How to Reinstall macOS (Golden Gate) without Losing Data?

If you've tried every troubleshooting method and are still unable to fix a particular issue with your macOS, especially the latest macOS Golden Gate, reinstalling macOS could be an option for your. And thankfully, it is possible to reinstall macOS without losing data, let's see how this works.

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• Recover data lost due to macOS reinstallation, upgrade, downgrade, clean install
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• Create a bootable installer for macOS

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Does Reinstalling macOS Delete Data?

Generally, reinstalling macOS doesn’t delete your personal data, it just overwrites the existing system files.

macOS re-installation is the process to install the macOS again on a Mac. There are 2 ways to reinstall macOS: reinstalling without erasing internal drive (the system is just reinstalled while your personal files and settings are kept), reinstalling after erasing internal drive (it is a fresh installation, this removes your personal files, apps and settings.)

The data we mean here refers to personal files, apps, user accounts, system settings, downloads, desktop files, browser data, emails, messages, keychain data, etc.

When to Reinstall macOS?

If all goes well, reinstallation should fix any problems in the OS while preserving your personal data, however, a reinstallation is only recommended when: 

• Your System Keeps Crashing or Works Improperly

When you continuously see error messages appear on your Mac, or your programs randomly crash/freeze for no reason, like FaceTime won't work, Contacts or Calendar shows a delay or mess, Bluetooth or WiFi won't connect…Then, you have a good reason to reinstall macOS.

• Reinstall When There is New macOS Version Available

Apple keeps working constantly to fix bugs, make performance tweaks, add new features or enhance coding. Therefore, doubtless, there will be new versions of macOS available to upgrade and reinstall. 

• Your Mac is Running Slow

As we all know, for no specific reason, system reinstallation can magically solve a slow Mac in most cases.

• You are Going to Sell the Mac 

In the case that you want to sell your Mac, besides erasing all your personal data and traces on the Mac, you will need to reinstall macOS as well. 

It is not complicated to reinstall macOS, but if you want to reinstall macOS without losing data, there are 3 steps you must follow.

3 Steps to Reinstall macOS without Losing Data

We all save tons of data on our Mac, so when we decide to reinstall macOS Golden Gate, Tahoe, Sequoia or earlier versions, the top concern always goes to “will I lost everything if I reinstall macOS”. In fact, reinstallation of macOS doesn’t necessarily cause data loss, it just creates a new copy, your existing files and data saved in programs won't be altered or deleted. But just in case of bad luck, we need to do some work on BACKUP, this is crucial for macOS reinstallation without data loss.

Step 1. Prepare Your Mac for Reinstallation.

• Make enough room for Golden Gate, Tahoe, Sequoia or earlier macOS reinstallation, at least 35GB, so the reinstallation process won't pause or stop for insufficient space. 
• Also, quit all apps or programs under work, so your Mac is fully geared to be reinstalled.
• Check drive conditions. Open Disk Utility and perform the First Aid on your hard drive where to reinstall the macOS to make sure your drive is in good condition for reinstallation.
• If you are reinstalling macOS on a Macbook, make sure the battery percentage is more than 80%.

Step 2. Backup All Your Files for macOS Install (Crucial).

Backup is an indispensable step involved in the macOS reinstallation, here are several options to backup your data.

Option One: Using Time Machine

1. Connect an external drive to Mac for backup.
2. Go to Finder > Application, launch Time Machine and choose “Set Up Time Machine”.
3. Click “Select Backup Disk” to choose an external hard drive to back up the files.
4. Then Check the box before “Back Up Automatically”. Also, you can adjust the backup setting in menu “Options”.

Option Two: Using Hard Drive 

1. Connect your hard drive to Mac.
2. Open Finder to check if your hard drive is present under “Devices”.
3. Create a new folder, copy and paste or directly move the items you want to save from Mac to this folder.
4. Finally, eject your hard drive.

Option Three: Using iCloud Service (Backup Desktop and Documents Folders)

1. Go to Finder > System Preference, click on “iCloud” to bring up its main interface.
2. Click the “Options” button for “iCloud”, and check the box before “Desktop and Documents Folders”, then click on “Done”.

Step 3. Reinstall macOS Golden Gate without Losing Data.

1. Press and hold Power button on your Apple Silicon Mac, until you see Loading startup options... 
2. Go to Options > Continue. 
3. You will see Apple logo appear on the screen, wait until it completes.
4. Choose your account and click Next.
5. Enter your Mac password and click Continue. 
6. Choose Reinstall macOS 27 Golden Gate and click Continue.
7. Click Continue to start the reinstallation. 
8. Agree the terms of the software license agreement. 
9. Choose the startup drive to install macOS onto. 
10. Enter Mac password to unlock and continue the installation. 
11. Wait for the installation to finish.

What if You Lost Data After macOS Golden Gate Reinstallation?

However, losing data after reinstallation still happens. It may result from an interrupted installation (power-off/poor internet connection), corrupt setup, insufficient space or improper actions. Then, what to do if you lost data after reinstallation? If you have backed up your files on Mac, you can use Time Machine to restore the lost data. In the case you didn’t do backup before reinstallation, you will need a dedicated data recovery program to find the missing data.

Here we recommend Cisdem Data Recovery, a powerful Mac program allowing users to recover lost/deleted/corrupted/formatted files from a wide range of external or internal storage devices, no matter the file is lost due to human errors, power-off, reinstallation, upgrade, virus attack or disk crash.

Steps to Recover Lost Data after macOS Reinstallation

1. Download and install Cisdem Data Recovery on Mac.
   Free Download macOS 10.15 or later
2. Choose the Mac drive. Go to Hardware Disk and select the Mac drive that stored your data.
3. Click “Search for lost data” to start the scanning. Go to Path or Type to check the found files. You can also use the filter tool to quickly search specific files.
4. Preview files found by Cisdem Data Recovery. Then click Recover button to restore the lost data.

macOS Reinstallation Not Working? Fix Now!

If you have taken all necessary preparations and followed exactly every steps as listed above but still failed to reinstall macOS Golden Gate, Tahoe or earlier versions on your Mac, we will walk you through several solutions in this part to fix reinstallation not working.

1. Check your internet connection and make sure it is stable.
2. Use Disk Utility to repair the startup disk first. Go to Applications > Disk Utility > Choose Startup drive > First Aid to repair it.
3. Do the reinstallation again and make sure you've followed each step without error.
4. If above solutions won’t work and you insist the reinstallation on your Mac, go erasing your Mac first, then reinstall macOS by following above steps. Do remember to make a backup before erasing.
5. Downgrade to Tahoe, Sequoia or earlier versions if no other solutions work on your Mac.

Conclusion

The key to reinstall mac OS Golden Gate or earlier versions without data loss is the backup, since no one can guarantee all data will be perfectly maintained after macOS reinstallation. However, if we unfortunately lost files after macOS reinstallation, Time Machine backup or Cisdem Data Recovery is helpful to recover them back.

So, do you have any other tips to reinstall macOS without losing data? Please share with more of our Mac users in the comments.