Catastrophic OS Failure - Reinstall/Restore all settings

[thracks]

So the subject says it all. For the first time in many years I had a massive failure of my Mac Mini. Luckily I have a good Time Machine backup of everything. I've opted to do a manual install of everything just to keep things tidy. I've done some digging, but I'm not coming up with a solution, in part because my brain is fried from two days of installing. Where are all the relevant DP files found? Custom templates, Bundles, preferences etc?

[mikehalloran]

Without knowing what happened, difficult to respond. Why wouldn't you just do a complete Time Machine Restore?

Your projects should be in Documents — or wherever else you put them.

DP support files are found in a few places but this is what you are looking for:

/Library/Application Support/MOTU/Digital Performer

Screenshot 2024-07-08 at 10.57.25 AM.png (115.95 KiB) Viewed 1276 times

Preferences and Users/(user name)/Preferences will be rebuilt — no need to copy over

Plug-ins are in /Library/Audio/Plug-ins/

Screenshot 2024-07-08 at 11.03.21 AM.png (126.37 KiB) Viewed 1272 times

[thracks]

Thanks, that's what I was looking for. I keep my project files on an external drive, so its just the custom settings I was missing

I wiped the HD and reinstalled everything from scratch, OS included. The reason I did not want to do a complete Time Machine restore is that it would likely copy over crap that has built up over the years that I no longer want installed. A clean fresh install is good, especially for one that's been in use for a few years.

[bayswater]

The reason I did not want to do a complete Time Machine restore is that it would likely copy over crap that has built up over the years that I no longer want installed. A clean fresh install is good, especially for one that's been in use for a few years.

I had the same concern when my old iMac failed. Why restore something that might have caused the failure? So I just chose the oldest backup that showed up in Time Machine. In my case that was almost 5 years old. The restore took about 24 hours over a networked drive and I selectively updated things after that. When I first started up the restored system, it took me on to iCloud and that fixed and updated a lot of stuff too. Although it seemed like a long time it was a lot less work and elapsed time than a complete reinstall.

[dwilliams]

Hi OP. IMHO, you made the right decision. I just bought a new MBP due to a battery failure on my old machine and didn't use the migration assistant. You just get so much crap in your system if you're been running it for a few years (and I guess I qualify as "reckless" as I also use my MBP for my 9-to-5). I got all the software installations done in a 24 hour manic stretch. I already had my key bindings backed up and redid my colors no problem but I'm sure I'm forgetting some stuff so this will be very useful and timely.

Side note, this has been mentioned many times but 'eff you Waves. I had to pay $145 of WUP to use my SSL Bus Compressor and Horizon bundle with Sonoma which is mostly stuff 20 years old. I still use C1 and S1 and Mondo Mod on every mix but these guys are fiends. And the two tier subscription model is clearly designed to require you to buy the expensive one. I'm not giving these guys $250 a year after all I've paid them over the years, especially since you can get much better value with P-A and SSL/Slate Digital. Not a single other supplier asked for a penny for Native Silicon support or Sonoma compatibility.

[thracks]

Hi OP. IMHO, you made the right decision.

Yeah, I agree. It's been refreshing knowing all the old unneeded crap I had installed is gone. In the old G4 days I would do this occasionally as a kind of defrag method. I know it's different now with modern hardware, but it still feels like spring cleaning. There's been no downside other than the time it took to get everything back.