Is it true that a time machine backup no longer preserves your actual OS?

Question

Is it true that a time machine backup no longer preserves your actual OS?

Is it true that a time machine backup no longer preserves your actual OS and therefore if restoring my MacBook Pro from an earlier time machine backup (after removing a storage partition ,) I would need to have the PHYSICAL startup installation disk and manually reload (I was hoping to go from High Sierra …to Mojave??)

Did the restore from time machine backup USED to do this and was changed??

Am I relegated to the second hand market to find the disks?? My disk drive doesn’t seem to work anyway.

what are my options?

please

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.13

Posted on Sep 17, 2021 4:44 PM

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Answer 1

tbirdvet

Level 6

17,108 points

Sep 18, 2021 12:53 PM in response to NonEssentialHeath

It has been a while since I did a full OS restore but I thought with Mojave and earlier that TM did have the OS on it but I know with Big Sur TM no longer backs up the OS. You need to restore from Recovery then you can use TM to restore your data.

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Answer 2

BDAqua

Level 10

250,259 points

Sep 19, 2021 9:28 AM in response to NonEssentialHeath

2011 Macs cannot run Catalina, High Sierra 10.13.6 is the highest it can run.

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Answer 3

Sep 18, 2021 7:20 PM in response to Owl-53

and if the drive gets hit by an asteroid , no doubt.

My drive is fine, thanks for the reply but it doesn’t answer my question .

Assuming the drive HASN'T failed,

how about then?

if I restore from a time machine backup will it reinstate my Operating System or not? I’m asking because I’ve seen conflicting opinions and I don’t have the disk to reboot high Sierra

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Answer 4

Sep 18, 2021 7:25 PM in response to tbirdvet

Thanks heaps.

when I bought the MacBook Pro ( late 2011 model) it actually had Catalina on it.

I accidentally damaged the OS by attempting to remove a memory partition after a few tutorials. Some assistance from IT Pros repaired it back to High Sierra but unfortunately left the partition intact . I need to come up to Mojave for the new version of Bitwig Studio DAW but have since read that Mojave and later is NOT COMPATIBLE with my hardware. I’m so confused

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