3

I have been stuck on an old Mac OS (Catalina) on my old Macbook Pro 15" 2016 model since 12 November 2020 (Big Sur release date). I have tried to upgrade to Big Sur (and more recently Monterey) and was met with a scary message:

"This disk has SMART errors. This disk has a hardware problem that can't be repaired. Back up as much of the data as possible and replace the disk."

Sounds pretty serious, right....?!?!

However... I have run Disk Utility First Aid multiple times and there are NO ERRORS. So what is this all about?!

There are loads of posts online about this every same problem — a seemingly functional machine with NO ERRORS reporting is blocked from upgrading/installing a newer OS due to "SMART errors" — are all these folks looking at bricked machines or is something else going on here...???

I spoke to someone at Apple about this and was told that the laptop was DOOMED — nothing to be done. Do as the message says — backup and replace. Except of course the SSD cannot be replaced that easily as it's built into the main board, so to do so costs hundreds of $$$s/£££s/etc. I have of course considered a clean install — wiping the SSD and starting over... But without a replacement machine for my work I have not wanted to risk it in case I can't install and the SMART errors are real*!!!

Is it possible to force an install? Do I have to put my machine in the bin? What can I do...???

Improve this question
2
  • 3
    Just FYI, SMART is related to the physical health of the drive whereas First Aid fixes issues with the file system. This is like having damage to the car, but running tests on the gas which shows no problems. You simply cannot run First Aid to fix a physical problem with the drive. Commented Mar 27, 2023 at 14:09
  • Also, SMART errors are an early-warning sign; they show that the disk has worn out enough that it soon will probably start exhibiting file-system errors, even if it doesn't already.  (Perhaps a better car analogy is the engine warning light: it might still be driveable for a while, but something's seriously wrong, and the sooner you can get it seen to, the better the chances of salvaging it.) Commented Jul 7 at 16:26

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
3

OK — I have finally bought a shiny new M2 Macbook so was in a position to risk bricking my old laptop. Of course I don't want that as it seems perfectly fine and I can't hand it on or sell it, but there you go.

But it seem like there is a SOLUTION...!

First of all back up all of your irreplaceable files in case anything goes wrong.

Then you are going to need to create a USB Installer for Mac OSX.

First of all check your hardware for compatibility, here are Apple's support pages for Ventura / Monterey:

macOS Ventura is compatible with these computers

macOS Monterey is compatible with these computers

As my laptop is MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2016) I needed Monterey.

Once you know which version of macOS you need then download it.

How to download macOS

Normally you can download the latest version from the App Store or via System Settings > General > Software update. The installer will download to your Applications folder.

If you want to see everything that is available for your machine you can use the softwareupdate terminal commmand (available since Catalina 10.15) to list and download installers installer.

List available installers:

softwareupdate --list-full-installers

Get the latest installer:

softwareupdate --fetch-full-installer

Download a specific installer:

softwareupdate --fetch-full-installer --full-installer-version 13.0.1

Be aware you can only download compatible installers — I couldn't download Monterey from my M2 Macbook, only Ventura. In my case I downloaded the Monterey installer on my MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2016) and backed it up my NAS. I then transferred the installer to my new MacBook Pro M2 to create a bootable USB installer (but you should be able to do this on the laptop you are trying to upgrade).

You'll need a USB flash drive with at least 14 GB of available storage, formatted as Mac OS Extended. Use Disk Utility if you need to format it.

Create a bootable installer for macOS

You'll need to use a terminal command similar to:

sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Monterey.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume

The first part is the path to the installer, and you'll need to replace MyVolume with the name of your USB volume — find it out using one these commands:

ls /Volumes
diskutil list

Restart or turn on your Mac, then immediately press and hold the Option (Alt) key to see bootable volumes and pick the installer.

If you just try to install the normal way you'll get the same SMART error which will prevent you from going further.

First of all make sure you connect to your network by clicking the WIFI icon top right.

Then open up Disk Utility and erase/reformat your laptop hard drive which by default will be named "Macintosh HD".

Then open terminal from the Utilities menu item and run the following command.

/Install\ macOS\ Monterey.app/Contents/Resources/startosinstall --agreetolicense --volume /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD

This is based on installing Monterey to the default volume — update the macOS name accordingly and change Macintosh HD to a different name if you called it something else. You can use the ls /Volumes or diskutil list to check the volume names.

This method should install successfully!

In my case the SMART issue seemed like it was related to the age of the drive and having had a lot of data read/written... Obviously it could still fail but for now I have breathed some more life into my old machine...!!!

Improve this answer
8
  • I would recommend not referencing your new M2 Mac in your answer, since the new Mac was not used to fix your problem. Commented Mar 27, 2023 at 13:04
  • Actually, I did use it "I then transferred the installer to my new Mac to create a bootable USB installer"... I can edit to make that clearer...? Commented Mar 27, 2023 at 13:24
  • 2
    The only non-standard part of your process is you ran the installer from command line, the rest is 'as expected'. It would be interesting to know if, by that point, the regular USB install process wouldn't have worked just as well. Also, why not get something that will analyse & show you a SMART report, so you can see what is/may be failing? Commented Mar 27, 2023 at 13:38
  • 1
    “Obviously it could still fail” — I suspect that's more than just a possibility… That's what SMART does: gives you warning that your drive is starting to degrade or fail, before it gets severe enough to cause data loss. We can't predict when it'll get severe enough, but the scary message indicates you might not have too long. I'd suggest making sure that backup is working and kept up-to-date! (That's good general advice, of course.) Commented Mar 27, 2023 at 19:49
  • 1
    Thanks for the detailed steps. This worked for up-ing Catalina -> Big Sur on my MBP late 2013 Retina, hence Big Sur (seems Monterey onward is unavailable?). My only comment: Maybe safe to instruct to NOT encrypt the file system where Mac OS will be installed (first I encrypted it and ran into discussions.apple.com/thread/252036326, then reformatted w/o enc, then worked). Commented Jun 22, 2023 at 3:23

You must log in to answer this question.

Start asking to get answers

Find the answer to your question by asking.

Ask question

Explore related questions

See similar questions with these tags.