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Apple Mac survival kit - but some points relevant to PC's maybe

RogerS

RogerS

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I thought I was 'bullet-proof' until recent events taught me otherwise.

I was upgrading OSX from Catalina > Sonoma (jury seems to be out re the Big Bang approach ...ie Catalina > Sonoma..or the more measured approach that I opted for Catalina > Monterey > Sonoma - a sort of halfway house. I already happened to have an older version of Monterey saved on my Mac. I'd then upgrade to whatever the latest version of Monterey was. Check it was OK then upgrade to Sonoma.

The instal of the older version of Monterey went OK and checked out - given a quick scrute.

Lesson 1 - the instal file is deleted. Bad news since it was over 12GB and downloading it was excruciatingly slow over a 10Mbps DSL line. Should have saved a copy elsewhere.

The Mac then automatically started to download the latest version of Monterey. I had hoped for a small incremental download but not to be. Another 12GB download and a 3 hour wait.

Lesson 2 - I should have downloaded the latest version in the first place and not faffed around with the older version already downloaded to my hard drive thinking I'd save time.

After the download of the latest version of Monterey, I don't recall if I had to start it or if it started automatically but .....

Lesson 3 - Ideally I would have squirrelled away a copy first given the chance

Then disaster struck

Part way through the upgrade of Monterey, the onscreen messages said " blah...blah...blah. Then your screen will go black for about a minute and then return.

It did go black but it didn't come back. I waited. And waited. After 30 mins plus, I was unsure what to do. Has it switched off ? If I hit the power switch to turn it back on..,what if it is still part way through the update and by pressing the power switch I turn the Mac off. Where would that leave the upgrade ?

So I called Apple support. We went through everything, concluded that there was nothing left to do other than hit the switch (after all I did have two separate tested backups of the Mac running Catalina). The result ? SFA. The Mac was dead. Totally. I booked an appointment to take it in to an Apple Store. I was not a happy bunny. First hardware failure in over 20 years using Apple.

Knock on effect

Lesson 4 - iCloud is a Godsend.

I have an iPad. That meant that I could still access all my files, photos etc and mail. Well, not quite.

Lesson 5 - Don't get clever with Mail.

I have created many mailboxes on my Mac and file incoming emails into them automatically using Rules in Mail. I have one for Screwfix, for example. The trouble with that approach is that it removes those mails from your Inbox. (I am using IMAP for emails and not POP3). That means you cannot access them from the iPad. You cannot access them - full stop. The only way is to recover your backup onto another Mac - I guess that is one very good reason to have another Mac with a massive drive (hard or SSD) - you can create another partiton into which you recover, reboot, get you mails. But what a faff.

Time Machine doesn't help either. I'm wondering if Smart mailbox is the way to go. We shall have to see. Meanwhile we have a Mac to fix.

Trying to fix the Mac - Day 2

There are a few key combinations to try when you have start-up problems. Many variations depending on type of Mac, laptop, Intel vs Apple chips. I tried all the combiations applicable to my Mac but no cigar. Dead as a Dodo. But then 💡💡

I had been using my wireless keyboard. But what if there was no Bluetooth connection to the Mac ? I have a wired keyboard and so tried that. It's really tricky getting the timing right after or when you hit the power on button. But I persevered until suddenly (y)(y)(y)

I got the Apple logo ....it works ! Halley-bloody-luyah

Lesson 6 - Always have a wired keyboard to fall back on. KISS

Hope you found that worth reading. All systems go this end.
 
Interesting. I have a dead Mac pro laptop that suffered a similar fate. Not got round to trying to fix it yet.

For some years now I've run three macs and copy anything I want to keep between two of them (the third is a small laptop that is kept "safe" for travel). I manually back up onto a big hard drive and a portable SSD drive and recovery has rarely been needed but has always worked so far. I was unaware that if you use Mail folders - which I do, but not as much as I used to - yiou cannot access them in the scenario you describe. I shall have to do some checking on this, so thanks for the heads up.
 
Glad you got sorted Roger.

Having just migrated from a late 2009 21.5” iMac to a Mac Mini with Dell Monitor I have to say how straight forward, if time consuming the whole upgrade was. While having the iMac and Mac Mini running at the same time I did have need to dig out the only spare mouse I had, an Apple Magic wireless mouse. Useless, speed and lag was unbearable.
I have never wanted nor felt the need to have a wireless keyboard nor do I use or want anything to do with iCloud.
I use a number of yahoo and gmail accounts which are easy enough to set up and sync on the macs, ipad and two android phones using either Apple mail or Samsung mail to view.
 
I swear by 'Veeam Agent Free' for backup. They have a Mac version free too. It will back up the entire computer to whatever you have network drive or USB plug in drive. It has you create recovery boot media (USB stick or CD/DVD) so you can start a computer with no OS. I use it when replacing a drive with a bigger one. Not needed to recover from a failure yet but replacing a drive and all working after restore gives me confidence. You can also browse the backup and restore just a single file or whatever as you want. Google Veeam agent free and the second hit will get you straight there. They want a email address from you but no junk mail comes from them.
 
TrimTheKing said:
Good to hear your CPR worked. Did it come back up in Monterey then or Catalina?
Click to expand...
Monterey
AJB Temple said:
Interesting. I have a dead Mac pro laptop that suffered a similar fate. Not got round to trying to fix it yet.

For some years now I've run three macs and copy anything I want to keep between two of them (the third is a small laptop that is kept "safe" for travel). I manually back up onto a big hard drive and a portable SSD drive and recovery has rarely been needed but has always worked so far. I was unaware that if you use Mail folders - which I do, but not as much as I used to - yiou cannot access them in the scenario you describe. I shall have to do some checking on this, so thanks for the heads up.
Click to expand...
Smart Mailboxes aren't available on iPad. The only benefit from using them on the Mac is that the emails stay in your inbox and therefore also visible to other Apple devices such as the iPad.
AndyP said:
While having the iMac and Mac Mini running at the same time I did have need to dig out the only spare mouse I had, an Apple Magic wireless mouse. Useless, speed and lag was unbearable.
Click to expand...
I've never noticed any lag on either my wireless keyboard or mouse. There are settings available to tweak.
AndyP said:
I have never wanted nor felt the need to have a wireless keyboard nor do I use or want anything to do with iCloud.
Click to expand...
I wouldn't be without it now
 
I should add that the new OSX (Sonoma) has given my Mac a new lease of life and made it very spritely. Waking up from sleep is considerably quicker.
 
Possibly similar to VEEAM, I use AOMEI backupper. the free version does backups on demand as well as disc imaging.
The paid for version will perform scheduled backups and auto deletion of older redundant backups is you wish.
It runs 8 backup jobs of key files both personal and business. Like Robert, I've never had to do a full recovery but the image function works well when replacing discs. I have also recovered a file accidentally over written from a backup made several days before when I discovered the issue.
 
AndyP said:
will you go all the way to Sequoia, 15.1?
Click to expand...
No I won't and I am seriously thinking about going back to Catalina. I had forgotten just how awful the Mail layout is. And since Mail is where I spend a lot of time, it's an anathema.
 
Yup...the only thing that will force me to move away from Catalina is when websites have reached the stage where none of the browsers available to me will function with them.
 
PCs not Mac but I've kept a wired keyboard and also mouse for just that reason.
 
And here's another piece of crap 'non-design'. In Catalina, when you flagged a message in the inbox, you got a coloured indicator. Useful to remind you not to delete it. That's now gone. No visible distinction in the main inbox.

If it ain;'t bust, don't screw it up should be Apple's motto.
 
RogerS said:
No I won't and I am seriously thinking about going back to Catalina. I had forgotten just how awful the Mail layout is. And since Mail is where I spend a lot of time, it's an anathema.
Click to expand...
Isn't it just 'anathema' and not 'an anathema'?

Sorry, pedant mode kicked in. ;)
 
TrimTheKing said:
So, I'm still on Monterey and right now nothing is 'not working', so do I need to move or stay where I am for now...?
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If it ain't broke leave well alone. My iMac was close to 15 years old, osx 10.13 I think and couldn’t go any higher with the existing chipset. Some apps were also not upgradable nor supportable without an OS change.
 
Mark if you are on OS 12 Monterey you wont see much useful difference between that and OS13 Ventura. If you go up to the latest Sequoia then it's much more in keeping with the forum 😂 however, the latest systems are AI focussed and provide better phone integration. So if those things matter to you......
 
My 2009 iMac runs High Sierra and can’t be updated further. The only reason I keep it is to print photos as my excellent Canon Pro 9000 MkII needs a USB connection (no Bluetooth) and I intend to keep both until one or the other expires. However, I was getting increasingly frustrated with the slooooow boot up time so a few months back I decided to replace the HDD with a solid state device. There are numerous guides on YouTube showing you how to do it and though a bit scary when I took the screen off it was remarkably straightforward. The difference it made, for about £140, is brilliant, the machine is ready to go from cold in about 20 seconds.
 
marineboy said:
My 2009 iMac runs High Sierra and can’t be updated further. The only reason I keep it is to print photos as my excellent Canon Pro 9000 MkII needs a USB connection (no Bluetooth) and I intend to keep both until one or the other expires. However, I was getting increasingly frustrated with the slooooow boot up time so a few months back I decided to replace the HDD with a solid state device. There are numerous guides on YouTube showing you how to do it and though a bit scary when I took the screen off it was remarkably straightforward. The difference it made, for about £140, is brilliant, the machine is ready to go from cold in about 20 seconds.
Click to expand...
I did the same with my Late 2014 Mac Mini with a similar result.
 
I had high hopes of being able to use the old iMac as a remote screen connected to her MacBook for my daughter when she is here over Christmas. Sadly the late 2009 21.5” won’t allow Target Display Mode nor Target Disc Mode, we’ve tried on an eldest daughter macbook.
 
SamQ aka Ah! Q! said:
I had the same thought and research reveals you can use it quite flexibly, both as a noun, and an adjective. So, both 'naked' and prefixed by "an" are correct.
Click to expand...
Hmmmm, I'm not entirely convinced. 'An' anathema seems to have been used back in ye olden thymes to describe a curse or denunciation, but latterly anathema is regarded as 'that which is to be feared, despised, detestible', which is, I believe, Roger's intended use, hence no 'an'.

One example "An anathema was the Latin for an "excommunicated person". However in almost all modern examples the word is expressed in non-count form, with no articles present."

Of course I am happy to be corrected here on Roger's intended use.
 
TrimTheKing said:
Hmmmm, I'm not entirely convinced. 'An' anathema seems to have been used back in ye olden thymes to describe a curse or denunciation, but latterly anathema is regarded as 'that which is to be feared, despised, detestible', which is, I believe, Roger's intended use, hence no 'an'.

One example "An anathema was the Latin for an "excommunicated person". However in almost all modern examples the word is expressed in non-count form, with no articles present."

Of course I am happy to be corrected here on Roger's intended use.
Click to expand...
Substitute PITA perhaps ?:)
 
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