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> - I've never booted to a black screen when upgrading macOS. My wife got bit by the Big Sur bug, 2 weeks ago, were the installer doesn’t check if there’s enou

> - I've never booted to a black screen when upgrading macOS. My wife got bit by the Big Sur bug, 2 weeks ago, were the installer doesn’t check if there’s enough disk space available before starting the upgrade. Reached out Apple whom, had I not been next to her, wanted her to create a new volume on her disk and reinstall Stopped her. Jumped in. Asked what the plan was and it was to format. The initial question was if there was a way to recover the data. I stopped the conversation and started searching. Was working until midnight because everything I found basically said that you’re f’ed and lost all your data. I was able to recover it. . - Yes, she didn’t have a backup. But the installer also should do the minimum of checking if it can run. - I have no idea how old the installer is, but if Apple can remove Zoom due to a security issue with a web server, they can do it with a bad installer of theirs (or at least blacklist it). - Before giving steps that are destructive, they should have prefaced with it or at least warn that they’re SOL and need to reinstall and restore from a backup. . It works the majority of the time, but honestly, this left a REALLY bad taste for me. If it wasn’t because we are basically in the ecosystem and that it usually works, I’d be looking around to others.

MandieD 5y ago
Have you written a post somewhere about how you got her data back, or what was something online that helped you?
- rovr138 5y ago
  I’ve been setting up a NAS, storage and other things to try and prevent this again. Letting the old sysadmin side come out. I have a trip so trying to do that before then. I have the export from the terminal session to do the write up. I’ll try and see if I can at least start it tomorrow.
  - stoolpigeon 5y ago
    My daughter is a university student in the US and had something like this happen. I was on the phone with her when she took it to an Apple store and they told her they would wipe the machine. She has some stuff on there she really didn't want to lose (we've had a lot of talks about backing things up since then) and so I had her buy a new machine (she really needed one). And she's holding onto the old one until I get to the US to visit her this summer. I would be very, very interested in any information you can share about what you did. I have ideas of where to start but anything that could possibly help would be greatly appreciated.
ngcc_hk 5y ago
Being a mac users and “supporter” for decades because of my wife I think it is so much better to have mac or even windows for general users. Or even for us IT guys. Just work and move on the problem you deal with. The problem is when the chip is down most of the case you are on your own. Not linux fault eg I have a small computer (touch based windows mini Pc) want to use it and from time to time the wireless adapter disappear ... I just go out to get a planet computer version 3 simply because their version 1 has linux support. I beg they have tested sort of their linux dual boot. Support. The hard part. And then the windows issue ... good luck to use linux not on VM, Docker ... and my lisp slimv work with some twist (macvim not vim-not).
- rovr138 5y ago
  While we are both technical, the reason we've stayed is because we don't have to usually worry about things. Hardware support is 100% the key for us. We have a UNIX environment can just install the GNU tools and it behaves, in the most important aspects for us, as Linux. This is the first time we've been bitten by something like this in 10 years (Mid '11 MBA was our first device after wifi stopped working on her linux laptop and I didn't have time to figure it out). It left a bad taste with me because they didn't communicate and support almost fucked it all up. A page with support would have been great and just, 'well, we don't support this or can't help you with this, but here's a support document you can read and try to understand the issue'. I also know they can definitely remove things from devices[0], so I don't know why this wasn't done for this installer. [0] - https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/10/20689644/apple-zoom-web-server-automatic-removal-silent-update-webcam-vulnerability https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/10/20689644/apple-zoom-web-s...
bscphil 5y ago
> > - I've never booted to a black screen when upgrading macOS. > My wife got bit by the Big Sur bug, 2 weeks ago, were the installer doesn’t check if there’s enough disk space available before starting the upgrade. It can get even worse than that. The Big Sur update "bricked" my MBP, along with many others, because a firmware update broke a part. Apple wanted $500 to replace the mainboard, I fixed it by replacing the broken "i/o board" with a $5 part from ebay and like 30 minutes of work. Given that this is the only Apple computer I've ever owned, it's understandable that unlike the grandparent I don't have the highest opinion of Apple's work. Ironically, nothing like this has ever happened on Linux to me.
- rovr138 5y ago
  Oh wow. Hadn't heard off this issue.

MandieD 5y ago

Have you written a post somewhere about how you got her data back, or what was something online that helped you?

rovr138 5y ago
I’ve been setting up a NAS, storage and other things to try and prevent this again. Letting the old sysadmin side come out. I have a trip so trying to do that before then. I have the export from the terminal session to do the write up. I’ll try and see if I can at least start it tomorrow.
- stoolpigeon 5y ago
  My daughter is a university student in the US and had something like this happen. I was on the phone with her when she took it to an Apple store and they told her they would wipe the machine. She has some stuff on there she really didn't want to lose (we've had a lot of talks about backing things up since then) and so I had her buy a new machine (she really needed one). And she's holding onto the old one until I get to the US to visit her this summer. I would be very, very interested in any information you can share about what you did. I have ideas of where to start but anything that could possibly help would be greatly appreciated.

ngcc_hk 5y ago

Being a mac users and “supporter” for decades because of my wife I think it is so much better to have mac or even windows for general users. Or even for us IT guys. Just work and move on the problem you deal with. The problem is when the chip is down most of the case you are on your own. Not linux fault eg I have a small computer (touch based windows mini Pc) want to use it and from time to time the wireless adapter disappear ... I just go out to get a planet computer version 3 simply because their version 1 has linux support. I beg they have tested sort of their linux dual boot. Support. The hard part. And then the windows issue ... good luck to use linux not on VM, Docker ... and my lisp slimv work with some twist (macvim not vim-not).

rovr138 5y ago
While we are both technical, the reason we've stayed is because we don't have to usually worry about things. Hardware support is 100% the key for us. We have a UNIX environment can just install the GNU tools and it behaves, in the most important aspects for us, as Linux. This is the first time we've been bitten by something like this in 10 years (Mid '11 MBA was our first device after wifi stopped working on her linux laptop and I didn't have time to figure it out). It left a bad taste with me because they didn't communicate and support almost fucked it all up. A page with support would have been great and just, 'well, we don't support this or can't help you with this, but here's a support document you can read and try to understand the issue'. I also know they can definitely remove things from devices[0], so I don't know why this wasn't done for this installer. [0] - https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/10/20689644/apple-zoom-web-server-automatic-removal-silent-update-webcam-vulnerability https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/10/20689644/apple-zoom-web-s...

bscphil 5y ago

> > - I've never booted to a black screen when upgrading macOS. > My wife got bit by the Big Sur bug, 2 weeks ago, were the installer doesn’t check if there’s enough disk space available before starting the upgrade. It can get even worse than that. The Big Sur update "bricked" my MBP, along with many others, because a firmware update broke a part. Apple wanted $500 to replace the mainboard, I fixed it by replacing the broken "i/o board" with a $5 part from ebay and like 30 minutes of work. Given that this is the only Apple computer I've ever owned, it's understandable that unlike the grandparent I don't have the highest opinion of Apple's work. Ironically, nothing like this has ever happened on Linux to me.

rovr138 5y ago
Oh wow. Hadn't heard off this issue.