So, simply erase and format - you can find instructions in the Help section (menu bar) in Disk Utility. It also seems easier to format an external drive rather than creating a partition on the internal drive - remember that you do not need any software or drivers on that drive. Our easy step-by-step guide shows you how. You can find instructions for creating clones on the CCC website - it is really quite easy to do. Its essential to calibrate your power management system to give your battery its fullest charge and lifespan. You can boot into it and try it and you can boot back into your regular system any time. That way, you'll have exactly what you'd have on your regular drive. I recently had the hard drive replaced, and I got it with El Capitan installed on it. It was running Sierra, but overall wasnt really the smoothest, and took quite a while to boot up. Once you have the clone done, boot into it and download/install the upgrade. Ive got a 2.9ghz i7, 8gb RAM MacBook Pro (mid-2012) with a 1tb HDD.
If it's external, make sure you format it Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and GUID Partition Scheme so it's bootable (you do that in Disk Utility in Applications > Utilities.Īfter you create your partition, you can either download Sierra and simply direct the installer to install it on that drive (rather than your regular hard drive) or, if you want an exact copy of your system to install the upgrade on, then you can use either CarbonCop圜loner or SuperDuper to clone your current system to the new partition or external drive. In order to do that, you will need to either create a partition on your internal drive or get an external hard drive.