

Just a few moments later, it told the truth, as its bulk became apparent. Again, this fools you to begin with: despite my rural sub-broadband connection, it said that it would only take eight minutes. Once that is done, the main download starts.

I opted for an external SSD, as my iMac’s internal storage is a Fusion Drive, which cannot yet be converted to APFS. If you want to install it on another drive, click on the button to show all mounted volumes, and select its correct destination.

By default, you’ll be offered your current startup volume. Run that installer, and you’ll be walked through the usual licence agreement, and asked to select the disk on which to install High Sierra. When you first start downloading High Sierra, you might think that something is wrong: it comes initially as a small install tool, Install macOS High Sierra, which weighs in at a modest 19.9 MB, but the hefty payload has yet to come. Ensure that you make a copy of the installer app before letting it install, or you will need to download it a second time to make bootable installers, etc. Using that second version should be far simpler, and merge the initial download steps. NOTE: The process described below was that performed by the first release of the installer, which Apple has since replaced by a single monolithic installer app of 5.17 GB.
