Clean installing high Sierra on SSD drive with a APFS

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Level 1

12 points

Clean installing high Sierra on SSD drive with a APFS

I’ve had my “Other world computing” SSD Drive installed for several years now with no issues. Computer has recently been acting funny so decided to do a clean install of high sierra operating system. Since it’s recommended that you use APFS format which is what I had it set to originally, it gives me an message that it can’t make a pre-boot recovery on APFS. I’m assuming because there are no partitions on the SSD drive this is the reason for this message. I’ve read some of the workarounds on the Internet but with no success. For the life of me I can’t figure out how I originally was able to install this OS. If anyone Knows the exact fix for this please respond. Thank you

Mac Pro, macOS 10.13

Posted on Apr 15, 2020 5:43 AM

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Answer 1

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keg55

Level 6

11,743 points

Apr 15, 2020 9:03 AM in response to ODog

What you're showing is your OWC_SSD volume not the DISK itself. Make sure you change the VIEW to Show All Devices so you can select and erase your DISK.

When you select the DISK and click ERASE, you should see the options for Format: and Scheme:. Format should be Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and Scheme should be GUID.

In the picture below you should select the DISK (APPLE SSD SM0128F Media). I don't know what your DISK name is.

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Answer 2

ODog Author

Level 1

12 points

Apr 15, 2020 8:19 AM in response to keg55

So I’m in disk utility, I click in Ssd drive left panel and hit erase. Correct?

I thought that when erase window popped up I was to change to journaled in the drop down? In that drop down there is not journaled option.

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Answer 3

Apr 15, 2020 6:08 AM in response to ODog

Check with OWC for any firmware updates to this SSD.

You may need to erase and reformat the drive as HFS+ journaled (implicit case-insensitive), and afterward, request Disk Utility to Edit menu : Convert to APFS.

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