If I Restore Mac Pro 2013 to Factory Settings will Current Backups Work?

[jeffreyk]

I am having major issues with macOS High Sierra (10.13.3) like system freezes, system stalls since updating to High Sierra (10.13.2) and now my Mac Pro won’t even boot up as I am now infinitely stuck on the Apple Logo with the 100% status bar stalling out. I upgraded to 10.13.3 earlier in the day yesterday. I am going to try to recover the system later this morning (Command-R) and restore it to my last backup (last night).

I backed up my system about an hour before the boot up issue occurred last night so my backup has all my current data/work on it. Plus, pretty much all my important data is in iCloud too. I also run an Internet Radio station dedicated to movie, tv and video game music and all the music I have on my station is in mp3 format, about 1,500-1,600 CDs worth of mp3s, which resides safely off my system and in iCloud.

If I can get my system back up and running, I was considering taking my Mac Pro Late 2013 and completely restoring it back to factory settings and then restoring the data I just had backed up.

So, my question is, can I restore my data (files, email, iTunes, etc.) to a earlier macOS like Sierra or does it have to be restored to a macOS High Sierra install because that’s where the files were originally created? Thanks.

<start rant> Also, and I have to say, I never should have upgraded to macOS High Sierra. I upgraded 2-3 weeks ago to High Sierra after what I thought was a proper amount of time to give Apple to work out the issues. I was so wrong. Nothing but system issues for me under High Sierra. I, like many others here, rely on their Macs for work so these High Sierra issues are extremely frustrating. </end rant>

 

[fisherking]

have you tried the combo update? https://support.apple.com/kb/DL599?locale=en_US

also possible that your hard drive is damaged... but your data (files, email, etc) should remain as data independent of the OS; the only potential issues could be trying to open a file created in a newer version of an app. still, i'd start with the combo update. the problems you're having aren't universal, many of us are running HS without issue.

 

[jeffreyk]

have you tried the combo update? https://support.apple.com/kb/DL599?locale=en_US

also possible that your hard drive is damaged... but your data (files, email, etc) should remain as data independent of the OS; the only potential issues could be trying to open a file created in a newer version of an app. still, i'd start with the combo update. the problems you're having aren't universal, many of us are running HS without issue.

I just got done with a restore from a previous backup and I am back in. The G-Drive Thunderbolt backup drive paid off dividends as it took about 50 minutes (from my 650GB HDD) to get back up and running. I decided to go back to macOS High Sierra 10.13.2 and all seems to be working just fine. I did lose some of my work since that update on Jan 7 (before I took a trip to Chicago) but it is minimal. I will report back when I try to boot up tomorrow after shutting down tonight. I will look into the combo update like you discussed and see about that later today when I have a few moments. Thanks for your input and help.
[doublepost=1517005560][/doublepost]Okay, I restarted my system and it booted up just fine when I did. Hopefully, going forward it'll all be smooth as that last reboot this afternoon. Knock on wood, say a small prayer, etc. ;-)