OS X :: Reinstalling To Get Clean System - Need To Back Up?
Dec 26, 2010
I want to reinstall OSX for the first time because I mainly want to have a clean system, to get rid of all the files that have not been deleted when I remove some applications. Basically I want all apps removed when reinstalled complete. I've read OSX reinstall its different then windows, but I want to make sure I can do this clean reinstall. I want to know if the other documents and files will remain on my hdd as I don't have an external disc to back up. Also the system/the internet does not run as fast as those in apple store, this may be because of little snitch, hard drive space, or others.
I just bought my first Mac, a used Mac Pro, the 2 x 2.66 Dual Core Xeon version. It is currently running OS X 10.5.6. I would like to wipe the hard drive clean and reinstall OS X. I understand this would get rid of unwanted software, let me change the administrator, and let me set things up how I want.
I tried booting up from the install disc, by starting the computer while holding down the "C" button. It said I can't install the install disk's version of OS X because a newer version is running on the computer. My question I guess is pretty simple: How do you erase a Mac Pro and reinstall the OS?
I am a graphic designer and therefore have a LOT of software (Adobe, Quark, the usual suspects). I want to upgrade to Snow Leopard on my G5 with 16G of RAM. I have made a copy of my 500GB startup drive with Carbon Copy Cloner and I am ready to wipe the original disc and make it happen. But before I start, can I drag and drop my applications and library folders so I don't have to reinstall everything?
Whenever starting up, a grey screen would appear and after the screen would shut off immediately. I decided to reinstall Mavericks (which worked). However, my iTunes is completely wiped clean. I have all my music files still on my computer but not in the iTunes. Is there a way to get them all back without having to drag and drop each file one by one? And is it possible to get all my old playlists back with the dates added/play counts etc.?
So my installation of OS X decided to stop working correctly today and after some trouble shooting I found I needed to re install. I decided to Archive and reinstall, my backups are not as recent as they should be. During the first reinstall attempt it froze when I tried to view the install log. I now on my second attempt at reinstalling and a again choose archive (this time the option to preserve user setting is greyed out). With the trouble I had my old files should still be there right?
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 downloaded a program called "Clean My Mac" . I got rid of things that were unused. I don't know why this happened except I wasn't thinking but now all languages are gone (didn't think at the time that would be an issue) but...I have a son taking Greek and I had to print out a test for him. I didn't notice it but it did not print out in Greek. How do I get back languages without having to re-install the OS?
How do I crash my MacBook Pro , in order to bring it back to company specs. In other words I am trying to get my Mac to be exactly like it was when i purchased it.
Just did a clean install of OS X on my Air. The keyboard backlighting does not work--when I try to adjust with the F5/F6 keys I just get the circle with the little line through it, and even in a pitch dark room the keyboard does not light up whatsoever.
In system preferences I have the "Illuminate keyboard in low light conditions" box checked and have the slider to "never
i am downloading a lot of stuff (movies and music) from rapidshare and other file-hosting sites. Do i need a virus scanner or smthing like clean my mac ?? is it ok from downloading and not getting anything from them (trojans..etc)
My iTunes music files were stored on an external hard drive. But, unfortunately, the iTunes library file must have been on the laptop hard drive. Now, when I open iTunes music library and playlists are empty, despite my having 120GB of music on the connected hard drive.
Short of dragging and dropping all the music files into the iTunes window, is there any other way of "telling" iTunes where to find my music? I have tried "organize library" and nothing happens.
I know that a lot of people were asking about wether they should upgrade or install SL. So, when I put in the disk, it said to shutdown and restart so that it could install the OS. Anyways, I just wanted to know if it was normal that I didn't have any choices as to if I wanted to make just an upgrade or a complete installation of SL. I thought I was going to lose my stuff on my HD, but everything is still there like if nothing happened. The thing is... I kind of wanted to have everything erased and do a clean install.
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 ?
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?
I'm still running a 2007 Macbook Core 2 Duo, 2.2GHz. A few upgrades here and there - mainly 500GB HDD and 4GB of RAM. Running the latest software of everything - and it does the job. Up until video conferencing - Skype, iChat - doesn't matter, about ten minutes into a chat the video quality will severely deteriorate until it freezes entirely. I remember when I orginally got this computer this was never an issue - something that only built up over time.I've formatted this computer and started fresh about 3 months ago - the issue still persisted even after a fresh install.I think the issue is dust in the computer. Dust builds up, computer gets hotter faster and as a result, slows down.During a video chat the CPU temperature spiked to 90c and stayed around that area until the chat ended. The other temperatures were not nearly as high, with the Wireless module around 75c, and CPU cores spiking to 85.
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.
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 have just upgraded from a 60GB HD running OS X 10.4.11? to a 250GB drive.
Before changing HDs, I backed up the old HD onto an external FireWire drive using Retrospect Express 6.1. I made a clean install of 10.5.6 onto the new HD, installed Retrospect Express.
I then restored my entire old HD to a *folder* on my new HD. There is room for it on the external FireWire disk also if that is better.
I expected wrongly to be able to use Migration Assistant to integrate my applications, e-mails, calendar, bookmarks, etc. into 10.5.6 but it did not allow me to select a folder to migrate from (I think it is looking preferably for another Mac attached via FireWire or at least an external disk, but I'm not sure what it's limits are).
I am also now concerned about Migration Assistant losing data (such as filed e-mails) as I have consulted with a tech friend who says it is problematic and I should restore by hand!Can you tell me the most efficient and reliable way to get out of my predicament? I'm crazy busy business-wise and I don't have time to lose wallowing & finding my own way, I can afford the time to do things right though :-) which is why I'm asking.
Obviously I am shut down now, I do not want to start doing "real work" on my computer until all my applications and files are in their proper places.
Applications (Quark, Adobe, Apple), all my Mail accounts, iCal, Fonts, Firefox + extensions & bookmarks are my mission-critical tools.
How do I clean the system start up files, (I've deleted my history, bookmarks, unwanted photo's, movies, transferred all my documents to and external hard drive) and deleted the trash, what am I missing here, as my mac is saying my disk is almost full, shown here the yellow bar (other) is nearly full, what is Other? on a Macbook Air OS X Version 10.9.5
I can't find these files to delete nor do I know what they are...
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?
I'm going to be ordering a 2.8 iMac tonight when I get home, and was wondering how the live in a dusty environment? I live on a ranch, in a 100+ year old house with pets. I have had a mbp for about 4yrs now and I just keep some dustoff handy for under the keyboard and such. Wondering if that's the same general concept with the iMac? Also for the monitor is regular glass cleaner fine? I use a microfiber and optical lens spray for the mbp should I use that on the iMac as well or will a paper towel and windex be fine?
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.
