Home Forums Peripherals & Multimedia Peripherals usb back up

13.6.6
I have installed everything from my computer onto a USB thumb drive. In the event of a complete disaster, could I reinstall everything? and if so, just how would I do that?

jaybass

You should be able to reinstall everything, but how you'd go about it depends upon what "everything" means and how you got it to the thumb drive in the first place.

Did you use drag & drop, a cloning utility, some other method?

artie, I dragged the apps and the documents into a new thumb drive. When I checked to see if they had actually been copied, it had copied apps, doc, photos, music, recents and abc ( my admin name) I don't know if emails would be included. Like I said, how would I reinstall "everything"

jaybass

With the understanding that

1. Thumb Drives are the least reliable media short of a floppy disk and are not intended for use as a backup.
2. You have a 1 TB thumb drive
3. Your drag and drop copy is likely to have missed some critical files.
4. A complete recovery requires reinstalling the OS which is not included in your drag and drop copy.

To “reinstall everything”:

1. Launch SuperDuper and clone Macintosh HD to your Thumb Drive
2. Shut down your iMac
3. Press the power button and immediately press and hold ⌘R
4. If you see a lock, enter the password for your iMac
5. If you have multiple volumes on your disk, select the volume you want to recover, then click Next.
6. If requested, choose an administrator account, click Next, enter the password for the account, then click Continue.
7. If the Wi-Fi menu icon (in the upper-right corner of the screen) contains one or more bars , Wi-Fi is turned on and connected to a wireless network. If the Wi-Fi menu icon doesn’t contain any bars , Wi-Fi is turned on but isn’t connected to a wireless network. If the Wi-Fi menu icon has a slash through it, Wi-Fi is turned off. Wi-Fi needs to be turned on before you can join a wireless network and will be needed for the next step.
8. Select reinstall macOS and follow the on-screen instructions
9. When prompted for a backup, select your Thumb Drive
10. When the process completes, you will have recovered all of your data and the OS, but you will likely lose Launchpad folders and a few other settings

I have just checked apps, docs etc on my HD and they correspond exactly with the numbers on the thumb drive. I guess I haven't missed anything. However, after reading the procedure you posted, I think I will rely on how to "Recover all your files from a Time Machine backup" which I have a printed copy. I am familiar with command R having reinstalled my OS several times. I will erase my thumb drive and put it to a more useful purpose.

Thank you for your detailed input.

jaybass

I did erase and remove the usb but today when I opened photos, there is nothing there. A window opened saying " you can open another library and set it as the SystemPhoto Library in settings." There also an option to click or quit or open other which after clicking, produces another window called "Choose Library" which says "Choose a photo library from the list, find another library on your computer, or create a new library" I have looked under Safari settings and system settings but I don't see or know what to do., Can I retrieve my photos?

jaybass

I've got no idea what happened to your original library, but chances are that the most recent library on your list is the one you're looking for.

I have no idea what might have happened to the Photos Library unless it was inadvertently moved rather than copied when you were copying all the files to the thumb Drive.

1. The default location for the Photos Library is, and has been for decades, ~/Pictures/Photos Library. If, for some reason, yours has been moved, a Spotlight search for the file extension
   Code

   .photoslibrary

   (the leading dot in the search argument is important) should find it, even if the filename has been changed. If Photos Library is not present on your drive, this would be an opportune time to try out the Time Machine restore Procedure.
2. If, in System Settings > Your Apple ID > iCloud, Photos is ON, the Photos Library with full, not device optimized images, is also on iCloud.

FOOTNOTE:

In iPhoto the "Library" file was an index to individual image files in a separate folder. In Photos the .photoslibrary is a MiniSQL[align:right][/align] database and the images are records within that database.

I feel somewhat foolish in not checking a third external hd which could have a copy of my photos. Because it was the oldest one, I thought it wouldn't be of much use but of course, that would the most likely one to have a copy. How they disappeared in the first place, I have no idea. But I do appreciate your input as usual.

jaybass