Chosen Solution
I’m currently running Sierra 10.12.6, I need to take my laptop from 500 gig to a terabyte. I understand I have to upgrade to High Sierra 10.13 to get that EFI update, or whatever it is, to make the OWC Aura Pro X2 SSD work. Fine. My problem is that I have a program that I require that doesn’t yet work beyond Sierra that I am loathe to give up. So how about this compromise. I keep pretty good backups, so I refresh my backup, which I would do anyway. Upgrade my laptop to 10.13, do the firmware update, everybody’s happy. I install the 1 TB OWC Aura Pro X2 SSD drive. Can I then restore my 10.12.6 Time Machine backup? The new drive is blank at that point and will be asking for, among possible sources, a TM restore source. My firmware has been updated, it’s happy. Will the firmware let me run Sierra on the newer firmware, or am I at a risk of bricking my laptop? Another possibility is to create a VM running a Sierra image for this one program under a pre-Catalina MacOS, I’m not averse to that. Catalina is not an option at this time as it breaks too many programs that I cannot live without and they would not fare well under virtualization. Thanks for your suggestions! —Wayne
There is one other option, getting an Apple (Samsung) blade SSD. Here’s what I can find right now Samsung SSPOLARIS drives These are the fastest SSD’s Apple had designed and Samsung built for them. They are expensive! But you could stick with Sierra using it! Here’s a good reference on the Apple SSD’s: The Ultimate Guide to Apple’s Proprietary SSDs. The other option while not ideal, is to spit your data across two drives. Living with your internal 500 GB and get a fast External Thunderbolt or USB3 SSD. As an example I too have a 500 system which I travel with when on a shoot. I have only the Apps I need on it with very little else. Leaving the majority of the drive empty! This is so I can have my active project space on it and allow the system to leverage it for virtual RAM and scratch space. I use the external Samsung T5 drives to hold my work.
