The joy of working on Macbooks.

Yes, that's how I've been doing it for every single user account folder. It's a PITA.

With Windows, I can paste the whole user account folders, all at once. Trying to do that with an Apple OS get's denied. The message is "You can't replace the user account folders" (or something similar to that). Apple locks it down.

 

I've now had 3 Mohave updates that resulted in a no boot scenario.

1 was corrected by booting into the recovery environment and running the repair disk utility. The other 2 were corrected by a simple install of Sierra that unlike a Windows operating system with a failed OS update, didn't require a nightmare of rebuilding EVERYTHING and to which has little profit for a computer repair business owner.

Tony,

With I'm currently saying about Apple, and all previous thumbs down I've given to Apple, it seems are positions have at least somewhat reversed. What a world. lol

 

No matter Apple OS or Windows, it's now about taking your last dime.

Best wishes my friend.

 

Something else that I've discovered:

Macbook batteries are far superior to the batteries I see in Window's laptops. I routinely see 6-10 year old Macbooks and the battery still lasts 2 or 3 hours on a charge. With the Windows laptops, well the batteries are so crappy that you are lucky if you get 3 or 4 years out of them.

 

Thanks for that Tony. I've seen many of his videos and I love em'.

BTW- You're the one that introduced me to his videos.

 

Then thank you to IJAC as well!

 

Got a 2012 Macbook Pro in which I installed an ssd about a year ago. It now wouldn't boot and showed the proverbial question mark in a folder which indicates the drive isn't be detected. Reset the PRAM, the SMC, tried another drive, and replaced the drive cable. The mobo still failed to see any drive, and wouldn't even see it in the boot options (holding the option key down at boot). In other words, the Macbook would have to be replaced, and that is damn expensive. But wait...unlike windows computers, apple computers can run the os from a usb drive or an external drive. I just hooked up the ssd with a usb adapter and the mac is now up and running. When I informed her of all that, she was more than happy to go with that workaround as opposed to buying a new mac. Yay!

 

It couldn't find the OS because the mobo couldn't detect any drive on the sata connection. The sata controller on the mobo was defective. But ya, I ended up attaching the ssd to a usb port. It runs great!

 

More than that. I went into disk utility from recovery mode, a Mohave usb stick, and even expanded disk utility's view option to show hidden drives. Along with her drive, I tried 2 of my drives. One ssd with mohave, and one spin drive with sierra. None of them showed up. I also cleaned the mobo's sata connector and tried a new cable, and reset the pram / smc.

 

Two recent firsts for me:

1) A failed SSD. It's the first one I've encountered in a Mac or a Windows system. It was the original M.2 SSD in a Macbook Pro. I found a 250GB one on Ebay for $55. The install went without a hitch and it's all good now.

2) Late yesterday I got in a 2017 i-Mac that has a firmware (motherboard) lock. It's easy to bypass this lock on older i-Macs and Macbooks, but with this newer i-Mac, Apple has to be contacted for the code. If the customer doesn't have a proof of purchase, then the beautiful and expensive i-Mac is a brick.

 

The lock is a security feature so that if you lose your mac or it's get stolen, you can lock it remotely. The funny thing is, this mac was brought to me by a senior lady that said her grand daughter gave it to her. Needless to say, my phone call to her this morning will be interesting. lol