Latest Sierra Update Bricked my iMac

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FineWine

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Nurse (R)

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#207235 15-Dec-2016 11:16

Well this is a first for me - Things did not go quite as planned with the latest macOS Sierra update 10.12.2 as it bricked my 2014 27" iMac and after 4 hrs of level 1 then level 2 support it was determined (educated guess) that the update did not complete properly more than likely during the later stages of install. During this process it buggered my master partition.

Though we tried Internet Recovery Disk Utils this did not fix things. We even deleted the partition using DU Terminal commands - scary stuff there. I eventually went and got my off site Carbon Copy Clone back up drive and booted into that using Target mode, then into the Recovery component and then into Disk Utility (saved going into Internet Recovery that did). This version of DU automatically discovered that I had a partitioning problem due to the mix of HD & SSD and automatically corrected that. Installed Yosemite from the net (Apple needs to update that one say to El Capitan) which took 2 and bit hours. Then restored from Time Capsule which took just under 6 hours.

Now have version Sierra 10.12.1. I will hold off updating to 10.12.2 for several weeks. Have already posted into Apple Discussions. To see if others are having similar problems with this update, I count two so far, be interesting to see how many support calls Apple has had in the 24 hours.

Be warned there MAY be problems with this update or I may have just been very unlucky.

Whilst the difficult we can do immediately, the impossible takes a bit longer. However, miracles you will have to wait for.

Dairyxox

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#1689678 15-Dec-2016 18:45

Might be a good idea to setup a time machine backup if you haven't already. Quick, easy, powerful.

Mac OS upgrades are usually a big hit & miss like this, after the first couple (from when it was purchased)

EDIT: I see you mentioned time capsule. So thats OK, but 6 hours rest sounds a bit steep.

FineWine

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Nurse (R)

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#1689746 15-Dec-2016 21:37

Dairyxox:

but 6 hours rest sounds a bit steep.

Done Time Machine restores before, either to set up new machines or emergency restores and 4 to 6 hrs is the norm especially when you have half a terabyte of documents, photos/artwork and music etc.

Whilst the difficult we can do immediately, the impossible takes a bit longer. However, miracles you will have to wait for.

Athlonite

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#1690793 16-Dec-2016 02:24

well atleast your battery will last a we bit longer now

Dairyxox

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#1690847 16-Dec-2016 08:07

Its been pretty quick to restore my 128gb ssd from spinning rust over USB3.

Maybe think about partitioning your drive. keep the os + most important apps on one small area, and your media on another. Makes OS restores and repairs like this a bit quicker.

FineWine

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Nurse (R)

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#1690848 16-Dec-2016 08:07

Here is the Apple Discussion Forum on the topic: Black screen on startup after Sierra update

The fix that is mentioned did not work for me. I had carried out my own research and had tried that prior to contacting apple.

Whilst the difficult we can do immediately, the impossible takes a bit longer. However, miracles you will have to wait for.

FineWine

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#1690856 16-Dec-2016 08:28

Dairyxox:

Maybe think about partitioning your drive. keep the os + most important apps on one small area, and your media on another. Makes OS restores and repairs like this a bit quicker.

I see where you are going with this and back in my sad past of Microsoft PC's (mid 80's to early 90's) I used to run several drives; video, photo's, music, documents & OS all on separate drives and the only drive I had to reinstall was the OS drive, fun days of DIY Intel PC's with twin monitors.

These new iMac's with HD & SSD called a "Fusion Drive" handle things differently. A Fusion Drive is basically a software based SSHD (hybrid drive), it uses software to combine a regular, slower but higher capacity HDD and a modern, faster but smaller capacity SSD or flash storage module into one drive. OS X will then control which drive your files end up being stored on. All files will be stored on the SSD until it’s full, after this point your system will store only your most used files on the SSD allowing for faster and more efficient access.

Apple OS software really doesn't like it when you start partitioning unless you are running different OS's then both drives become primary drives (dual boot). It prefers that everything is all on the one drive for more efficient management and control.

It works and this is the first time I have had a serious OS software problem with Apple. I have had a HD failure which Apple Genius replaced in 3 hours on a Sunday in Sydney, surprised me I can tell you.

Whilst the difficult we can do immediately, the impossible takes a bit longer. However, miracles you will have to wait for.