Mojave installer reports "This volume is not a supported Core Storage configuration."

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Mojave installer reports "This volume is not a supported Core Storage configuration."

I just tried to update my iMac Retina 5k 27", late 2014 running High Sierra 10.13.6 to Mojave. The installer started, but claimed very soon:

(This volume is not a supported Core Storage configuration.). The configuration is a fusion drive with HFS+ filesystem. Due to a hard disk failure the original harddisk was replaced by a Samsung SSD with 2TB some time ago by an authorized Apple Service Partner near Munich.

I read that fusion drives are supported by Mojave and would be converted to APFS during installation. So I didn't expect any problem here.

Any idea how to proceed from here?

Thanks a lot

Wolfgang

iMac with Retina 5K display, macOS High Sierra (10.13.6)

Posted on Sep 24, 2018 12:53 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Wolfii Author

Level 1

21 points

Sep 29, 2018 1:06 PM in response to Fouad Abbasi

Dear all,

today I created a bootable USB stick of the Mojave installer as described here: How to create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support

I booted from the stick and erased the "Macintosh HD" volume from the Disk Utility that was available on the install medium. For the new volume I chose "APFS encrypted" as file system. I did a clean installation of Mojave and then used the migration assistant to restore my software and data from my Time Machine backup.

Worked fine, now I'm running Mojave.

Yours

Wolfgang

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Answer 2

Wolfii Author

Level 1

21 points

Sep 26, 2018 11:34 PM in response to Fouad Abbasi

Dear all,

I requested support at Apple yesterday, waiting for reply. Feedback should come within 48 hours.

Maybe you could do the same to show Apple that this is not a singular problem:

Contact - Official Apple Support

Yours

Wolfgang

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Answer 3

Sep 24, 2018 1:10 PM in response to Wolfii

Wolfii wrote:

System Information says:

Looks pretty normal to me ..

Well, normal or not, it might be prudent to hold off a bit until more reports come rolling in on the issue.

At that point more constructive guidance will be forth coming.

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Answer 4

Wolfii Author

Level 1

21 points

Sep 24, 2018 1:20 PM in response to dialabrain

Sorry, I didn't mean to be offensive. I'm not a native speaker, so please forgive me if my answer sounded rude.

I indeed planned to wait now whether more reports for the same problem drop in and what configurations are affected. I think this will give an idea of the root cause and maybe even point out a solution.

If the problem still exists end of the week I will try to create a boot medium and install from there ... maybe that will help.

Yours

Wolfgang

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Answer 5

dialabrain

Level 10

122,525 points

Sep 24, 2018 1:27 PM in response to Wolfii

I didn't think you were rude at all. Sorry if I seemed like I did. I don't know the details but the EVO SSD's seems to have a few issues. It may be that the installer is looking for specific drives. See if a bootable installer helps.

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Answer 6

Wolfii Author

Level 1

21 points

Sep 26, 2018 11:38 PM in response to Wolfii

And one more addition: The SSD was installed 07/2016, so the installers of Sierra and High Sierra did not have a problem with it. Maybe this is indeed relating to Mojave's attempt to convert the filesystem to APFS ...

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Answer 7

Sep 28, 2018 9:03 AM in response to Wolfii

I have the same problem but I replaced my 1TB drive with an OWC SSD. I seen elsewhere that if you make a bootable USB Mojave. Then boot with it and before installing format the fusion drive as APFS. Then install to that drive.

Make sure you have a backup e.g. Time Machine to restore from.

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Answer 8

mktchin

Level 1

4 points

Sep 29, 2018 6:33 AM in response to Mike Retondo

Hi

I have a Mac Pro 2009 upgraded to a 2010 model. I run High Sierra on a Fusion drive with a rotation hard drive and a Samsung EVO SSD. I had the same error described above when trying to install Mojave. I tried the method of installing Mojave using an USB drive. I booted with the Mojave Installer on USB and use the Disk Utility program to erase the Fusion drive with the APFS format. I tested that I could read and write files to the Fusion drive using the Terminal. I tried to install Mojave from the USB to the APFS formatted Fusion drive but it reported that I needed a Metal compatible graphics card which I have or the FileVault needed to be turned off which was not on.

I booted back into another drive with High Sierra but found that the Fusion drive was write protected. It had a read only status on the whole drive. I could not clone my High Sierra volume to the APFS Fusion Drive.

Any ideas to change permissions to remove the write protection?

Michael

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Answer 9

Sep 30, 2018 4:30 AM in response to Wolfii

Hey thank you. I successfully made a usb boot drive.

format and installed fine. During setup, migration tool is hung on loading backup from time capsule.

i figured it might be big, left it run last night and still stuck at loading backups.

what gives? I tried doing this twice.

the first time I couldnt wait and set it up as new system.

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Answer 10

Wolfii Author

Level 1

21 points

Sep 30, 2018 7:52 AM in response to Fouad Abbasi

Dear Fouad,

loading the backup took already a lot of time with my local backup device (Drobo 5d, connected to Thunderbolt port). Depending on the size of your backup, it may take reeeeeaaaalllyyy long over WiFi, especially when connection is poor and/or there are other WiFi stations nearby. I don't know whether that is possible, but if it is, try to connect the Time Capsule over Ethernet instead of WiFi. This may speed up things a lot.

Yours

Wolfgang

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Answer 11

Sep 30, 2018 8:00 AM in response to Wolfii

Wolfii wrote:

...Maybe this is indeed relating to Mojave's attempt to convert the filesystem to APFS ...

Unless you somehow forced it not to, High Sierra would have automatically converted

the file system to APFS if it is an SSD.

FWIW, Mojave installed just fine on my late 2013 iMac with a 1TB Sandisk

Ultra II drive which I installed and is working fine, even with a Bootcamp Partition.

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Answer 12

Wolfii Author

Level 1

21 points

Sep 30, 2018 10:25 AM in response to woodmeister50

Dear woodmeister50,

my constellation and all other reports referred to Fusion Drive constellations in which the harddisk was later replaced by an SSD. This constellation seems not to be supported by the installer.

One question: In my configuration the file system was also encrypted by FileVault. Is this also true for you, or does this happen also for unencrypted filesystems?

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Answer 13

Oct 5, 2018 10:37 AM in response to Mike Retondo

Still happening Oct 5. Definitely appears related to OWC SSD. My old MacBook Pro Retina updated no problem.

disk0s2:

Device Name: OWC Mercury Electra 6G SSD

Media Name: OWC Mercury Electra 6G SSD Media

Size: 959.34 GB (959,337,365,504 bytes)

Medium Type: SSD

Protocol: SATA

Internal: Yes

Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)

Status: Online

S.M.A.R.T. Status: Verified

PV UUID: 22AB8470-F11B-4739-9D17-1B7D74F8278C

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Answer 14

Oct 17, 2018 9:04 AM in response to Wolfii

One month later, official Mojave release - still does this. Is Apple going to address this or just let hang everyone who had to replace a crashed HD. Maybe we have to wait for Mac OS Sahara?

Has anyone had success doing a reformat or anything radical and then restoring from a full backup?

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Answer 15

Wolfii Author

Level 1

21 points

Oct 17, 2018 12:10 PM in response to cheartwell

The solution stated above worked for me: Create a bootable Mojave installer, use the disk manager there to erase the fusion drive and create a new one with APFS, then install Mojave there. Finally use the Migration assistant to get your data back from Time Machine.

No idea whether Apple is doing anything about it in one of the next Mojave Updates. The affected number of people is low, and as it involved changes to the hardware that Apple might consider unsupported, it might be that we have to live with it.

After all, there is a workaround and it is a one time effort. They will have their reasons to refuse to update such constellations in place, at least they implemented a check for it at the beginning of the installation. Thanks to time machine it is not really a huge problem, it just takes some time.

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Mojave installer reports "This volume is not a supported Core Storage configuration."

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