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Reformatting my mac......

After a year of putting my imac through sheer hell and testing it to the limit (to which it has performed admirably), I think it's time to do a fresh install of OSX on the internal drive.

It's been ages since I've done this on a mac and want to make sure I'm doing it right. The problem is I've got loads of really critical stuff on it and am trying to find a way to back up everything without having to do it manually (folder by folder). Kind of like ghost for pc's etc.

Can anyone recommend a good way of backing up and fresh installing osx?

I'm sure timemachine probably does it but have never used it....am I right?

The other problem is my piece of shit external drive (seagate freeagent) is being a little slow and I think I need to give it some maintenance before I back anything up. Can anyone recommend some defrag programs (free?) that work well?

Thanks as always people....

this will be interesting read as im fucking up everything myself right on my mac mini, bootcamp etc etc. do not try to change the filesystem on your external disk without backup your files atleast. I tried to change a disk from NTFS to FAT32 so that mac could write on it, all the files disapeared eventho it clearly states in diskutility securityoption that it will not remove any files. luckily i had backup of everything (well not luck but experience really).

smart defrag is nice

http://download.cnet.com/Smart-Defr...4-10759533.html

Hi RANN
I'm using my Macbook Pro (Core 2 Duo 2.4 Gz 200 GB 7.200 RPM) for production.
I have 3 partitions on it:
The first partition is 80 GB for program files (like C: in Windows).
Another one with 80 GB for my important files.
Another one 25 GB for Samples only.

When I need my Macbook really fresh again, I format the first partition (I do this 1 in 1 year maybe)... You can do this booting your Mac with the Leopard installation DVD... It's easy

Another option on Mac disk defragmentation is "iDefrag".

If you don't have a files in your system folder, you should just be able to copy your USER FOLDER. I did that last week. Just copy it, and it copies everything under your logon.

If you want to format your drive, you have to make sure that your user data and your apps will be kept safe.

The best way to do so is to use Time Machine. Take an external usb drive, let Time Machine use it as its backup drive so it'll copy your personal and critical data on it.

Once this is done, you can insert your Leopard disc into the mac, restart and hold the c key pressed. Format everything at first by using the option "erase and install" when installing Mac OS.

If you want to save space, don't forget to customize the install, and uncheck the extra languages that you don't need (japanese, french, dutch...) and the asian fonts, and also the printer drivers that you don't need at all.

Once installed and restarted, connect your time machine drive, as the migration assistant will pop-up, follow the on-screen instructions so it re-imports your user data and apps.

Of course there's a hard way to make it, but you'll end up spending more time moving your data to another drive, when Time Machine does it for you automatically.

This is what I would do:

a) Repair disk permissions with Disk Utility
b) Get yourself a copy of Disk Warrior and run it WEEKLY
c) Download Cocktail and run it WEEKLY

Backing-up
a) Buy a FW cable and transfer your valuable info to another computer/HD/ipod
b) Burn a couple of copies to a DVD
c) I bought a "broken-screen" ipod for $35 and I turned it into a HD

Hope it helps
Cheers

Thanks everyone - some good help on here.

I think I'm going the time machine route on this one (thanks Laurent ) but also interesting to see your recommendations alekos, especially for the weekly maintenance. I do have onxy, but honestly I haven't really seen a need to do anything that regularly.

Personally I don't think partitions are a good idea. I prefer to have a dedicated system drive and external drives - that way I've always got backups if the internal drive itself dies, and what with external drives being so cheap, I can't see a reason not to.

One question about time machine: Do you have to a have a dedicated drive (sole use of Time machine) for it or can I use my external drive?

I worried about something going wrong during the time machine process with the external drive because that is already my main backup (where I have copies of my important stuff).

My external drive is getting cloggy/sluggish so I think I'll run a defrag on that then do a fresh OSX on the int drive.

Thanks again people and I'll post an update of how I got on with it for other who might be thinking about the same thing soon....

Format half the drive, copy the data you want to it, format the other half and install the OS, then copy the data back, remove the first partition you made and extend the current.

Re: Reformatting my mac......

quote:

Originally posted by DJ RANN Kind of like ghost for pc's etc.

Just to be clear, that would defeat the purpose entirely (getting a "Ghost"-style image and putting it back on the drive).

damn i need a safari-holiday or something soon. computers are killing me.

Re: Re: Reformatting my mac......

quote:

Originally posted by david.michael Just to be clear, that would defeat the purpose entirely (getting a "Ghost"-style image and putting it back on the drive).

I know, that why I said "kind of" - just something similar-ish to create an image of my machine, but I do know what you mean. Timemachine is actually the real solution I'm looking for but not having used it I wasn't sure if it just did was ghost did.

So chrono - you want me to create a partition on my system drive, format the other half, copy all my stuff to it, then format the 1st half, and bring all the stuff back over, then extend the 1st partition to the whole drive again.....

When I have a working external drive also connected to the computer?

Give me strength.

I know exactly what you mean palm. Did you manage to sort out your fat/ntfs nightmare?

Re: Re: Re: Reformatting my mac......

quote:

Originally posted by DJ RANN Did you manage to sort out your fat/ntfs nightmare?

yeah kinda. havent lost anything atleast and i cleaned up my backup at the same time. burned out all my samples into CDs and just put them away beacuse i dont use them anymore, their dated anyway. Then deleted all files over 4GB which was only backup rars really and some games which i dont use anymore. Deleted alot of livesets and sorted all my music-albums and alot of other shit leaving me with total usage of 135GB (thats everything i have both music and productions etc etc). Then i took another backup of that disk again into one of my spare SATA disks. lol what a timekiller. Im still looking for some SATA-bays instead though so i can have two and two disks in RAID, I have 4 disks here unused as Im selling my PC. Im gonna try timemachine myself soon too to see whether it works out nicely.

quote:

Originally posted by cronodevir Format half the drive, copy the data you want to it, format the other half and install the OS, then copy the data back, remove the first partition you made and extend the current.

quote:

Originally posted by DJ RANN So chrono - you want me to create a partition on my system drive, format the other half, copy all my stuff to it, then format the 1st half, and bring all the stuff back over, then extend the 1st partition to the whole drive again..... When I have a working external drive also connected to the computer?

i think cronos suggestion made sence though, for the OS only, not files, they should be backed up externaly anyway. Id just format everything though.

*bump*

Sorry guys, needed to bring this one back to life as I'm now ready to do this.

The imac is pretty sloth like now due to the masses (and I mean tons) of shit I have on it.

Timemachine seems perfect but every time I read about it says it's great for taking your mac to a saved point - but I really don't want to take my mac back to the state it's in now. I just want to back up my critical personal and professional files and then wipe the ****** to start from scratch.

Couple of questions:

1, can Time machine just be used to back up files without aking a "system restore" image?

2, Can I use a drive with stuff already on it? (i.e. Doesn't have to be a fresh blank drive).

Thanks People!!

Re: Reformatting my mac......

quote:

Originally posted by DJ RANN After a year of putting my imac through sheer hell and testing it to the limit (to which it has performed admirably), I think it's time to do a fresh install of OSX on the internal drive. It's been ages since I've done this on a mac and want to make sure I'm doing it right. The problem is I've got loads of really critical stuff on it and am trying to find a way to back up everything without having to do it manually (folder by folder). Kind of like ghost for pc's etc. Can anyone recommend a good way of backing up and fresh installing osx? I'm sure timemachine probably does it but have never used it....am I right? The other problem is my piece of shit external drive (seagate freeagent) is being a little slow and I think I need to give it some maintenance before I back anything up. Can anyone recommend some defrag programs (free?) that work well? Thanks as always people....

i would use superduper. Do a complete backup in case shit hits the fan. I've had some bad experience with timeline so i have resulted in doing it this way. It does a complete image copy so the hardrive is identical to the original. You could technically do a swap and the mac would not perform an differently.

From mac website, so reformat it after doing time machine, then do the migration assistant

Migration with style.

If you�re setting up a new Mac with files from an old Mac, Time Machine can help simplify the process. Just use Migration Assistant to copy portions of any Time Machine backup to a new Mac, or select �Restore System from Time Machine� in the Utilities menu on your Mac OS X install disc. Choose any date recorded in Time Machine to set up your new Mac exactly as your previous Mac was on that date.

I've always wanted to learn how to format on my own but right now my brother does it for me at least once a year, at his house right now actually.

He asked me if I wanted to use a "virtual computer" and said it would be exactly the same as having 2 computers working in one set up. And that if I ever got a virus on one it would leave the other virtual computer completely untouched.

I'm getting a second computer soon so I can dedicate one strictly for producing but does anyone have experience using a virtual set up? Not to hi jack but this is new to me and I thought it may be relevant.

quote:

Originally posted by DJ Robby Rox I've always wanted to learn how to format on my own but right now my brother does it for me at least once a year, at his house right now actually. He asked me if I wanted to use a "virtual computer" and said it would be exactly the same as having 2 computers working in one set up. And that if I ever got a virus on one it would leave the other virtual computer completely untouched. I'm getting a second computer soon so I can dedicate one strictly for producing but does anyone have experience using a virtual set up? Not to hi jack but this is new to me and I thought it may be relevant.

Not good at all for producing... it is a lot slower and the like.

p.s. they are called virtual machines.

quote:

Originally posted by beniii Not good at all for producing... it is a lot slower and the like. p.s. they are called virtual machines.

Yes! That was what he said a "virtual machine".

I was hesistant about it because he knows a ton about computers however nothing about producing, but thanks for telling me he nearly had me sold on the idea.

Wipe your external hard drive then copy all your critical files and folders you want to back up, music, photos etc onto it.

Put Snow Leopard disc into the drive, restart the machine and hold down C. This will make it boot from CD. From the options you need to select Erase And Install. If your copy doesn't have this option (mine doesn't) you need to go into Disk Utility and reformat your internal drive. Then go back to the installation options and install Snow Leopard.

Once the OS is installed you can copy over your critical files and folders from your external drive to your internal drive. Then, if you want to use Time Machine you'll have to reformat the external drive to HFS+. Once it's finished set it to do a backup. It will take a snapshot of your new OS installation and all your backup files. This will take a long time, many hours depending on the size of the drive. It's not as simple as copying over the files and folders.

After that all you need to do is turn the drive on once a week or after doing something important.

I thought Mac users never had to format?

Please don't start that shit again.

Thanks for the responses guys! I'm nearly there now.

So from your post Cryogen, I understand the Timemachine drive needs to be dedicated and can only host that alone?

And once I have the timemachine backup done, I don't have to restore the mac to a previous image to access the files do I?

I've got two external drives now; one seagate USB and one (new and blank) WD FW800 - The FW is going to be the data drive (projects, tracks, music) and the other my backup drive.

@echo

Time Machine was designed for morons.

Download Carbon Copy and back everything up with that.

http://www.bombich.com/

quote:

Originally posted by hexadecimal Time Machine was designed for morons. Download Carbon Copy and back everything up with that. http://www.bombich.com/

yeah, but I don't want to copy/duplicate my drive, that's the whole problem in the first place.

I heard you can just copy the users folder, and everything you've ever saved on the internal drive (apart from system components/file) will be saved.

This could be a godsend as I don't mind having to reinstall all the programs again, it's just i really don't want to lose my personal stuff.

Anyone know?

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