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I want to install Big Sur on my MBP 2017. However, after installing, I don't want my Catalina Time Machine backup to be overridden or touched in any manner. I want to be able to revert to Catalina if necessary. Is there a way to prevent Big Sur from taking over the Catalina backup?
It means that I use a drive exclusively for one operating system, and then purchase and format a new drive for the new operating system. I made an exception for my Catalina TM drive, as I am functionally done with ever using Catalina again, and recycled its 1TB TM drive as an APFS TM drive for my M1 Mac mini.
It means that I use a drive exclusively for one operating system, and then purchase and format a new drive for the new operating system. I made an exception for my Catalina TM drive, as I am functionally done with ever using Catalina again, and recycled its 1TB TM drive as an APFS TM drive for my M1 Mac mini.
So after digging around the Internet, it appears the last backup completed prior to an upgrade to Big Sur will remain untouched and would be a Catalina backup. This means if I want to revert to Catalina, I would just erase my computer then restore using the Catalina backup. Can someone confirm that I am correct? Thanks!!!
Ordinarily, you do not have to erase your Mac before restoring Catalina. You would just boot into Recovery and select Restore from Time Machine backup, and it would then repave your startup drive with the contents of the last Catalina TM backup. It may further prompt you for which TM backup you want to restore from, but I cannot confirm that, or that you will get all of the Catalina bits back from the last backup before mixing it with Big Sur.
I always keep my operating system TM backups exclusively apart using new drives.
"I always keep my operating system TM backups exclusively apart using new drives."
This means after installing Big Sur, create a new backup with a totally different target than my last Catalina backup?
Ok thanks!!!
You are welcome.
How to keep Catalina backup intact after installing Big Sur in case I need to revert?
