Matt ChristensenJun 6, 2023

Well, four attempts at installing macOS Ventura on an external drive (so I can update it to the Sonoma beta) later and I have not been able to do it.

The installer seems to finish then the system reboots to the internal instead of the new install on the external. Trying to boot into the failed install doesn’t work. I get SDErrorDomain error 108 — anyone have suggestions? I’ve tried two different known good external SSDs and USB-C cables.

#macOS #apple #WWDC

Show threadJuan Salvo
@matt are you using an apfs or hfs+ partition?
Jun 6, 2023 at 4:16pmWeb
Show threadMatt ChristensenJun 6, 2023
@Jsalvo I’m wiping the entire external drive, formatting as APFS/GUID Partition Map so it ends up with an empty APFS container/volume on it that I point the installer to
Show threadJuan SalvoJun 6, 2023
@matt do it as an HFS+ volume instead. APFS has some funky behaviors at boot time.
Show threadMatt ChristensenJun 6, 2023
@Jsalvo Can modern macOS even install on HFS+ anymore? Even if it can…I don’t want that
Show threadJuan SalvoJun 6, 2023
@matt I believe it can, the issue is really just that with an ext volume APFS being an image in a container means two points of possible failure at boot time mount. VS one on HFS.
Show threadMatt ChristensenJun 6, 2023
@Jsalvo I think if you point modern macOS installers at an HFS+ volume it will say “thank you” and reformat to an APFS container and make all the APFS volume groups it wants. I can’t test that though, I just kicked off a test this time from an Intel machine 🤞
Show threadJuan SalvoJun 6, 2023
@matt probably true.