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Level 1

5 points

A point in the right direction. Re reverting to Mountain Lion.

I have one more question for today. Can someone point me in the direction of instructions for reverting back to Mountain Lion.

I have to many problems with Mavericks but the main one and the deal breaker is the wifi, I have tried all the fixes I have found for the wifi but nothing is working for me it just continually connects and disconnects every few seconds.

I can connect the imac to the router via ethernet but that doesnt help me connect to anything else or for anything to connect to it.

Please note I have never done this before so a link to clear and concise step by step instruction article would be appreciated. I am not afraid to wipe everything and restart have done it millions of times with my old dell but this will be the first time I have attempted anything like this with my imac. So don't be afraid to link me to an idiot proof guide 🙂

OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Feb 20, 2014 11:50 AM

33 replies

Rosenbaumfan Author

Level 1

5 points

Feb 20, 2014 12:39 PM in response to Grant Lenahan

Yeah me too.

I havent run time machine since I had the hard drive replaced and that was before I upgraded to Mavericks. But I also had a second HD that I manually dropped a copy of my files to and that is the one I have been using as a back up ever since..

Rosenbaumfan Author

Level 1

5 points

Feb 20, 2014 12:42 PM in response to Kappy

I have a time machine backup from before the HD was replaced. i never ran time machine with Mavericks so worst comes to worse I have an old backup. I have been mostly manually backing up all my files to a second HD since the upgrade.

So sue me I am paranoid about loosing my stuff. Infact I have a new HD sitting and waiting to be used as soon as I sort the imac out.

Feb 20, 2014 12:43 PM in response to Rosenbaumfan

Me three. But have more than just files - have your libraries, including the hidden users/you/library where all your mail, address books, etc are stored.

Better yet, have a 100% clone.

Grant

Rosenbaumfan Author

Level 1

5 points

Feb 20, 2014 12:44 PM in response to gumsie

Dont have a bootable cloned one but two external copies of all my files. *g* I will need to look into the bootable cloned option. I have never used anything like that before.

Any hints...tips for that?

gumsie

Level 4

2,179 points

Feb 20, 2014 12:44 PM in response to Grant Lenahan

I concur. Remember Rosenbaumfan, a TM backup is not bootbale. A clone should be. If you need help with that just ask.

Feb 20, 2014 12:46 PM in response to Rosenbaumfan

I use, and really like, Carbon Copy Cloner.

terrific product. Was free for many years, but i guess not enough people donated.

Grant

Rosenbaumfan Author

Level 1

5 points

Feb 20, 2014 12:49 PM in response to Grant Lenahan

Yeah gumsie mentioned that. I will need to look into that and possibly use one of the external drives once I have re uploaded everythng back onto the machine.

I have a 2tb, 3tb and a 4tb. I was going to use the 4tb as the time machine to back up files from the 3tb and the main HD. That would leave the 2tb free. I could use it as a clone.

Might be back to pick brains re that as well 🙂

Rosenbaumfan Author

Level 1

5 points

Feb 20, 2014 12:50 PM in response to gumsie

Will do 🙂

gumsie

Level 4

2,179 points

Feb 20, 2014 1:03 PM in response to Rosenbaumfan

What you need to do is this - Get a spare external HD and;

1. Unplug any external storage and open Disk Utility, make sure you can identify your internal boot drive. It'll appear in two parts, one might say Seagate something or other for example if that's what brand your drive is. and the other may be indented. In my example the physical volume is 512.11 GB Toshiba..... and the boot drive is 108.

2. Make sure the external is least as big as the drive you are trying to clone. (Not massively oversized though, if it is then partition it).

3. Correctly format it. (Mac OS Extended Journaled, case sensitive if that is what you are using). If Ok then proced if not we can takle you through that too.

4. Option boot your Mac and choose the Recovery partition.

5. Open disk Utility when the Mac comes to life.

6. Plug in the external HD and select the internal boot partition, (not the volume - this will probably have the name of your hard drive), and click restore. make sure it's in the SOURCE field.

7. Then drag and drop the destination drive, (your external), into destination.

8. Click restore. You won't be able to use the Mac whilst this completes.

See the diagram below.

gumsie

Level 4

2,179 points

Feb 20, 2014 1:07 PM in response to gumsie

As an example, if my boot drive was 106 and I wanted to clone it to the volume currently called Native7 I would;

Select 106 in the side bar.

Click Restore. (It should appear in the source field).

Drag and drop Native7 into the destination field below it.

Click Restore.

(By the way this also copies the Recovery Partition).

Feb 20, 2014 3:35 PM in response to Rosenbaumfan

Bear in mind you can also partition a drive - say 2TB into a few partitions. I often make a few small partitions so i can keep various version of OSes bootable. Just FYI.

Grant

(off to a board meeting, over and out for the night)

Feb 20, 2014 3:58 PM in response to Rosenbaumfan

I had a few minutes and a thought, prompted by Kappy's concerns over "mixed backups". One thing that could cause trouble is that, specifically, your mail and address book files will be in a **newer** format than the apps you install with ML. That could be an issue. Stuff upgrades well, but not downgrades.

I would suggest you do two things:

1. Hope that most of your mail is IMAP and on a server. Anything on an IMPA server will just sync when you reconnect (e.g.: dont move mail filders initially). Locally stored mail, not so much. Not sure how that will play out.

2. re; address book - mostly easy workaround. Export ALL the contacts as a vcard file (select all files) and drag them to the desktop or wherever. A single, multi-card file will be built. Mine, for example has > 2,500 entries. No problem. Then import them into the address book after downgrade. vcard is a standard.

Grant

gumsie

Level 4

2,179 points

Feb 20, 2014 9:53 PM in response to Grant Lenahan

Not just Mail and Address Book. It may be posturing by Apple but I'm sure I remember seeing a warning about my Aperture library being upgraded and the change not being reversible.

Rosenbaumfan Author

Level 1

5 points

Mar 2, 2014 11:29 AM in response to Kappy

Right a week late (life got in the way last week) and I will be attempting this in about 4 hours once the backup is finished.

I have created a bootable Mountain Lion disk on a 8gb flashdrive using your instructions 🙂 If all goes well I should have my system speed back and my wifi back once everything is re installed.

gumsie

Level 4

2,179 points

Mar 2, 2014 11:48 AM in response to Rosenbaumfan

When it's all said and done let us know if the install has a recovery partition, (very useful).

A point in the right direction. Re reverting to Mountain Lion.