Hey so I'm trying to upgrade to Mac OS Catalina using a bootable USB and i got stuck. I backed up my files using TimeMachine and now i suppose next step, installing OS from the USB is going to wipe the Mac's hard drive. How can i restore my files from TimeMachine backup entirely without downgrading the OS back? I'm trying to update the OS without losing files. Software Update option didn't work so USB Installation is what i got.
Thanks.
I'm unsure why you feel you need a bootable installer. (?) That should not be necessary if your Mac already has a version of macOS installed and working.
You can simply run the same installer you used to place Catalina on that external drive, but instead of selecting that drive as the destination, you'll select your internal drive. The installer will update the OS there and leave your user files untouched, assuming a healthy drive and all goes well. (Actually, you may have to download a fresh copy of the upgrade installer if it deleted itself after the previous use as it should have.)
There should be no reason to do anything with Time Machine for this. If the upgrade fails, then TM can be used to restore the computer to its previous configuration with Mojave and all your user files.
What model and year Mac are you upgrading?
I'm unsure why you feel you need a bootable installer. (?) That should not be necessary if your Mac already has a version of macOS installed and working.
You can simply run the same installer you used to place Catalina on that external drive, but instead of selecting that drive as the destination, you'll select your internal drive. The installer will update the OS there and leave your user files untouched, assuming a healthy drive and all goes well. (Actually, you may have to download a fresh copy of the upgrade installer if it deleted itself after the previous use as it should have.)
There should be no reason to do anything with Time Machine for this. If the upgrade fails, then TM can be used to restore the computer to its previous configuration with Mojave and all your user files.
What model and year Mac are you upgrading?
Forgive my denseness.
This link has all the guidance you'll need:
How to create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support
And I'll reiterate…
If you can currently boot your Mac to Mojave on your primary drive, this affords the simplest path to upgrade. At this point you may need to restart and immediately press and hold the Option key (alt) until your available boot drive(s) are presented as choices. Choose the Mojave OS on the internal startup drive and continue.
Once restarted in Mojave, download the Catalina installer. It will place the "Install macOS Catalina" application in the Applications folder. Double click that app and the upgrade process will begin. It will upgrade the system currently installed on your Mojave startup drive to Catalina, meanwhile leaving all of your user files intact and in place. No bootable installer needed.
IF your Mac is currently unable to startup in Mojave, then all bets are off with this guidance.
🍀
Hello djsnaké.
What macOS version did you start with?
Yes, installing the OS from the bootable USB requires wiping the Mac's drive.
If you have already backed up your files to the TM drive, they are safe there until you get the OS reinstalled. They aren't going anywhere. Once that is done you can recover the files from the TM drive.
At what point has your reinstallation failed?
What is the current state of the Mac?
Is the USB installer in fact bootable?
Hi.
I'm migrating from Mac OS Mojave, 10.14.4.
It's not a USB, a partition on my external hard drive formatted as Mac OS Journaled.
I've tried giving it a go, installed Catalina on that partition by mistake, it did boot successfully, now i need to wipe that partition and make it a bootable installer.
Reinstallation not failed, I'm kinda new to TimeMachine and not sure if i need to take any extra step to prevent TimeMachine from restoring system to Mojave while i try to restore files to fresh installed Catalina.
Hey it's because I've got this disc image of Catalina on my primary drive, so I can't install the new os on it, i simply can't select that. The fresh Catalina install i did by mistake is running on a small partition in my hdd now, which runs extremely slow. That's why I'm trying to make a bootable installer out of that disc image I've downloaded.
Connect the hdd, long press alt and installation window pops off, go for wipe and fresh installation that's what I'm after in this case.
Thanks.
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Updating Mac OS with USB and TimeMachine
