I need a drink
 

A few months ago I wrecked my MacBook Pro. Fortunately I am anal about backups and I just unplugged the Passport backup drive, plugged it into my desktop machine and did a restore. I knew at the time this was NOT the way to do things, but it worked and I kind of forgot about sorting things properly. This morning I was prompted to upgrade to Grande Sierra Madre or whatever the hell the latest OS is. I clicked the button, and I thought to myself, “You may regret this.”
Boy, do I regret it.
Five hours later my computer was Vashed - EVERYTHING was “Poof, Gone.” YEARS of work and records - gone. I have Time Machine backups from as recently as this morning, but Time Machine didn’t work, so I couldn’t do a simple restore. I used MrsWd’s computer to look up how to restore a Time Machine backup without using Time Machine. There is a way and I’m trying it now. According to the screen I’ll know in 6 hours and 18 minutes if I am more screwed than I have been in along time - maybe ever.
Thoughts, prayers, and a large tumbler of good scotch requested.

If that doesn't work...there are computer repair places that can fix up your hard drive.
I had the same and brought mine in and 4 hrs later..he called and said it was fixed.
He removes everything from the hard drive and sorts out anything that you want and loads it back up. Everything was back on mine and it works twice as fast.

I feel your pain.

I upgraded to Big Sur on my six year old MacBook Pro a month ago. I was at least three OS's behind.

I have an 11 year old MacBook Pro that I keep up to date for email, etc. It is Mojave OS. Shoot me.

But, I Time Machine these two like Mary McFly since these macs are my professional life.

Big Sur took forever, (I called the geniuses in advance to make sure I was doing it right, web searches as well) but I felt ok about it since I have the other machine to keep me working.

I would not have hit "go" without back-up.

Shake your fists at the sky and yell "Curse you evil apple!" It might not fix your system but it might make you feel better.

BTW, don't know apple that well, but don't you have an Icloud account?

I’ve yelled “curse you Apple” a lot over the years. I do have an iCloud account. I only use it for my phone. I don’t even want to think of how long it would take to back up 750 gigs from iCloud.

Hey, movin’ right along, restored 166 gigs so far. Only 5 hours and 35 minutes left to go.

Try adding "evil" to the curse. It adds emphasis and makes you feel better even if it doesn't make things go faster. My kids are better with apple but I think they've recovered their mac books using I cloud. I'd have to ask them though.

Keep us posted. Fingers crossed for a successful result. It's been a long time since I've been smug about my Apple life, but I drank the Kool-Aid with the Apple LC (Pizza Box) and I have to live and die with the consequences. (I tell myself it wouldn't be any better and probably ten times worse with Windows.)

I agree...you need a drink. Maybe more than one.

Good luck. I can’t offer anything of value beyond that.

Restore failed. Trying again.

Second attempt at a restore was successful. Whew!
It's restored to it's Feb 4, 2021 state, but that's OK.
Computer is a mess. Now there are two of everything, so I've got a lot of cleaning up to do.

What a relief. Do you have Mac Clean or some other program that can help you fix that mess?

I don't think so. I got rid of the 2 identical volumes, but the folders in the remaining volume are all scrambled. For example, I have a folder called "2020 Finances" and it is empty, and the files and folders that were in it are scattered all over the computer. I've had to do a finder search for about half of the items I've looked for so far.

Rage Against the Machine. Aren't computers fun. Glad you were able to access your documents, even if there is much organizing to do.

Running Big Sur on a 2010 MacBook Pro. Works like a champ. Auto updates = OFF.

I think the problem was that I simply did a "restore" of my Macbook Pro onto my IMac a few months ago. It created a new user, and who knows what system it was using. I suspect it is not good practice to restore a Macbook Pro onto anything but another Macbook Pro. I think the upgrade to Bug Sur confused the hell out of the computer.

A toast to your troubles.....

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^^
I love it!
MrsWD loves it too!!

^^^ that is an awesome song!

+1 SmileWavy