I installed a new 1TB SSD in my 2017 Intel-based 21.5″ iMac to replace the 1TB SATA drive – mainly to improve performance. I’m having issues loading macOS on the new drive. The old drive was repurposed to an external drive and currently contains all the OS and my files I also have an up to date Time Machine backup on an external WD drive I am running Spectrum Internet with a Google Wifi network and one of my network’s mesh connection points (not the one connected to my router) is next to my iMac so I can run a wired connection.
Here is the progress so far:
- I can plug the old SATA drive into a USB port and start the iMac with no problem
- I can go into disk utility and have erased and prepared the new drive – so the system can see the new drive
- First I tried booting into recovery mode to reinstall macOS or update the new drive from my Time Machine backup.
- At first this would bypass the WiFi network selection as I have an ethernet cable wired into one of my Google Wifi hotspots. I can get to the screen where I can choose – Time Machine Backup, reinstall macOS, Safari, Disk Utility, etc. However, when I select an option, nothing happens – so I guess I’m not connected to the internet
- When I disconnected the ethernet cable, it asked me to select my network and enter a password, which I did. However, I had the same issue as above and the wifi icon seems to be looking for a connection and not finding it as it just hangs on the bike like it’s trying to connect
- Tried creating a second “guest” network with same results
- I booted using the external SATA drive and tried to navigate the migration assistant and it wasn’t clear if I was going to be able to transfer from the external drive to the internal drive or use Time Machine to load the internal player. I’m afraid it is trying to restore my SATA drive and not the internal drive
- I researched using a bootable USB, but using it requires an internet connection, which brings me back to the problem above (5 and 6), so I didn’t pursue that option.
- I used Carbon Copy Clone to duplicate the contents of the SATA drive to the SSD drive without success after waiting almost 10 hours for the data to transfer. It wouldn’t start at all.
Since I can see the SSD on Disk Utility when I boot with the old SATA disk, I think the new disk is OK. When I boot to the SATA drive, the internet works fine on Wi-Fi and Ethernet. So all my hardware is working….
I must be missing something about using internet recovery in terms of internet connection as I feel like restoring my Time Machine backup is still the most viable option at this point.
Thanks for all the ideas…..
