I was updating to the newest Catalina version on my 2016 MacBook Pro but that only resulted in my being stuck in a loop of restarts. While trying to fix the problem, I accidentally deleted the partition of my hard drive with the OS. I have already reinstalled it.
The problem is, it took me to a new partition of my hard drive and not where my intact data is.
The following is what I can see from Disk Utility.
How do I fix this?
MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.15
You may not delete a partition if it's being used. You have to boot Recovery mode first, as explained at the end of that Apple Support document:
"You can't delete or erase your startup volume. See Erase and reformat a storage device."
Refer to Step 2.
Fix Process & Results:
I don't know what happens if you don't have to reinstall your OS, but I had to. As a consequence, my hard drive was wiped save the apps I already had in it. This is why it's necessary to have a backup or two for your files. Reinstalling would also remove all configurations of your device (e.g. Finder files in list or icons, file sorting preferences) you set to your liking. In this scenario, you will have the latest version of the software but will have to manually do the other updates. For example, I had to download Safari 14.0. Lastly, I would recommend doing all the above when the internet is fastest in your area to reduce the download time for the OS.
Unfortunately, the partition with all my files in it is the only one I can delete right now. I would like to avoid that. The other two partitions are currently in use. Maybe that's why I can't delete them?
My question is how do I switch back to using the partition with my files.
Everything is backed up in an external drive. iMac also has the same files, so I'm okay there.
It's not really the files per se that I want to not lose. I just really don't want to reconfigure the device, download applications, etc. so everything works to my liking again.
I'd do what Grant Bennet-Alder recommended. Create a TM backup first if you haven't done so already. If you do not back up your Mac, then by definition you don't care what's on it.
From what you describe, I surmise you will want to delete the newer of the two Containers, since the older one is the working version you wish to retain. If the result is not what you expected, then restore the TM backup.
so to provide advice for someone else, who gets here later by searching, could you summarize what you did?
Did you erase the drive completely and re-install, or
delete the "extra" partitions and re-install in place or
just do a re-install in place (and nothing more) ???
DO NOT fool around with drive partitions unless you have a Trusted backup. One slip and it's ALL gone.
What is the date of your most recent backup, and by what method?
Apologies. Did not see that.
The partition I want to use is working on an older version of Catalina while the one I re-downloaded is the newest one. What do I do in this case?
Fixed. Had to reinstall the OS again, but as the apps are intact I'm okay with how everything turned out. Thank you for all your help!
👍
How do I switch hard drive partitions.
