Just picked up a s/h SSD for an Intel MBA. Surprised to find it had
Monterey already installed (and a cracked MS Office - no mention of
either prior), as I thought it would be 'bare bones'. I went ahead and
did a reinstall (Option - Cmd - R on restart). Oddly(?) no password or
user account setup request. When I tried to restart it asked for a
password so I had to contact the eBay seller...

Anyway, after a lot of faffing around creating a new admin account and
deleting the one on there (and spending a LOT of time trying to figure
out why I couldn't change the time format to 12hr) I think it's pretty
much ok now. Before I delete the MS stuff and use Migration Assistant
to bring over my old Catalina TM backup, anything else to be aware of?
I've never done one of these that hasn't been a straight install from a
USB before. Anything else that may jump out at me?

--
Cheers ... Mark

On 8 Mar 2024 at 19:46:16 GMT, "Mark" <captain.black@gmail.com> wrote:

> Just picked up a s/h SSD for an Intel MBA. Surprised to find it had
> Monterey already installed (and a cracked MS Office - no mention of
> either prior), as I thought it would be 'bare bones'. I went ahead and
> did a reinstall (Option - Cmd - R on restart). Oddly(?) no password or
> user account setup request. When I tried to restart it asked for a
> password so I had to contact the eBay seller...
>
> Anyway, after a lot of faffing around creating a new admin account and
> deleting the one on there (and spending a LOT of time trying to figure
> out why I couldn't change the time format to 12hr) I think it's pretty
> much ok now. Before I delete the MS stuff and use Migration Assistant
> to bring over my old Catalina TM backup, anything else to be aware of?
> I've never done one of these that hasn't been a straight install from a
> USB before. Anything else that may jump out at me?

Any reason why you didn't start your computer whilst holding down command +R -
macOS Internet Recovery
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/102603
Then erase the hard disk and then install a brand new copy of macOS?
Thereafter use Migration Assistant to transfer all of your data.

Mark <captain.black@gmail.com> wrote:
> Just picked up a s/h SSD for an Intel MBA. Surprised to find it had
> Monterey already installed (and a cracked MS Office - no mention of
> either prior), as I thought it would be 'bare bones'. I went ahead and
> did a reinstall (Option - Cmd - R on restart). Oddly(?) no password or
> user account setup request. When I tried to restart it asked for a
> password so I had to contact the eBay seller...
>
> Anyway, after a lot of faffing around creating a new admin account and
> deleting the one on there (and spending a LOT of time trying to figure
> out why I couldn't change the time format to 12hr) I think it's pretty
> much ok now. Before I delete the MS stuff and use Migration Assistant
> to bring over my old Catalina TM backup, anything else to be aware of?
> I've never done one of these that hasn't been a straight install from a
> USB before. Anything else that may jump out at me?

Does the new admin account have the same username as your personal account
stored in the TM backup? I can sort of see problems if you try to restore
it from the TM backup if so.

--
Cheers, Alan

Alan B <alanrichardbarker@gmail.com.invalid> wrote:
> Mark <captain.black@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Just picked up a s/h SSD for an Intel MBA. Surprised to find it had
>> Monterey already installed (and a cracked MS Office - no mention of
>> either prior), as I thought it would be 'bare bones'. I went ahead and
>> did a reinstall (Option - Cmd - R on restart). Oddly(?) no password or
>> user account setup request. When I tried to restart it asked for a
>> password so I had to contact the eBay seller...
>>
>> Anyway, after a lot of faffing around creating a new admin account and
>> deleting the one on there (and spending a LOT of time trying to figure
>> out why I couldn't change the time format to 12hr) I think it's pretty
>> much ok now. Before I delete the MS stuff and use Migration Assistant
>> to bring over my old Catalina TM backup, anything else to be aware of?
>> I've never done one of these that hasn't been a straight install from a
>> USB before. Anything else that may jump out at me?
>
> Does the new admin account have the same username as your personal account
> stored in the TM backup? I can sort of see problems if you try to restore
> it from the TM backup if so.
>

Actually you may be OK - see part 8 of this link.

<https://support.apple.com/en-gb/102551>

If an account on your Mac has same name, Migration Assistant will ask
whether to rename or replace:

Rename: The account on your Time Machine backup will appear as an
additional user on your Mac, with a separate login and home folder.

Replace: The account on your Time Machine backup will replace the
identically named account on your Mac.

--
Cheers, Alan

On 9 Mar 2024 at 07:16:18 GMT, "Alan B" <alanrichardbarker@gmail.com.invalid>
wrote:

> Alan B <alanrichardbarker@gmail.com.invalid> wrote:
>> Mark <captain.black@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Just picked up a s/h SSD for an Intel MBA. Surprised to find it had
>>> Monterey already installed (and a cracked MS Office - no mention of
>>> either prior), as I thought it would be 'bare bones'. I went ahead and
>>> did a reinstall (Option - Cmd - R on restart). Oddly(?) no password or
>>> user account setup request. When I tried to restart it asked for a
>>> password so I had to contact the eBay seller...
>>>
>>> Anyway, after a lot of faffing around creating a new admin account and
>>> deleting the one on there (and spending a LOT of time trying to figure
>>> out why I couldn't change the time format to 12hr) I think it's pretty
>>> much ok now. Before I delete the MS stuff and use Migration Assistant
>>> to bring over my old Catalina TM backup, anything else to be aware of?
>>> I've never done one of these that hasn't been a straight install from a
>>> USB before. Anything else that may jump out at me?
>>
>> Does the new admin account have the same username as your personal account
>> stored in the TM backup? I can sort of see problems if you try to restore
>> it from the TM backup if so.
>>
>
> Actually you may be OK - see part 8 of this link.
>
> <https://support.apple.com/en-gb/102551>
>
> If an account on your Mac has same name, Migration Assistant will ask
> whether to rename or replace:
>
> Rename: The account on your Time Machine backup will appear as an
> additional user on your Mac, with a separate login and home folder.
>
> Replace: The account on your Time Machine backup will replace the
> identically named account on your Mac.

Why don't you agree with MY suggestion, Alan?

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204904

On 2024-03-09 07:16:18 +0000, Alan B said:

> Alan B <alanrichardbarker@gmail.com.invalid> wrote:
>> Mark <captain.black@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Just picked up a s/h SSD for an Intel MBA. Surprised to find it had
>>> Monterey already installed (and a cracked MS Office - no mention of
>>> either prior), as I thought it would be 'bare bones'. I went ahead and
>>> did a reinstall (Option - Cmd - R on restart). Oddly(?) no password or
>>> user account setup request. When I tried to restart it asked for a
>>> password so I had to contact the eBay seller...
>>>
>>> Anyway, after a lot of faffing around creating a new admin account and
>>> deleting the one on there (and spending a LOT of time trying to figure
>>> out why I couldn't change the time format to 12hr) I think it's pretty
>>> much ok now. Before I delete the MS stuff and use Migration Assistant
>>> to bring over my old Catalina TM backup, anything else to be aware of?
>>> I've never done one of these that hasn't been a straight install from a
>>> USB before. Anything else that may jump out at me?
>>
>> Does the new admin account have the same username as your personal account
>> stored in the TM backup? I can sort of see problems if you try to restore
>> it from the TM backup if so.
>>
>
> Actually you may be OK - see part 8 of this link.
>
> <https://support.apple.com/en-gb/102551>
>
> If an account on your Mac has same name, Migration Assistant will ask
> whether to rename or replace:
>
> Rename: The account on your Time Machine backup will appear as an
> additional user on your Mac, with a separate login and home folder.
>
> Replace: The account on your Time Machine backup will replace the
> identically named account on your Mac.

Thanks - all sorted now. I was severely jet-lagged yesterday & really
should not have been messing with this!
--
Cheers ... Mark

On 2024-03-09, Mark <captain.black@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 2024-03-09 07:16:18 +0000, Alan B said:
>
>> Alan B <alanrichardbarker@gmail.com.invalid> wrote:
>>>
>>> Does the new admin account have the same username as your personal account
>>> stored in the TM backup? I can sort of see problems if you try to restore
>>> it from the TM backup if so.
>>>
>>
>> Actually you may be OK - see part 8 of this link.
>>
>> <https://support.apple.com/en-gb/102551>
>>
>> If an account on your Mac has same name, Migration Assistant will ask
>> whether to rename or replace:
>>
>> Rename: The account on your Time Machine backup will appear as an
>> additional user on your Mac, with a separate login and home folder.
>>
>> Replace: The account on your Time Machine backup will replace the
>> identically named account on your Mac.
>
> Thanks - all sorted now. I was severely jet-lagged yesterday & really
> should not have been messing with this!

Ah, great :)

--
Cheers, Alan

On 09/03/2024 11:35, Mark wrote:
> On 2024-03-09 07:16:18 +0000, Alan B said:
>
>> Alan B <alanrichardbarker@gmail.com.invalid> wrote:
>>> Mark <captain.black@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> Just picked up a s/h SSD for an Intel MBA. Surprised to find it had
>>>> Monterey already installed (and a cracked MS Office - no mention of
>>>> either prior), as I thought it would be 'bare bones'. I went ahead and
>>>> did a reinstall (Option - Cmd - R on restart). Oddly(?) no password or
>>>> user account setup request. When I tried to restart it asked for a
>>>> password so I had to contact the eBay seller...
>>>>
>>>> Anyway, after a lot of faffing around creating a new admin account and
>>>> deleting the one on there (and spending a LOT of time trying to figure
>>>> out why I couldn't change the time format to 12hr) I think it's pretty
>>>> much ok now. Before I delete the MS stuff and use Migration Assistant
>>>> to bring over my old Catalina TM backup, anything else to be aware of?
>>>> I've never done one of these that hasn't been a straight install from a
>>>> USB before. Anything else that may jump out at me?
>>>
>>> Does the new admin account have the same username as your personal
>>> account
>>> stored in the TM backup? I can sort of see problems if you try to
>>> restore
>>> it from the TM backup if so.
>>>
>>
>> Actually you may be OK  - see part 8 of this link.
>>
>> <https://support.apple.com/en-gb/102551>
>>
>> If an account on your Mac has same name, Migration Assistant will ask
>> whether to rename or replace:
>>
>> Rename: The account on your Time Machine backup will appear as an
>> additional user on your Mac, with a separate login and home folder.
>>
>> Replace: The account on your Time Machine backup will replace the
>> identically named account on your Mac.
>
> Thanks - all sorted now. I was severely jet-lagged yesterday & really
> should not have been messing with this!

Ignoring the other poster on this, but...

With there being a sign of 'cracked' software being on the drive, surely
it would have been prudent to do a secure delete of that drive, and
reformat from scratch again.

It should then have just been a simply matter of either reinstall the OS
from scratch, and migrate the user data over, or just reinstall from a
Time Machine backup.

Normally I install the new drive into an external caddy first, get
everything installed and tested, then swap the drives over. If it's just
a drive upgrade, and everything was working fine, I usually just clone
the drive using 'Restore' in Drive Utility, or clone using SuperDuper.

FWIW, I still think it could be worth doing that anyway. There's a
chance of malware being present from the cracked software being
installed - as you have no idea where that would have been sourced.

--
Andy H

Andy H <thewildrover@icloud.com> wrote:
> On 09/03/2024 11:35, Mark wrote:
>> On 2024-03-09 07:16:18 +0000, Alan B said:
>>
>>> Alan B <alanrichardbarker@gmail.com.invalid> wrote:
>>>> Mark <captain.black@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>> Just picked up a s/h SSD for an Intel MBA. Surprised to find it had
>>>>> Monterey already installed (and a cracked MS Office - no mention of
>>>>> either prior), as I thought it would be 'bare bones'. I went ahead and
>>>>> did a reinstall (Option - Cmd - R on restart). Oddly(?) no password or
>>>>> user account setup request. When I tried to restart it asked for a
>>>>> password so I had to contact the eBay seller...
>>>>>
>>>>> Anyway, after a lot of faffing around creating a new admin account and
>>>>> deleting the one on there (and spending a LOT of time trying to figure
>>>>> out why I couldn't change the time format to 12hr) I think it's pretty
>>>>> much ok now. Before I delete the MS stuff and use Migration Assistant
>>>>> to bring over my old Catalina TM backup, anything else to be aware of?
>>>>> I've never done one of these that hasn't been a straight install from a
>>>>> USB before. Anything else that may jump out at me?
>>>>
>>>> Does the new admin account have the same username as your personal
>>>> account
>>>> stored in the TM backup? I can sort of see problems if you try to
>>>> restore
>>>> it from the TM backup if so.
>>>>
>>>
>>> Actually you may be OK  - see part 8 of this link.
>>>
>>> <https://support.apple.com/en-gb/102551>
>>>
>>> If an account on your Mac has same name, Migration Assistant will ask
>>> whether to rename or replace:
>>>
>>> Rename: The account on your Time Machine backup will appear as an
>>> additional user on your Mac, with a separate login and home folder.
>>>
>>> Replace: The account on your Time Machine backup will replace the
>>> identically named account on your Mac.
>>
>> Thanks - all sorted now. I was severely jet-lagged yesterday & really
>> should not have been messing with this!
>
> Ignoring the other poster on this, but...
>
> With there being a sign of 'cracked' software being on the drive, surely
> it would have been prudent to do a secure delete of that drive, and
> reformat from scratch again.
>
> It should then have just been a simply matter of either reinstall the OS
> from scratch, and migrate the user data over, or just reinstall from a
> Time Machine backup.
>
> Normally I install the new drive into an external caddy first, get
> everything installed and tested, then swap the drives over. If it's just
> a drive upgrade, and everything was working fine, I usually just clone
> the drive using 'Restore' in Drive Utility, or clone using SuperDuper.
>
> FWIW, I still think it could be worth doing that anyway. There's a
> chance of malware being present from the cracked software being
> installed - as you have no idea where that would have been sourced.

I hope I’m not the “other poster” - my filters are quite aggressive now
since last weekend so I may well have missed something?

Well, yes I would probably have done similar to that too, but as Mark had
already got the replacement drive up and running, I just tried to help him
continue with his migration. macOS’s built in security tools plus say MWB
should surely pickup any malware even though Catalina is now outdated?

--
Cheers, Alan

On 2024-03-09 13:46:26 +0000, Alan B said:

> Andy H <thewildrover@icloud.com> wrote:
>> On 09/03/2024 11:35, Mark wrote:
>>> On 2024-03-09 07:16:18 +0000, Alan B said:
>>>
>>>> Alan B <alanrichardbarker@gmail.com.invalid> wrote:
>>>>> Mark <captain.black@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>> Just picked up a s/h SSD for an Intel MBA. Surprised to find it had
>>>>>> Monterey already installed (and a cracked MS Office - no mention of
>>>>>> either prior), as I thought it would be 'bare bones'. I went ahead and
>>>>>> did a reinstall (Option - Cmd - R on restart). Oddly(?) no password or
>>>>>> user account setup request. When I tried to restart it asked for a
>>>>>> password so I had to contact the eBay seller...
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Anyway, after a lot of faffing around creating a new admin account and
>>>>>> deleting the one on there (and spending a LOT of time trying to figure
>>>>>> out why I couldn't change the time format to 12hr) I think it's pretty
>>>>>> much ok now. Before I delete the MS stuff and use Migration Assistant
>>>>>> to bring over my old Catalina TM backup, anything else to be aware of?
>>>>>> I've never done one of these that hasn't been a straight install from a
>>>>>> USB before. Anything else that may jump out at me?
>>>>>
>>>>> Does the new admin account have the same username as your personal
>>>>> account
>>>>> stored in the TM backup? I can sort of see problems if you try to
>>>>> restore
>>>>> it from the TM backup if so.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Actually you may be OK  - see part 8 of this link.
>>>>
>>>> <https://support.apple.com/en-gb/102551>
>>>>
>>>> If an account on your Mac has same name, Migration Assistant will ask
>>>> whether to rename or replace:
>>>>
>>>> Rename: The account on your Time Machine backup will appear as an
>>>> additional user on your Mac, with a separate login and home folder.
>>>>
>>>> Replace: The account on your Time Machine backup will replace the
>>>> identically named account on your Mac.
>>>
>>> Thanks - all sorted now. I was severely jet-lagged yesterday & really
>>> should not have been messing with this!
>>
>> Ignoring the other poster on this, but...
>>
>> With there being a sign of 'cracked' software being on the drive, surely
>> it would have been prudent to do a secure delete of that drive, and
>> reformat from scratch again.
>>
>> It should then have just been a simply matter of either reinstall the OS
>> from scratch, and migrate the user data over, or just reinstall from a
>> Time Machine backup.
>>
>> Normally I install the new drive into an external caddy first, get
>> everything installed and tested, then swap the drives over. If it's just
>> a drive upgrade, and everything was working fine, I usually just clone
>> the drive using 'Restore' in Drive Utility, or clone using SuperDuper.
>>
>> FWIW, I still think it could be worth doing that anyway. There's a
>> chance of malware being present from the cracked software being
>> installed - as you have no idea where that would have been sourced.
>
> I hope I’m not the “other poster” - my filters are quite aggressive now
> since last weekend so I may well have missed something?

Nope, not you :)
>
> Well, yes I would probably have done similar to that too, but as Mark had
> already got the replacement drive up and running, I just tried to help him
> continue with his migration. macOS’s built in security tools plus say MWB
> should surely pickup any malware even though Catalina is now outdated?

I did a secure delete, then an Internet restore to Monterey. I then
tried to Migration Assist but it showed no backups to select (which was
odd). I got on the blower to Apple & they didn't know why I wasn't
seeing my backups in MA. They had me erase the SSD again, then select
MA from there. This they said should work - the only caveat being it
would install Catalina as well as everything else (as I hadn't
installed Monterey yet). No problem they said - when it's done just
update to Monterey. Time Machine System Restore has now been sitting on
"Preparing to restore..." for the last 4 hours...

--
Cheers ... Mark

Mark <captain.black@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 2024-03-09 13:46:26 +0000, Alan B said:
>> I hope I’m not the “other poster” - my filters are quite aggressive now
>> since last weekend so I may well have missed something?
>
> Nope, not you :)

I thought not. I meant to put ;-) at the end of my comment above rather
than ? Never mind :)

> I did a secure delete, then an Internet restore to Monterey. I then
> tried to Migration Assist but it showed no backups to select (which was
> odd). I got on the blower to Apple & they didn't know why I wasn't
> seeing my backups in MA. They had me erase the SSD again, then select
> MA from there. This they said should work - the only caveat being it
> would install Catalina as well as everything else (as I hadn't
> installed Monterey yet). No problem they said - when it's done just
> update to Monterey. Time Machine System Restore has now been sitting on
> "Preparing to restore..." for the last 4 hours...

Oh b***** :( Have you a secondary backup, e.g. One created with Carbon Copy
Cloner? I guess you will have to contact Apple Support again if it doesn’t
start soon. But how long is soon ……

--
Cheers, Alan

On 2024-03-09 17:50:39 +0000, Alan B said:

> Mark <captain.black@gmail.com> wrote:
>> On 2024-03-09 13:46:26 +0000, Alan B said:
>>> I hope I’m not the “other poster” - my filters are quite aggressive now
>>> since last weekend so I may well have missed something?
>>
>> Nope, not you :)
>
> I thought not. I meant to put ;-) at the end of my comment above rather
> than ? Never mind :)
>
>> I did a secure delete, then an Internet restore to Monterey. I then
>> tried to Migration Assist but it showed no backups to select (which was
>> odd). I got on the blower to Apple & they didn't know why I wasn't
>> seeing my backups in MA. They had me erase the SSD again, then select
>> MA from there. This they said should work - the only caveat being it
>> would install Catalina as well as everything else (as I hadn't
>> installed Monterey yet). No problem they said - when it's done just
>> update to Monterey. Time Machine System Restore has now been sitting on
>> "Preparing to restore..." for the last 4 hours...
>
> Oh b***** :( Have you a secondary backup, e.g. One created with Carbon Copy
> Cloner? I guess you will have to contact Apple Support again if it doesn’t
> start soon. But how long is soon ……

I quit the restore... I'll try the Install Monterey - > MA route again
& see what happens. I do have a CCC backup, but the last 2 times I used
it it finished with these 2 errors <https://imgur.com/a/rbbcWb3>
--
Cheers ... Mark

On 09/03/2024 17:29, Mark wrote:
> On 2024-03-09 13:46:26 +0000, Alan B said:

>> I hope I’m not the “other poster” - my filters are quite aggressive now
>> since last weekend so I may well have missed something?
>
> Nope, not you :)

Indeed so, we all know who I was talking about there ;-).

>> Well, yes I would probably have done similar to that too, but as Mark had
>> already got the replacement drive up and running, I just tried to help
>> him
>> continue with his migration. macOS’s built in security tools plus say MWB
>> should surely  pickup any malware even though Catalina is now outdated?

Fair enough.

> I did a secure delete, then an Internet restore to Monterey. I then
> tried to Migration Assist but it showed no backups to select (which was
> odd). I got on the blower to Apple & they didn't know why I wasn't
> seeing my backups in MA. They had me erase the SSD again, then select MA
> from there. This they said should work - the only caveat being it would
> install Catalina as well as everything else (as I hadn't installed
> Monterey yet). No problem they said - when it's done just update to
> Monterey. Time Machine System Restore has now been sitting on "Preparing
> to restore..." for the last 4 hours...

Ah!

That might indicate an issue with something of course, but could be any
part of that chain.

The new drive may not be as compatible/intact as you expect, or you
could have a bad Time Machine backup. Or just some kind of voodoo at
play :-/

--
Andy H

On 2024-03-09 19:40:19 +0000, Andy H said:

> On 09/03/2024 17:29, Mark wrote:
>> On 2024-03-09 13:46:26 +0000, Alan B said:
>
>>> I hope I’m not the “other poster” - my filters are quite aggressive now
>>> since last weekend so I may well have missed something?
>>
>> Nope, not you :)
>
> Indeed so, we all know who I was talking about there ;-).
>
>>> Well, yes I would probably have done similar to that too, but as Mark had
>>> already got the replacement drive up and running, I just tried to help him
>>> continue with his migration. macOS’s built in security tools plus say MWB
>>> should surely  pickup any malware even though Catalina is now outdated?
>
> Fair enough.
>
>> I did a secure delete, then an Internet restore to Monterey. I then
>> tried to Migration Assist but it showed no backups to select (which was
>> odd). I got on the blower to Apple & they didn't know why I wasn't
>> seeing my backups in MA. They had me erase the SSD again, then select
>> MA from there. This they said should work - the only caveat being it
>> would install Catalina as well as everything else (as I hadn't
>> installed Monterey yet). No problem they said - when it's done just
>> update to Monterey. Time Machine System Restore has now been sitting on
>> "Preparing to restore..." for the last 4 hours...
>
> Ah!
>
> That might indicate an issue with something of course, but could be any
> part of that chain.
>
> The new drive may not be as compatible/intact as you expect, or you
> could have a bad Time Machine backup. Or just some kind of voodoo at
> play :-/

Aye - so many possibilities! Created a boot USB stick & curently
installing Monterey from that. Let's see...
--
Cheers ... Mark

On 9 Mar 2024 at 19:59:33 GMT, "Mark" <captain.black@gmail.com> wrote:

> On 2024-03-09 19:40:19 +0000, Andy H said:
>
>> On 09/03/2024 17:29, Mark wrote:
>>> On 2024-03-09 13:46:26 +0000, Alan B said:
>>
>>>> I hope I’m not the “other poster” - my filters are quite aggressive now
>>>> since last weekend so I may well have missed something?
>>>
>>> Nope, not you :)
>>
>> Indeed so, we all know who I was talking about there ;-).
>>
>>>> Well, yes I would probably have done similar to that too, but as Mark had
>>>> already got the replacement drive up and running, I just tried to help him
>>>> continue with his migration. macOS’s built in security tools plus say MWB
>>>> should surely pickup any malware even though Catalina is now outdated?
>>
>> Fair enough.
>>
>>> I did a secure delete, then an Internet restore to Monterey. I then
>>> tried to Migration Assist but it showed no backups to select (which was
>>> odd). I got on the blower to Apple & they didn't know why I wasn't
>>> seeing my backups in MA. They had me erase the SSD again, then select
>>> MA from there. This they said should work - the only caveat being it
>>> would install Catalina as well as everything else (as I hadn't
>>> installed Monterey yet). No problem they said - when it's done just
>>> update to Monterey. Time Machine System Restore has now been sitting on
>>> "Preparing to restore..." for the last 4 hours...
>>
>> Ah!
>>
>> That might indicate an issue with something of course, but could be any
>> part of that chain.
>>
>> The new drive may not be as compatible/intact as you expect, or you
>> could have a bad Time Machine backup. Or just some kind of voodoo at
>> play :-/
>
> Aye - so many possibilities! Created a boot USB stick & curently
> installing Monterey from that. Let's see...

Any reason why you didn't start your computer whilst holding down command +R?
MacOS Internet Recovery?
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/102603
Then erase the hard disk and then install a brand new copy of macOS?
Thereafter use Migration Assistant to transfer all of your data.

That would work, all things being equal!

On 2024-03-09, Andy H <thewildrover@icloud.com> wrote:
> On 09/03/2024 17:29, Mark wrote:
>> On 2024-03-09 13:46:26 +0000, Alan B said:
>
>>> I hope I’m not the “other poster” - my filters are quite aggressive now
>>> since last weekend so I may well have missed something?
>>
>> Nope, not you :)
>
> Indeed so, we all know who I was talking about there ;-).

Quelle surpris ;-)

--
Cheers, Alan

On 2024-03-09, Mark <captain.black@gmail.com> wrote:
> Aye - so many possibilities! Created a boot USB stick & curently
> installing Monterey from that. Let's see...

I always configure USB installers for whatever macOS versions I'm currently
using. Probably not much point for Silicon Macs but old habits die hard :)

--
Cheers, Alan

On 2024-03-09 21:18:45 +0000, Alan B said:

> On 2024-03-09, Mark <captain.black@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Aye - so many possibilities! Created a boot USB stick & curently
>> installing Monterey from that. Let's see...
>
> I always configure USB installers for whatever macOS versions I'm currently
> using. Probably not much point for Silicon Macs but old habits die hard :)

OK, here's a weird thing. My "TM new backup" drive shows up in MA as
"MyUserName Macbook" instead. If I double-click the drive it shows a
"MyUserName Macbook.backupbundle" file.
--
Cheers ... Mark

On 10 Mar 2024 at 10:58:29 GMT, "Mark" <captain.black@gmail.com> wrote:

> On 2024-03-09 21:18:45 +0000, Alan B said:
>
>> On 2024-03-09, Mark <captain.black@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Aye - so many possibilities! Created a boot USB stick & curently
>>> installing Monterey from that. Let's see...
>>
>> I always configure USB installers for whatever macOS versions I'm currently
>> using. Probably not much point for Silicon Macs but old habits die hard :)
>
> OK, here's a weird thing. My "TM new backup" drive shows up in MA as
> "MyUserName Macbook" instead. If I double-click the drive it shows a
> "MyUserName Macbook.backupbundle" file.

MA? What's that?

Why didn't you do what I'd recommended, Mark?

On 2024-03-10 10:58:29 +0000, Mark said:

> On 2024-03-09 21:18:45 +0000, Alan B said:
>
>> On 2024-03-09, Mark <captain.black@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Aye - so many possibilities! Created a boot USB stick & curently
>>> installing Monterey from that. Let's see...
>>
>> I always configure USB installers for whatever macOS versions I'm currently
>> using. Probably not much point for Silicon Macs but old habits die hard :)
>
> OK, here's a weird thing. My "TM new backup" drive shows up in MA as
> "MyUserName Macbook" instead. If I double-click the drive it shows a
> "MyUserName Macbook.backupbundle" file.

Solution - double-click that .backupbundle THEN start MA. Now I can see
the backup to select. Seems to be working!
--
Cheers ... Mark

Mark <captain.black@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 2024-03-10 10:58:29 +0000, Mark said:
>
>> On 2024-03-09 21:18:45 +0000, Alan B said:
>>
>>> On 2024-03-09, Mark <captain.black@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> Aye - so many possibilities! Created a boot USB stick & curently
>>>> installing Monterey from that. Let's see...
>>>
>>> I always configure USB installers for whatever macOS versions I'm currently
>>> using. Probably not much point for Silicon Macs but old habits die hard :)
>>
>> OK, here's a weird thing. My "TM new backup" drive shows up in MA as
>> "MyUserName Macbook" instead. If I double-click the drive it shows a
>> "MyUserName Macbook.backupbundle" file.
>
> Solution - double-click that .backupbundle THEN start MA. Now I can see
> the backup to select. Seems to be working!

Fingers crossed …..

--
Cheers, Alan

On 2024-03-10 11:30:40 +0000, Alan B said:

> Mark <captain.black@gmail.com> wrote:
>> On 2024-03-10 10:58:29 +0000, Mark said:
>>
>>> On 2024-03-09 21:18:45 +0000, Alan B said:
>>>
>>>> On 2024-03-09, Mark <captain.black@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>> Aye - so many possibilities! Created a boot USB stick & curently
>>>>> installing Monterey from that. Let's see...
>>>>
>>>> I always configure USB installers for whatever macOS versions I'm currently
>>>> using. Probably not much point for Silicon Macs but old habits die hard :)
>>>
>>> OK, here's a weird thing. My "TM new backup" drive shows up in MA as
>>> "MyUserName Macbook" instead. If I double-click the drive it shows a
>>> "MyUserName Macbook.backupbundle" file.
>>
>> Solution - double-click that .backupbundle THEN start MA. Now I can see
>> the backup to select. Seems to be working!
>
> Fingers crossed …..

Looks like everything has migrated over now. Phew!

--
Cheers ... Mark

On 2024-03-10, Mark <captain.black@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 2024-03-10 11:30:40 +0000, Alan B said:
>
>> Mark <captain.black@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> Solution - double-click that .backupbundle THEN start MA. Now I can see
>>> the backup to select. Seems to be working!
>>
>> Fingers crossed …..
>
> Looks like everything has migrated over now. Phew!

Excellent :)

--
Cheers, Alan

Mark <captain.black@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 2024-03-10 11:30:40 +0000, Alan B said:
>
>> Mark <captain.black@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> On 2024-03-10 10:58:29 +0000, Mark said:
>>>
>>>> On 2024-03-09 21:18:45 +0000, Alan B said:
>>>>
>>>>> On 2024-03-09, Mark <captain.black@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>> Aye - so many possibilities! Created a boot USB stick & curently
>>>>>> installing Monterey from that. Let's see...
>>>>>
>>>>> I always configure USB installers for whatever macOS versions I'm currently
>>>>> using. Probably not much point for Silicon Macs but old habits die hard :)
>>>>
>>>> OK, here's a weird thing. My "TM new backup" drive shows up in MA as
>>>> "MyUserName Macbook" instead. If I double-click the drive it shows a
>>>> "MyUserName Macbook.backupbundle" file.
>>>
>>> Solution - double-click that .backupbundle THEN start MA. Now I can see
>>> the backup to select. Seems to be working!
>>
>> Fingers crossed …..
>
> Looks like everything has migrated over now. Phew!

Great, you should have a better/cleaner install for that now though (one
would hope anyway :-))

--
Andy H