El Capitan Clean Install

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Level 1

5 points

El Capitan Clean Install

Mac Min (late 2012) with OS 10.11.4

After nearly 4 years of faithful service, my Mac Mini crashed. I restored from Time Machine (Time Capsule). It took 3 days! It did not restore Mail and deleted my Administrator account A second restore took 2 ½ days. Had many problems so after much troubleshooting I started over. I reinstalled El Capitan (not a clean install) from Apple and restored from Time Machine. It seemed to work after some difficulty recovering mail. I then discovered that my account was “standard”. Not an administrator account. That is when I discovered that Users & Groups as well as Security Preferences would not load and generated Preference Pane errors. I reinstalled El Capitan again and the Preference Panes problems now are corrected. It seems now that my basic problem is that I do not have a Administrator account. As advised on User Forums, I booted using Cmd+S to terminal Single User mode where I should be able to create an administrator account. However, after the boot to terminal I am unable to enter the required text strings? I seem to be at a dead end.

I seem to have discovered that my problem may have been that my Administrator account did not have a password (I wanted a quick no action startup).

I have resolved to the fact that I may have to do a clean install. My question is whether if I clean the disk and re-install El Capitan, create an Administrator account, then recover the Time Machine backup and expect that all my apps (Parallels, Windows 10, MS Office) get reinstalled.

Any advice?

Ron

Mac mini (Late 2012), El Capitan

Posted on Apr 30, 2016 10:01 AM

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Answer 1

macjack

Level 10

111,168 points

Apr 30, 2016 10:10 AM in response to accesstech42

Yes, you can do that. Use Time Machine to back up or restore your Mac - Apple Support

I'd rather suggest a clone but you already have corruption. Be sure to back up from a TM time frame is before you had the corruption.

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Answer 2

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,535 points

Apr 30, 2016 10:28 AM in response to accesstech42

Please take these steps to restore administrator privileges to your account. This somewhat tedious procedure is only necessary if you've confirmed that no working administrator account exists on the system.

If you don't already have a current backup of all your data, you must back up before taking any of the steps below. Ask if you need guidance. You won't need the backup unless something goes wrong—which is always possible.

Step 1

Start up in Recovery mode. The OS X Utilities screen will appear.

Step 2

Take this step only if you use FileVault 2. Launch Disk Utility, then select the icon of the FileVault startup volume ("Macintosh HD," unless you gave it a different name.) It will be nested below another drive icon. Select Unlock from the File menu and enter your login password when prompted. Then quit Disk Utility to be returned to the main screen.

Step 3

Select

Utilities ▹ Terminal

from the menu bar. In the window that opens, type this:

resetp

Press the tab key. The partial command you typed will automatically be completed to this:

resetpassword

Press return. A Reset Password window opens. Select your startup volume if not already selected. Pull down the menu labeled

Select the user account

and select

System Administrator (root)

Follow the prompts to set a password. It's safest to choose a password that includes only the characters a-z, A-Z, and 0-9. I suggest you write down the password. If you don't write it down and forget it, you'll have to start over from Step 1.

Select

 ▹ Restart...

from the menu bar.

Step 4

This step, like Step 2, applies only if you use FileVault. Log in as usual, then select

 ▹ Log Out...

from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-Q. Don't restart. You'll be returned to the login screen.

Step 5

At the login screen, click Other... Enter "root" (without the quotes) in the Name field, and enter the password you set in Step 3 in the Password field. You should now be logged in as root. This is a potentially dangerous condition. Do nothing while logged in as root except as indicated below. You'll be fine as long as you don't deviate from the plan.

Open the Users & Groups preference pane. Select your usual administrator account in the list of users and check the box marked

Allow user to administer this computer

You'll be prompted to restart. Do that and log in as yourself—not as root. Your administrator status should now be restored.

Step 6 (optional, but recommended)

Follow the instructions in this support article under the heading "How to disable the root user." You must authenticate in Directory Utility as "root" with the root password you set in Step 3. Authenticating as another administrator won't work.

Credit for this idea to ASC member wessongroup.

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Answer 3

accesstech42 Author

Level 1

5 points

Apr 30, 2016 7:37 PM in response to macjack

I wiped my disk and clean installed El Capitan. I then set up an administrator account. I thought I was on my way. I then did the recovery from Time Machine. It did not take nearly as long to do the recovery as previous times. I was afraid that I might lose my applications, such as Parallels and Windows 10. However, I did not. When finished, I logged into my account, thinking that, surely, it was now an Administrator account. Users & Groups told me that it was not and that the Administrator account that I had set up seemed to be overwritten by the recovery from the Time machine. I have been dealing with this for about 3 weeks, so I do not have a backup from before the corruption. As before, I cannot log into Single User (Cmnd-S). It goes to the terminal but shows the Pause PCI SDXC which stops any input to root#. It appears that I may have to make a trip to the Genius bar unless someone can suggest where I went wrong. I really appreciate your efforts.

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Answer 4

macjack

Level 10

111,168 points

Apr 30, 2016 8:27 PM in response to accesstech42

Wipe the disk and do another clean install of El Capitan. Then copy the contents of these folders onto the fresh install...

Desktop

Downloads

Music

Movies

Pictures

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Answer 5

accesstech42 Author

Level 1

5 points

May 2, 2016 5:48 AM in response to macjack

machack:

Thanks for the suggestion. Almost did it for me. I did the clean install. Knowing that recovery from Time Machine would overwrite the new OS with an administrator account, I restored using Migration Assistant. At least I ended up with a full recovery with an Administrator Account. My final step will be to delete two non-administrator accounts I accumulated while trouble shooting. Still some fine tuning to do but feel confident that I am ready to go.

Thanks to you and Linc for the help.

Ron

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Answer 6

May 10, 2016 9:09 AM in response to accesstech42

I have a question for you guys that have done a clean install if you don't mind.

I've already done an update to El Capitan, but my Mac mini is still very slow, so think I should do a clean install.

I have a separate Hard drive where I keep all my photos and Time Machine backups.

My question is this: After doing a clean install, and re-setting up Time Machine, will the new install over-write my backup drive and therefore lose all the files kept on it?

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Answer 7

benwiggy

Level 4

1,473 points

May 10, 2016 10:12 AM in response to WayneGloss

WayneGloss wrote:

I have a separate Hard drive where I keep all my photos and Time Machine backups. My question is this: After doing a clean install, and re-setting up Time Machine, will the new install over-write my backup drive and therefore lose all the files kept on it?

If you keep all your photos and your backup on your external hard drive, then where is the backup of your photos? If your backup drive stops working tomorrow, have you got all your files somewhere else? If not, then sort that out before doing anything as serious as a clean install.

I've already done an update to El Capitan, but my Mac mini is still very slow, so think I should do a clean install.

A clean install is the "nuclear option" for removing software that is causing your Mac problems. Lots of third-party software that installs stuff into the system can cause trouble if it isn't updated alongside the OS. Stuff like Anti-virus, old virtual machines, anything that claims to "clean" or "maintain" your Mac should be uninstalled and thrown away. It can be less work to investigate your system and remove troublesome software, rather than remove everything and then start adding it all back.

I have a question for you guys that have done a clean install if you don't mind.

Actually, I haven't done a clean install since about 2004. 😝

Also, you should probably start a new thread for any new questions.

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Answer 8

accesstech42 Author

Level 1

5 points

May 10, 2016 5:29 PM in response to benwiggy

I believe that if you do a reinstall of El Capitan, then do a recovery from Time Machine, the new El Capitan will be overwritten. I finally wiped my disk and did the clean install, establishing a new differently named Administrator account. I then used Migration Assistant rather than Time Machine Recovery so I could select only the items I wanted (Data, Applications, Pictures, etc.) Worked for me and I covered a "ton" of disk space. If I have mis-stated something, hopefully others will correct me. Bottom line is that I am running my Mac Mini and very satisfied.

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