Hi Angus, Irstly yes terminal can be used to format your iMac.
As for keeping your data, Only way to do that is to make sure your data on your iMac is backed up to your time machine device However the terminal commands for formatting the drive in your imac is not easy to do if you don’t know the terminal commands, I’ve done it but I wouldn’t want to tell you how to do it mainly due to I’ve only done it a couple of times I’d suggest just insert your sd card with the Catalina installer on it and boot the iMac to that start up disk and run disk utilities then format the drive via the disk utilities gui interface. That way you will be able to use voiceover from start to finish with no reall neecd for sighted assistance. Hope that helps. Simon F From: macvisionaries@googlegroups.com <macvisionaries@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Angus MacKinnon Sent: Thursday, 31 October 2019 3:05 PM To: MacVisionaries <macvisionaries@googlegroups.com> Subject: Reformating iMac and Installing Catalina I have a 2013iMac with a 1.1TB Fusion Drive. I also have a Bootable Catalina SD Card. I thought to do a reformat of my 2013 iMac’s HD before installing Catalina. My iMac also backups to Time Machine and BackBlaze. Can Terminal be used to reformat my 2013 iMac and Install Catalina? And how do I keep all data and programs? I do not feel up to reinstalling everything. I also am a VoiceOver user. Thank you. Angus MacKinnon, Personalism Student Charles Péguy said, “The revolution is moral or not at all” -- The following information is important for all members of the Mac Visionaries list. If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. Your Mac Visionaries list moderator is Mark Taylor. You can reach mark at: mk...@ucla.edu<mailto:mk...@ucla.edu> and your owner is Cara Quinn - you can reach Cara at caraqu...@caraquinn.com<mailto:caraqu...@caraquinn.com> The archives for this list can be searched at: http://www.mail-archive.com/macvisionaries@googlegroups.com/ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com<mailto:macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com>. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/macvisionaries/3DFFDCE0-A377-45A9-B6C2-E67AF463C195%40gmail.com<https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/macvisionaries/3DFFDCE0-A377-45A9-B6C2-E67AF463C195%40gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>. -- The following information is important for all members of the Mac Visionaries list. If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. Your Mac Visionaries list moderator is Mark Taylor. You can reach mark at: mk...@ucla.edu and your owner is Cara Quinn - you can reach Cara at caraqu...@caraquinn.com The archives for this list can be searched at: http://www.mail-archive.com/macvisionaries@googlegroups.com/ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/macvisionaries/SY2PR01MB2987A7CB5B941ECBEE5F14308A630%40SY2PR01MB2987.ausprd01.prod.outlook.com.
