How to safely upgrade from OSX 10.11.6 to 10.12. or 10.13.x?

[TNM]

I make safety backups to multiple spinners in raid 10, so I get it. I only turn them on when backing up though as they are noisy. I also have a seagate backup plus 8TP single spinner (it's the non pro variant of the ironwolf drive inside, still a decent drive), it absolutely formatted perfectly with APFS..They say it's irreversible, what they mean is, you can delete the APFS but you lose everything.. I just wanted to see the sequential R/W speed differences, and I was surprised.. That drive which is a 5900 RPM, maintains 197 mb/s connected via usb 3, formatted as APFS.. With HFS+ it was 180 ish with occasional 185. So there's definitely even a performance difference for spinners.

Only downside I can see is that only computers with high sierra and up can even read the drive let alone right to it.. but it's as an extra backup purely for my imac pro and all it's external SSD's anyway, so that's fine in this case.

[arche3]

I've been doing os x upgrades over existing versions as apple recommends for years. This week went from sierra to high sierra and it is fine. Has been fine. For years.

I have a feeling this clean installation on formatted disk is a left over OCD tick from the old days of scsi drives and protools 5.

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by arche3

I've been doing os x upgrades over existing versions as apple recommends for years. This week went from sierra to high sierra and it is fine. Has been fine. For years.

I have a feeling this clean installation on formatted disk is a left over OCD tick from the old days of scsi drives and protools 5.

Hardly. I tired the 'Apple Way' for jollies and it was a nightmare of things that worked and some that didn't.

[arche3]

Originally Posted by musicman691

Hardly. I tired the 'Apple Way' for jollies and it was a nightmare of things that worked and some that didn't.

Bad luck then for you. This saved me hours of my life. Even if it doesn't work you can then do a clean install.

No harm.

[JFreak]

Originally Posted by musicman691

You don't have to use APFS as I understand it.

don't have to but should really

[jkess]

Has anyone made the jump to High Sierra and not done a clean install? I dread doing a clean install on this system. :/

[KV626]

Originally Posted by jkess

Has anyone made the jump to High Sierra and not done a clean install? I dread doing a clean install on this system. :/

Yes, normal upgrade. 10.12.6 -> 10.13.6. No trouble (with APFS conversion).

[jkess]

Cool. Thanks.

[Delta Music Belgium]

Originally Posted by jkess

Has anyone made the jump to High Sierra and not done a clean install? I dread doing a clean install on this system. :/

Yes, I updated from 10.12.6 to 10.13.6, including Mac Pro 5.1 firmware update and APFS conversion of the boot SSD.

I just used the free High Sierra updater in the App store and all went fine, even with 3 Raven MTi2s connected.

Of course I made a clone of the 10.12.6 SSD with SuperDuper to a brand new SSD before starting the update. Actually I updated the clone and use it as my brand new 10.13.6 startup disk now.