2017 iMac 4K SSD Upgrade Problems

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Hello,
I have an iMac that had a bad harddrive so I replaced it with an SSD. The problem I have now is after installing the SSD and loading Macos Monterey the system automatically creates a second drive named Update. I didn't have any problems with it booting until after the system created the drive called update that created itself automatically. I have deleted the Volume called Update and it boots fine until the system automatically creates it again. I've tried changing the startup disk but that doesn't work. What can I do to fix this problem so that it boots from the SSD that I installed? I've read that with the Fusion drives the easiest way to do it is clone the original drive but that wasn't an option because the original fusion drive was dead and unreadable.
 
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How did you "load" Monterey? What does Disk Utility show? I am confused slightly by your post in that I don't know if it was booting from "Update" or not. Can you tell us more about that, please? How did you delete the Volume called Update? Is this Update Volume on the SSD or not?

Maybe it would help to take a screenshot of Disk utility so we can see where this Volume is? Before taking the snapshot, be sure to click on the "View" option on the top bar of DU, then "Show All Devices."

It shouldn't matter, but just to be complete, what iMac?
 
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I installed Monterey from the App Store after installing High Sierra through Recovery. Everything was fine until the system automatically added the second volume which is labeled Update. I deleted the Update Volume and it booted as it should from the SSD but after rebooting a few times during testing it added the Update Volume again. The Update Volume shows as a completely different SSD. I took pics of both with and w/o view option selected. It's a 2017 iMac 4k.
 

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MBP 16" 2023 (M3 Pro), iPhone 16 Pro, plus ATVs, AWatch, MacMinis (multiple)
Thanks for the images. First, a bit of a tutorial so we can talk about it. My apologies if you already know this, but it is key to be able to talk about the images. In the new APFS structure that started with High Sierra, Apple did away with the use of "partition" for the most part. You still CAN partition a hard drive, but most of us don't anymore. The reason is the second thing Apple did was in APFS it creates what are called "Containers" on the drive. You can see that in the image 2022125_133207.jpg file. The hardware is on the top line, where it says "HP SSD..." That is the physical device. Then there is one Container named "Container disk2" and inside that Container are two Volumes, one named "Update" and the other named "iMac SSD - Data." Normally, when you format the drive you give it a name and that name then is used for one of the Volumes the installation creates and is used as part of the name for the second Volume the installation creates. So, for example, if I were to reformat that SSD and give it the name "MacInWin," I would expect to see the hardware line stay the same, the Container line stay pretty much the same, except that the "disk2" may change as it depends on where it is mounted, and then there would be two Volumes, one named "MacInWin" and the other "MacInWin - Data." Then when the installer installs macOS, it puts the system files on the "MacInWin" volume and the user data on the "MacInWin - Data" Volume. The first Volume is read-only, possibly encrypted and secure to keep out malware, the second is read/write and contains everything all of the user accounts can get at to read and write, including Applications. Technically, the /System, /Applications and /Library folders are on "MacInWin" and /Users is on the "MacInWin - Data" Volume.

OK, with that information, and looking at your images, what is missing is the Volume that should be named "iMac SSD" to go with the "iMac SSD - Data" Volume. It is possible that what you see as "Update" is the system Volume, but normally it would not be named "Update," but "as I said, "iMac SSD."

Let me ask, have you done any other deletions or changes to this drive other than install? Did you rename a drive, or reformat? It looks like you are booted into Recovery, so that tells me you can't boot into the boot Volume, if there is still one there.

I know you said everything was "fine until the system automatically added the second volume which is labeled Update," but what does that really mean? When done properly, the two Volumes in my example would be merged logically by Finder to show as one single logical drive called "MacInWin" on my Desktop and in Finder. And it would act as a single drive. But your two Volumes have unrelated names, which may or may not be why they are mounting separately. The OS can't merge them as it should.

Drives don't usually name themselves. Did you give the name "Update" at any point in the formatting of the SSD? In the installation of the OS?

What others have done, by mistake, is to force the installation to one particular Volume, thinking it is like a partition, then ending up with multiple Data Volumes because each installation re-created a new Volume and named it Data. I don't see that in your images, but wanted to warn you to be careful about that, too.

Frankly, at this point it may be best to just erase the entire drive at the hardware level and let it recreate the Container and Volumes, then install the OS to the Container and let it create the Volumes it needs. That action will delete ALL of the data on the drive, so you will need a backup to get your own data back using Migration Assistant once the new SSD is bootable.
 
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I'm familiar with the how Apple splits the drive to iMac SSD and iMac SSD data which it usually does on it's own. From the start I formatted the Drive and named it iMac SSD then installed High Sierra from recovery. The drive named update somehow just appeared automatically and after I removed the Update volume it boots with no issues but at some point after one of the reboots the Update Volume appeared again so I'm assuming the system is doing it automatically. The main issue seems to be it's actually trying to boot from the Update Volume instead of the iMac SSD so I'm trying to find a way to make it boot from the iMac SSD all the time instead of booting from Update Volume. I think it may be because I wasn't able to clone the original harddrive that had the Fusion setup. I've tried changing the Startup disk but that doesn't solve it either.
 
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Sorry about the tutorial, then. Not everybody knows about that. What is totally strange is that there isn't a Volume named "iMac SSD" on the drive. Basically, there is nothing there from which to boot, except Recovery, if it's NOT Update. Also, although the right side is cut off, it says in that final image that "Update" is only taking 160 KB, which is NOT enough to hold the operating system, so it cannot be the boot drive. That leaves the question, "Where did the boot Volume go?" Without that boot Volume, you'll never get it to boot from the SSD.
 
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I know it's really strange that it boots from the iMac SSD when I remove the Update volume with absolutely no problems. I thought after I removed that Volume the problem was fixed until the Update Volume showed back up automatically. I'm not an Apple expert so the tutorial was fine you can never have too much knowledge when it comes to dealing with Apple products. I'm gonna format and reinstall and if that doesn't fix it I guess I'll have to keep digging to try and find a solution. Thanks for trying to help me get it figured out.
 
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What you might consider is to build a bootable installer USB thumb drive, boot from that and start at the hardware level with erasing the entire SSD.

 

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