MacOS – High Sierra won’t install: for the boot disk it says: “This disk cannot be used to start your computer”

boothard drivehigh sierramacosssd

I have a macbook pro late 2012, single stock SSD, Sierra installed with latest updates. I am trying to install High Sierra.

When I go to select the disk to install on (the current, normal boot volume), the installer refuses, with the error: "This disk cannot be used to start your computer"

Disk Utility First Aid can find nothing wrong. The computer boots normally just fine with Sierra.

Volume name : Macintosh HD
Volume type : Logical Volume
BSD device node : disk1
Mount point : /
File system : Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted)
Connection : PCI
Device tree path : IODeviceTree:/PCI0@0/PEG2@1,2/SSD0@0/PRT0@0/PMP@0
Writable : Yes
Is case-sensitive : No
File system UUID : 308F1BD9-CF92-335C-B437-D47C941E7D76
CoreStorage UUID : 0E3E3C70-5FE7-484E-826B-828CDA8F3471
Parent CoreStorage LVG UUID : 13CB696B-1760-4072-A883-0ED19EFBEBF1
Volume capacity : 374,756,999,168
Available space (Purgeable + Free) : 168,884,392,284
Purgeable space : 9,433,788,764
Free space : 159,450,603,520
Used space : 205,872,606,884
File count : 1,735,041
Owners enabled : Yes
Is encrypted : Yes
System Integrity Protection supported : Yes
Can be verified : Yes
Can be repaired : No
Bootable : Yes
Journaled : Yes
Disk number : 1
Media name : Macintosh HD
Media type : Generic
Ejectable : No
Solid state : Yes
S.M.A.R.T. status : Not Supported
Parent disks : disk0s1

Best Answer

You must turn off filevault before install HS...

Related Solutions

Disk will not mount, but shows up on System Profiler

By SSD and HDD combo do you mean something like a Seagate Momentus?

I'm really confused by you saying that the disk failed (how did it fail?) but then you have connected it by USB and you expect it to work?

The report you posted doesn't show a

Content:    Apple_HFS

as you might expect to see under Volumes, so it appears to have been corrupted.

If data on this volume is vital and you don't mind spending money to get it back then unplug it right away and take it to a professional recovery service.

If it would be just "nice to have back" then you could try using the First Aid tab of Disk Utility, and see if it can recover the partition(s).

Mac – Encrypting from the Disk Utility vs Finder

The difference with method 1 is that, with method 1, you're not actually converting anything. You're erasing the existing data and replacing it with an encrypted partition. With method 2, a conversion process begins, which doesn't erase data, but does take more time.

The thing to keep in mind: any drive which is converted from a normal drive (HFS+) to a Core Storage drive can be reverted back to a simple HFS+ volume (non-encrypted). If you use the Disk Utility method you showed above, the resulting disk will NOT be revertible, because the disk will have never been an HFS+ volume in the first place. That is what you're seeing with "Revertible: No". If you use the Finder method (or the equivalent command-line option), the drive will be revertible.

Another thing to keep in mind is that modern versions of OS X will normally use Core Storage on the boot drive by default, even on unencrypted disks. The result is that, in some cases, "Revertible" may always be "No". You'll always be able to decrypt a Core Storage volume however, so perhaps this is insignificant for most people.

If you want to talk about what's the best option for Time Machine, it doesn't really matter. The end result is, in either case, an encrypted disk, protected by a password. To do anything to the disk you would need the password. There isn't any significant difference to either method. It's marginally possible that the disk utility method could be the slightest bit more secure, for the simple reason that this reduces the number of attack vectors. If there is any benefit, it would only be slight.

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