For every step forward, I take 5 steps back. I'll start with the immediate problem, then go back to the beginning of the nightmare 4 days ago. I see a bunch of similar problems in threads online, but not my particular one.
Immediate problem: I have a Mac Pro (G5), mid-2012. [PLEASE don't question whether this or that works. It does.] I installed Sierra on an internal SSD 480. All went well, supposedly. But when it restarted it asked me for a password [which it never did before]. There was a old password to make changes, so I gave it that and it seemed to be happy. But NONE of the 4 internal disks are mounted--including the startup disk. NONE of the old applications are in the little row at the bottom [that's technical talk--my level], just ones that apparently came with the system. There is NO disk utility. It's like I'm in an alternate universe--and perhaps I am. Perhaps there is some sort of partition I'm unaware of filtering out all my old stuff.
Now back to the beginning of the long saga...I was operating El Capitan for years. Then I thought I should upgrade (some Safari sites weren't working) before the new OS came out in the fall, which I understand they are charging $$ for. I was afraid Sierra and High Sierra might disappear as downloads.
There was only the system, applications, etc. on my startup disk, SSD 480. So I used carbon copy cloner to copy it all to an external HD. Success. But the backup wouldn't boot the computer. So I changed from a USB to a Firewire cable, and voila, it booted the computer.
Next step: Get into the App Store to get the download. This took more than a day, including an 1 1/2 chat with Apple support. After an hour and a half (!) she got me into the App Store. [All this is because Apple assumes everyone knows all the jargon and is intimately familiar with all sorts of equipment and OS. I am not.] So I downloaded Sierra to the internal SSD 480 and overwrote the existing El Capitan.
Re-started the computer, and everything was great--everything was there, it worked fine. After making sure of that, I did another carbon copy clone to the same backup hard drive, after deleting the El Capitan backup. Again, everything fine. Everything there, boots up with Firewire only.
Then the internal SSD 480 with the new Sierra refused to boot the computer. So I thought, OK, I'll just re-install. It refused to do it--it wouldn't recognize the HD. It was invisible to the installer. So I thought, OK, I'll reformat the SSD 480. I did, following ALL the rules. It allowed me to re-install Sierra at that point, but of course now I was installing it into a blank disk, not overwriting an existing system. At some point it asked me what stuff I wanted to transfer from my backup disk, but of course it didn't explain anything. So I didn't transfer applications, for example.
So now "about this Mac" says that, yes, I'm running Sierra from the invisible SSD 480. And all the other internal HD are invisible as well. And yes, I could run Sierra (which has all the old applications, etc.) from my external HD connected with Firewire, but there is no backup to it, and it is much slower than the internal SSD 480. Maybe I should just boot up from the backup HD, re-format the SSD 480, and use carbon copy cloner to transfer the entire backup back to the SSD? What could go wrong? ha ha ha
I've left out huge chunks of all this, but it's been a 4-day adventure I don't want to re-live. And of course I'm not done--which is why I'm here. If you reply, please keep it jargon free. Otherwise, it will be like Chinese (and I don't speak Chinese). The irony here is that I was a Mac systems administrator in the early 90s when things were simpler.
Immediate problem: I have a Mac Pro (G5), mid-2012. [PLEASE don't question whether this or that works. It does.] I installed Sierra on an internal SSD 480. All went well, supposedly. But when it restarted it asked me for a password [which it never did before]. There was a old password to make changes, so I gave it that and it seemed to be happy. But NONE of the 4 internal disks are mounted--including the startup disk. NONE of the old applications are in the little row at the bottom [that's technical talk--my level], just ones that apparently came with the system. There is NO disk utility. It's like I'm in an alternate universe--and perhaps I am. Perhaps there is some sort of partition I'm unaware of filtering out all my old stuff.
Now back to the beginning of the long saga...I was operating El Capitan for years. Then I thought I should upgrade (some Safari sites weren't working) before the new OS came out in the fall, which I understand they are charging $$ for. I was afraid Sierra and High Sierra might disappear as downloads.
There was only the system, applications, etc. on my startup disk, SSD 480. So I used carbon copy cloner to copy it all to an external HD. Success. But the backup wouldn't boot the computer. So I changed from a USB to a Firewire cable, and voila, it booted the computer.
Next step: Get into the App Store to get the download. This took more than a day, including an 1 1/2 chat with Apple support. After an hour and a half (!) she got me into the App Store. [All this is because Apple assumes everyone knows all the jargon and is intimately familiar with all sorts of equipment and OS. I am not.] So I downloaded Sierra to the internal SSD 480 and overwrote the existing El Capitan.
Re-started the computer, and everything was great--everything was there, it worked fine. After making sure of that, I did another carbon copy clone to the same backup hard drive, after deleting the El Capitan backup. Again, everything fine. Everything there, boots up with Firewire only.
Then the internal SSD 480 with the new Sierra refused to boot the computer. So I thought, OK, I'll just re-install. It refused to do it--it wouldn't recognize the HD. It was invisible to the installer. So I thought, OK, I'll reformat the SSD 480. I did, following ALL the rules. It allowed me to re-install Sierra at that point, but of course now I was installing it into a blank disk, not overwriting an existing system. At some point it asked me what stuff I wanted to transfer from my backup disk, but of course it didn't explain anything. So I didn't transfer applications, for example.
So now "about this Mac" says that, yes, I'm running Sierra from the invisible SSD 480. And all the other internal HD are invisible as well. And yes, I could run Sierra (which has all the old applications, etc.) from my external HD connected with Firewire, but there is no backup to it, and it is much slower than the internal SSD 480. Maybe I should just boot up from the backup HD, re-format the SSD 480, and use carbon copy cloner to transfer the entire backup back to the SSD? What could go wrong? ha ha ha
I've left out huge chunks of all this, but it's been a 4-day adventure I don't want to re-live. And of course I'm not done--which is why I'm here. If you reply, please keep it jargon free. Otherwise, it will be like Chinese (and I don't speak Chinese). The irony here is that I was a Mac systems administrator in the early 90s when things were simpler.
