I hate to ask this...

[James Sentman]

Wow, so much good info in this! Thank you for all that!

And I’ll double down on your description of Mike Bombich as a saint. I get the continual update messages from CCC that I use every day and i just know that if there is another human more frustrated with Apple than I am it’s him. He has done an outstanding job keeping his app working and compatible in spite of everything they are tyring to do. The number of hours spent to figure this all out when they won’t actually tell you anything about it on that level boggles my mind. buy his software, give him money for it, he deserves it.

I am downloading the Mohave installer, though it SHOULD be possible to download any previous version from the App store that you already downloaded and get the most recent version of it, but that is always subject to Apple not hiding the thing or making it impossible. If you haven’t ever installed Mohave then it will not show up in your list and your only choice will be the latest version. 

And I will also double your suggestion to make a bootable disk image immediately upon getting everything working. small SSD’s are remarkably cheap now days. Pick one up and connect it and use CCC to make a bootable backup. No matter what they do otherwise you can always use that to restore to the internal drive later if something goes horribly wrong. As long as you go in and turn on the new firmware security stuff that will keep you from doing so… 


> On Feb 9, 2020, at 2:23 PM, Vbob <vbob at whipplestreet.net> wrote:
> 
> The newest MODEL Macs I’ve worked with are 2018 Mac Minis - these have the T2 chip, and when we bought them they came with macOS 10.14 Mojave.  
> I had occasion to upgrade one to macOS 10.15 Catalina, and THEN had to go back to Mojave - so that is possible...
> 
> Some tricks with the T2 Macs - they are delivered with several boot options disabled.  
> To get around that, you need to create the first admin account in a normal startup, then boot into Recovery mode, and run the Startup Security Utility <https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208198> to allow for external booting, and/or non-original OS booting.
> 
> 
> In my experience [92 Macs of various vintage at art school…] Target Mode is unreliable now & Disk Utility->Restore is broken by design. 
> 
> Carbon Copy Cloner still works, is under current development, Mike Bombich is a saint…  there is a generous trial mode, but send the man some money!
> 
> If you’ve been saving installers untested - um, Apple’s own certificate expired last fall, and many of them won’t run. Ask me how I know.
> 
> Drill down on this page <https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210190> and you should be able to get a currently-certified Mojave installer. Apple tries to convince you not to use it, but then offer a link near the end.
> 
> Our own IT people say none of this will work next year….. but I think that’s because they’re going to purchase all our Mac direct from Apple already enrolled in some MDM scheme, and make us learn JAMF to install only what they say we can..
> 
> YMMV - good luck.
> 
> Rule 1 - backups!
> Rule 1.5 - use Carbon Copy Cloner to make a bootable copy of your successfully set up machine before you break it - I use 120Gb SSDs and a cheap SATA-USB dongle <https://www.amazon.com/BENFEI-Drive-Adapter-Cable-Compatible/dp/B07F7WDZGT/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=XSIY77CKU07F&keywords=sata+usb+cable&qid=1581275949&sprefix=sata+usb,aps,145&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUExQUhOUzhSOUpYQzRRJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwOTMwNzI2TjRUV1BLQkNIR1dRJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTAyNDY2MzQzVlJFMUlJMk9BQTRMJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfYXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==> as a minimal bootable external drive to walk about with, since our network is wonky….
> 
> Long live the older Macs!
> 

Thanks,
 James


James Sentman                       http://www.PlanetaryGear.org		http://MacHomeAutomation.com




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