra installer to a USB stick to reinstall later (if you can still boot into your previous OS).

How to create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support

However, I think the initial download is not the full installer, so you will not be able to create a bootable installer if the download is only 19MB. If you can download the full 5.2GB installer, then you can make a bootable USB stick and install from that. dianefromoregon has offered advice on other methods (along with this one).

The installer should try to install the firmware update when it restarts the first time.

This is one of many posts on this: High Sierra Upgrade fails with: An error occurred while verifying firmware

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Answer 3

Geoff K Author

Level 1

41 points

Nov 25, 2017 9:36 AM in response to Barney-15E

Thanks Diane and Barney. I retried installing and this time it worked. No idea why. I have been using CCC for back up so had already done that. The Apple link for SMC firmware updates says if I need it it will show in the App store updates. Nothing shows so I assume I'm OK?

Geoff

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