Originally Posted By: plantsower
Color me stupid, but I plugged in my external drive. I went into Sierra which seems to work fine. I then went into Mavericks and it was up to date with all the same bookmarks, etc. Is that normal? I haven't been into Mavericks on my external drive for years. It was as if I was in Sierra all along.

I am coloring you smart. Since you didn't know you were smart to ask. When you say "went into Sierra" does that mean you...
  1. Booted hour computer while Pressing the Option Key until you saw the Apple logo then selected the Sierra that is on your external drive from the options listed or...
  2. while booted from your SSD went to System Preferences > Startup disk and selected your external drive from the options listed there.

If it was A then all you have to do is reboot your computer and it will automatically revert to the version on your SSD. If B then you have to reverse the procedure go into System Preferences > Startup Disk and select the SSD as your boot drive then reboot.

Originally Posted By: plantsower
Also, how do I get out of the external drive? Delete each orange drive icon and then unplug the drive or what? It's been awhile since I've used the external drive and I've forgotten the rules.

The rule is never unplug or disconnect a mounted drive without dismounting it UNLESS you are shutting down or rebooting your computer. Part of the what happens in the shutdown process is disconnecting all connected drives and the first thing that happens during a reboot is shutting down the computer.


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein