I need to back up the main Users folder, as well as all other data, from my main Mac (2013 13″ MBP). I’ve gotten the dreaded UEFI-inspired flashing question mark, and tried running Disk Utility’s repair options on it, both on in recovery mode on the main machine, as well as from another machine (with the drive connected via a SATA-to-USB cable into another older MBP — my wife’s).
B/c I didn’t have the option of backing up the machine “normally” — copying all files and folders through the Finder of my wife’s machine, due to perms issues — I’ve used the utility app Disk Drill to create a .dmg
file, encompassing the whole drive’s contents (a byte-for-byte copy, is what it’s called in this software).
First, is there any other way of getting to the main Users folder, and the Applications, too? They’re all hidden, as they were installed/created by a user not present on my wife’s machine? (I just wanted the assurance of copying the files by hand, too, before wiping my machine’s 1TB SSD and restoring the files from the disk image file I’d created in Disk Drill.) Secondarily (as a bonus question), is there anything suspect with the above approach?
Many, many thanks, to all who take the time to read, much less answer.