Hi Chas, Thanks for the quick reply. I have had two days of "heck" but all is back to normal now. It was a clear case of RTFM!
If anyone uses Carbon Copy Cloner to do a "clone" backup, be advised that they have completely redone the app and it has a new user interface. I made the mistake of assuming that settings that have held over many updates to CCC would still hold after this one. By default they do NOT back up the system now and you have to make a special selection if you want that.
I was going to do the update to Big Sur 11.6.1 (holding off on Monterey for just a tad longer). Besides Time Machine, I ALWAYS make a CCC clone before I start such an upgrade. This time CCC prompted me that there was a new version and I went for it. But like a fool I assume it would just behave like all the previous updates. I was planning to do a clean install of macOS this time as I have always just done the updates. But I ran into a snag (not important here) and decided to fall back with my "clone". This would have worked in the past but this time the backup did NOT have the system so after I restored, my internal hard drive also no longer had a system. As yesterday wore on and tiredness sprang forth I probably then made some bad choices, but with a clearer head today I persisted and managed to install the system to my backup drive and then do the restoration from that. All seems to be well again. Not sure when I will try and do a clean install again. I think I need a rest from this.
