Finally going to try Monterey on my iMac (should this procedure below work)

[dcmaccam]

I currently run Catalina from an external Samsung X5 SSD via Thunderbolt. Before I update this drive to Monterey I plan to temporarily do a TM restore onto a USB connected WD Black SSD then update this to Monterey. This will let me try it with my current data before committing the update to the Samsung X5.

If it all goes wrong I can just replug my Samsung X5 and carry on with Catalina as normal.

Does this sound OK or are there anything I might run into trouble with.

 

[BrianBaughn]

That's a good procedure but it doesn't mean something won't go wrong.

However, I'm thinking the first part…TM restore of Catalina on WD and then update it to Monterey…is the part with the most potential of problems (mostly because of TM). So…if that all seems OK after you do it…the upgrade on the Samsung should be a breeze.

 

[pshufd]

It sounds like it should work but I've taken to do clean installs the past year, then reinstall programs and copy my data files over onto an external drive to test for a week. If all goes well, then I'll clean install on the internal drive. I don't update every macOS version though. I'm still on Big Sur on one machine, Mojave on another.