format or plow over

[brado32]

Hey guys. I'm sure this is covered around here. but searches have just confused my little brain. Here's the deal: I need to upgrade to high sierra from yosemite. This is a working machine in a recording studio and the yosemite drive also has lots of plugins and stuff I would rather not have to re-install. So, can I just go through the normal install for high sierra and skip the format drive option and all my apps will be un-effected? Or is it better to make a backup and try to restore from that on a clean fresh install of high-sierra. If that's the better option, I am still a tad confused on how to do that. Backing up just apps and not taking any old yosemite stuff in the backup.

As you can see, I am a little lost and looking for some advice from the pros.

thanks

 

[brado32]

No love.. I think I will try time machine.. back up my drive.. load a brand new drive with high sierra and try to restore all my apps from time machine.. Hopefully, that works..