MacBook Air :: Saving System Preferences Before Clean Install?
Feb 4, 2009
is there a way to save the user settings prior to doing a clean install of OS X ? i am not worried about backing up files or additional software that has been installed, just the user's system preferences that you manually set up throughout the use of your machine. and if this is possible, how do you go about reinstating the user preferences after the install is completed ?
i'm trying to decide if it's worth it for me to do the install as i have plenty of storage space left, but it would be nice to take care of this now rather than later. i've read through the install steps on the forum and did not see anything in regards to this issue.
I was looking through a few apple videos on the site and noticed that one of the icons was different, I haven't noticed it before but the energy saving icon is showing as an energy saving bulb, which makes more sense. Is this new? or an old design?
So I upgraded to Snow Leopard about a week ago, and my Macbook pro seems a little slower and it beachballs now and again. I am wondering if I should do a clean install of Leopard and use that for a while, until SL is updated a few times, or maybe clean install and then put SL onto that. Which do you think is best? My other questions are as follows:
I was doing TimeMachine backups when I was using Leopard, and these have carried on when I was using SL. If I clean install, will I be able to choose just to copy my files over from the TM backup? Is there a way to do a clean install of SL, or do I need to do the Leopard install and then upgrade to SL again.
I am going to be selling my old imac 20" ( 2007), How do I erase the memory and reinstall the OS? How long will it take? I assume I have to reinstall OPS 10.5 and 10.6 ?
I inadvertently did something wrong - and now have malware on my machine. How do I get rid of it? And how does one do a clean install of operating systems OSX 10.9?
However, I don't have the iBook's system discs because my mother lost them (she was using the iBook until I gave her my MacBook).
I called Apple to get new system discs, and they sent me an OSX 10.5.6 Retail Install DVD to install on the iBook, but this doesn't include iLife.
Obviously it's not the end of the world if I don't include iLife (even if it is iLife 05), but I think it would help me sell the iBook if iLife was included.
I have accidentally deleted my system preferences which caused my computer to run into many different problems. I tried pacifist to get system preferences from the install dvd, but instead system preferences being a regular app, it just shows up in my applications with the "a" and a "pencil" icon.
I have two computers that seem to have stopped saving my firewall preferences after upgrading to OSX 10.6.6. Each time I start each computer, the system asks whether I want to allow or block connections for a variety of programs, including iTunes and several UNIX commands (cupsd, compressord, ftpd, krb5kdc, qmasterd, qmastertaskd,smbd). Why aren't these settings being saved upon shutdown? Is anyone else experiencing a similar problem?
This is the first time i reinstalled(clean install) my snow leopard on my MBP. All went fine but then i inserted the disc for bundled application (which contains the ilife apps) but it keeps failing.
It says that "the installation failed. the installer encountered an error that caused the installation to fail. contact the software manufacturer for assistance".
I've also done my research on this matter. I've gone thru a few steps i tried as below without success:
1)normal install - fail
2)repair permission - fail
3)install in safe mode - fail
4) install using another admin acc - fail
5) made an image out of the disc and install - fail
6) used a similar disc(my dad's since we have identical version) - fai
7)updated my system and install - fail
8) reinstall the mac - fail
i cant think of any other solution as im a bit noob when it comes to mac. is there any other things i could try before taking it Apple?
i just bought a macbook pro and i want to do a clean install but it didn't come with the install disks. is there a way to do it without buying new disks?
I have recently done a Time machine back up of my MB Pro 15" then wiped my hard drive trying to clean it up so I could install Windows 7 with Boot Camp. I had my original Install Disk which I forgot was Tiger, Having used one of my brothers company licenses to upgrade to Leopard but that disk is now with him in another country. So now I can not restore from my Time Machine backup. I have a Leopard Install disk for a Macbook Pro 13" which I also own. Is it possible to use this disk to re-install Leopard on my 15"?
I'm not talking about the System Preferences app itself, I'm talking about the settings within the app. So for instance, the security settings, and the mouse settings, energy saver, etc.
Where can I find the settings files on my Mac so I can back them up?
I have a macbook a little over a year old. It's my first mac and I love it. Yesterday though it started acting really weird. I first noticed that it was really, really hot and the fan was running. I turned it off and back on and here's what I found out:
Applications are being deleted from macbook. ITunes, IPhoto, iChat have clear question marks over icon. There are 8-10 blank spaces in the Applications folder where applications have been deleted. However, data is still there (ex. pictures still there, but no iPhoto).
Internet= Says I have internet but wont connect.
Cannot open " System Preferences" or "Internet Preferences".
If connected to home computer will connect to internet and allowed to open internet preferences but still no system preferences.
If shut down....takes a while to come back on and starts up 2-3 times.
Also "Preview" is gone. Now " ColorSync Utility" opens.
Is this my hard drive dying? I'm tech challenged, so any help would be greatly appreciated.
Like in PC, we need periodically use some app to clean the system, cache, or some other temp files in C:/ disc. Do we need to similar stuff in macbook 2?
just got my MBA today and followed the clean install sticky here. However, I did not get the options to remove some of the software listed in the instructions.
I just checked the space and it looks like that the install took around 9GB of space? Is that correct? Bear with me where as this is my first Mac...
Basically, the guys at the Apple store said the hard drive on my 2008 entry-level Mac book had died so I went out and bought a new one from Western Digital.
But when reinstalling, the screen froze on 'verifying destination volume', then packs up and suggests I start again.
Searching this forum I see that others have had this problem and that one solution is to perform a 'clean install'. My question is, how do I go about doing that?
I am going to change out the hard drive in my 13" macbook pro and Ihad a question. I am wanting to do a clean install, so I am wanting to put in the new hard drive, install snow leopard... Then take the old hard drive and put it in an external enclosure to retrieve all my itunes music, files, etc.
The internal hard drive on my early 2009 iMac is being replaced but I have to reinstall Snow Leopard myself.I did search in MRoogle and at Apple and cannot seem to find instructions on how to perform a clean Snow Leopard install on an iMac internal HD.
Can I do this? And if so how? Or do you think I should try and install Leopard on the existing Hd in the iMac? I still have these discs but have to get the SL applications install disc out of my drive (it's stuck and the iMac won't boot past the blue screen).
could not be sure whether the Admin user - password reset with the CD would be the solution to my question as suggested in previous threads I searched - and have no idea where my start up install CD is
So my question-
I was trying to put parental control to ask for password when my computer starts up. I did something I guess and messed up the info.
I can log in with my own account when I restart my apple - which says now it is a standard account (must have messed that up)- but can not make any changes on system preferences or anything else that requires login and password. It requires Admin info. My own login that I use now used to be my admin so do not have any other info set.
now on system pref - accounts - an account titled "test" seems to be admin but can not even access that and reverse myself to be the admin since I can not unlock system pref. Or cant click on "Login Options" for the same reason.
There are no other users on this computer than me.
I recently took the plunge and installed Lion after being content with Snow Leopard....well now I have quite a few issues. When I open system preferences for some reason it automatically opens to Network...why I'm not sure. When I click show all, then click sharing, I can't make any changes in the Sharing preferences without my entire system locking up. I can't force quit or anything. I can still use the mouse but all I have is the rainbow wheel!
I have searched and searched and haven't been able to fix it. I have tried booting into the Guest account and the same problem happens there. I have trashed all the plist files everyone says to try. I have tried repairing permissions etc. I feel like I have tried everything. Is there anything else that I can do without have to do a clean re-install. I'm hearing if I do this that I won't be able to migrate my files from by backups due to permission problems?
I also took a look at my system log and it is full of this! Jul 3 22:24:26 jessica-imac com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.Kerberos.digest-service[1307]): Exited with code: 1 Jul 3 22:24:26 jessica-imac com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.Kerberos.digest-service): Throttling respawn: Will start in 10 seconds .....
I did a fresh install of Mac OSX on it and then booted it up from the CD again and did a zero-out. I left about halfway through and when I came back I never had any confirmation that it was done so I did another zero out. Again, I didn't receive confirmation when it finished but I did watch it finish that time. I guess I'm just paranoid that someone will be able to get something off of it because I used it for so many years and have so many passwords. So, my question is..is there anything else I should do prior to shipping it off or am I in the clear even if it falls into the wrong hands on ebay?
How can I roll back to 10.5 without having to do a clean install? I ask because SL is truly an "under the hood" update, and until developers take advantage of the improvements, we won't see significant performance improvements. As of right now, plenty of stuff is broken. Cyberduck FTP doesn't work for me. Logitech Control center for my external keyboard/mouse doesn't work. And NTFS-3G is broken because it consumes 30% of CPU unless I eject all NFTS partitions, including the bootcamp partition. I thought I would be fine, I don't have any hacks/customization on my MBP, but those important tools don't work for me yet, so I want to wait a few weeks before I use SL.
I have new macbook pro 13" with ivy bridge released on 6/11/2012. I want to install new ssd in it. I figured out hardware procedure how to put os on new hd.
How do i install os on new clean HD once swapped?
MBP didn't come with installation disc, also i don't have external drive to backup restore.
Is there any way to install os with new hd without using backup? if no, any way i can burn installation disc.
I purchased the new Mac Box Set with Leopard 10.5.6, iLife '09 and iWork '09.
I was 50/50 on which type of Leopard install I wanted to perform today.
Looks like the disc made the choice for me and performed, what I'm assuming, is the upgrade. All of my files, settings, etc. were intact after the reboot.
