Apple MAC OS upgrade issue

[YeOldeStonecat]

So, I'm not a MAC guy. My parents have an iMAC, it's on Mojave. They're having issues with the ipicture and/or photo manager that MAC OS has (seems to be what I'd call an indexing problem, it keeps losing the pictures).
So I figured, upgrade...it's 3x builds behind.

I went to to the upgrade to Catalina, and I get the below picture.
From what I've read, you have 2x choices.
*Boot into recovery mode...there's a tool to format the drive. My question is....does it "convert" on the fly? Keeping all data? Or...does it do a full format....basically nukes the drive, then you need to reinstall the OS and then restore via Time Machine,.
*How does Time Machine backup work? Is is...similar to a full image product like Acronis...where if you restore, the exact image OS goes back? Or...does it restore settings/data/apps....meaning, I can take a Time Machine from Mojave, and restore it to a fresh Catalina install?

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

And I'm leaning on another IT shop for this. My parents live about a half hour away, but...it's probably more efficient to have a tech that's familiar with MACs work on this. I just want to get the opinion of others..to help steer them. Had a lunch meeting last week with the owner of this fast up and coming IT shop, good ambitious young guy, has a young crew, he grew fast.

 

[mmerry]

If you format the drive in recovery mode, you will look the data. You could check to see if while in recovery mode, look in the Disk Utility and see if there is an option to convert to APFS.

How to Upgrade to APFS if Not Done in macOS High Sierra Installer

Here's how to upgrade your Mac's boot drive to APFS if you didn't do it in the High Sierra installation process.

www.macobserver.com

Time machine does not do an image based backup. I don't really use it as my data is all online. From the bit I have tried it, it seems more like Fab's is that it grabs known directories. but it also schedules them so there is almost a versioning of the backups.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Yeah I'm used to all my data being online too....(365)...I could blow up my laptop, get a new one, be pretty up and running quickly. Chromes sign in sync tops it off..all bookmarks 'n logins are back.

 

[overburnz]

The best option is to do a Time Machine backup, then you can format the iMac HD to APFS do a fresh install of Catalina or Big Sur and when configuring the system you can import the data from the time machine, as long as the time machine is of the same version of macOS you're installing, or older, you can import data, meaning you can import from Mojave to Big Sur but not the other way around.

Back up your Mac with Time Machine - Apple Support

Automatically back up what's important: Photos, email, music, and more.

support.apple.com

Just follow the link above and quote me/pm me if you have any doubts

 

[timeshifter]

Time machine does not do an image based backup.

You can restore your entire system from a Time Machine backup, just like you could with Acronis or Macrium or whatever. I may not be technically storing the backup as an image though. Other ways to restore:

Like Fabs - move to a new system and transfer profiles with data and settings
Individual files and folders.

For any of those types of backups you can pick from hourly for the past 24 hours, daily for the last week, then weekly and monthly snapshots.

In short, Time Machine is an amazing backup tool that's been included with every Mac for the last couple of decades.

 

[mmerry]

You can restore your entire system from a Time Machine backup, just like you could with Acronis or Macrium or whatever. I may not be technically storing the backup as an image though. Other ways to restore:

Like Fabs - move to a new system and transfer profiles with data and settings
Individual files and folders.

For any of those types of backups you can pick from hourly for the past 24 hours, daily for the last week, then weekly and monthly snapshots.

In short, Time Machine is an amazing backup tool that's been included with every Mac for the last couple of decades.

Good to know. I never really played with it too much so thanks for the clarification.