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User profile for user: kennethfromfortbragg
kennethfromfortbragg Author
User level: Level 1
10 points

Installed Catalina Many Things Missing

I installed Catalina on a romote SSD and find that many things are missing. I had to fill in my user account info as if I was a new user and it didn't recover any of my history. All the files that were on my High Sierra desktop have disappeared as well as files related to my account. However,I can access my Safari account and browsing history. I had two active user accounts on High Sierra (for me and wife) and neither are visible in Catalina. I do not want to start Catalina as a brand new user but obviously I'm missing something about achieving continuity from OS one to the other.


The old High Sierra account is active on my Mac and so I have all my data.


Also read/write to items in the iMac hard disk from SSD appears very slow. Does that mean that running Catalina on the SSD requires I move all relevant files to the SSD too?

iMac 27", macOS 10.15

Posted on Apr 25, 2020 11:18 AM

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User profile for user: babowa
babowa
User level: Level 9
78,441 points

Posted on Apr 26, 2020 4:34 PM

Did you first format/erase that SSD?


Did you test it to make sure you can boot from it?


Have you looked in Disk Utility to see if it shows there in the left column (that means it's mounted) or hit "mount" if it does not show?


And, lastly, I would also boot into that SSD and then try to download Catalina on it rather than working from the internal.

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User profile for user: babowa
babowa
User level: Level 9
78,441 points

Apr 26, 2020 4:34 PM in response to kennethfromfortbragg

Did you first format/erase that SSD?


Did you test it to make sure you can boot from it?


Have you looked in Disk Utility to see if it shows there in the left column (that means it's mounted) or hit "mount" if it does not show?


And, lastly, I would also boot into that SSD and then try to download Catalina on it rather than working from the internal.

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User profile for user: rkaufmann87
rkaufmann87
User level: Level 10
144,838 points

Apr 25, 2020 11:57 AM in response to kennethfromfortbragg

If you install Catalina on an external drive (SSD or HD) it will look like a totally bare installation, no user accounts have been created or anything. If you want to migrate your data, settings and apps you can use the Time Machine or bootable clone from the Mac you are migrating from and then startup Mac OS on the external drive and use Migration Assistant to migrate from the Time Machine drive to the external drive. Another method is if you have a bootable clone as a backup you can use Migration Assistant from that aw well.


I'm still struggling to understand what you are attempting to do, so please write complete description of what you want to do and we can advise.

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User profile for user: kennethfromfortbragg
kennethfromfortbragg Author
User level: Level 1
10 points

Apr 25, 2020 12:58 PM in response to rkaufmann87

Thank you. I want to be using Catalina as my OS. It was suggested that booting from the SSD would be faster than using the iMac's disk drive. I installed Catalina in my SSD and as you wrote it does not relate to my account on the iMac. High Sierra is still functional on my iMac, I can go back to it and everything is there and working.


Do I understand correctly: you're saying that I can't update the old operating system by installing Catalina on the SSD, I can only install it and then migrate data to the SSD from the iMac hard drive? But what about my accounts?


What I was attempting to do was install Catalina on the SSD and have a faster operating system while having access to all my old files, just as if I"d done the update on my original hard disk. I suspect this is impossible now without considerable fuss because I would have to migrate all my important files to the SSD to achieve reasonable speeds.


And finally: does installing Catalina on my iMac hard drive erase High Sierra but leave all my accounts, desktop, etc. and files intact?




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User profile for user: babowa
babowa
User level: Level 9
78,441 points

Apr 25, 2020 1:15 PM in response to kennethfromfortbragg

So you installed a factory fresh cop of Catalina on an empty external SSD?


As mentioned, you would need to use the Setup Assistant offered during the initial setup to migrate all of your user data - they will not automatically do that.


What I was attempting to do was install Catalina on the SSD and have a faster operating system while having access to all my old files, just asif I"d done the update on my original hard disk. I suspect this is

impossible now without considerable fuss because I would have to migrateall my important files to the SSD to achieve reasonable speeds.


If you want to start over, there is another way:


Download and install either Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper on your Mac. Plug in the external drive and, using Disk Utility, format Mac OS Extended/GUID Partition and erase the SSD. Then use one of the two cloning apps to create an exact clone on your external. Download Catalina and choose to install it on the external. When finished, you will have an external clone with all of your data + Catalina. You will still have your High Sierra on your internal. So, you can boot from the external and test drive Catalina. If there are problems, you can just go back to using High Sierra on your internal.

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Installed Catalina Many Things Missing

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