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I'm going to factory reset my oldish iMac (not sure how old, it's on Snow Leopard, maybe 2008 as the iWork disc I have is iWork 08) as its really slow and apps usually crash if they even load. I want to keep all my photos, correspondence and music files, but otherwise start afresh. I'm have a LaCie external hard drive which I am currently formatting. As I understand it, Time Machine will back up everything already on there, including all the crap that's bloating it? What is the best way to put just my photos, music and Pages docs on to the hard drive before I reset the computer? I have the Snow Leopard and iWork discs to hand.
After that, what is the current bet practice for security/anti-virus etc for an iMac of this vintage?
I think that iCloud can be configured to take on photos and music, but it is limited to a small amount of storage. Failign that, you could try just copying all of your photos and music to another HD via USB.
Anti virus, Mac?
Best way to backup is to simply copy the folders containing the images you want to keep. If you have the space you could collect them all together in one spot and create an archive (zip) which would move across to yor drive quicker.
Make a folder on the desktop. Copy all the stuff to there you want to save, music, files, pictures.
Drag it to the external drive when it shows on your Mac
Personally, I'm not using any AV for my Mac, I run ClamX Av and OnyX regularly and it seems to be fine...
Ok thanks
Make a folder on the desktop. Copy all the stuff to there you want to save, music, files, pictures.Drag it to the external drive when it shows on your Mac
If you're going to do that, is there some Mac-specific reason why you need to copy it twice? Open source window, open destination (external HDD), drag, drop. Why faff about with folders on the Desktop?
I've done that anyway while I'm waiting for the external drive to format. It is 'writing zeros to disk' and expects to take 2 hours. Have I done some sort of super secure thing?
And when you drag stuff to a hard drive, is that making a copy or moving the original?
Time Machine will make a back up of everything and is probably the right thing to do if you are factory resetting the iMac. The first one will take a while too probably. BTW my 2009 Mini (late year model) runs El Capitan pretty well (it does have 8gb ram now) - I would look into getting more recent OSX onto it too provided you have at least 4gb ram (your iMac is easy to change / add ram)
Yes you've done a "super" wipe. Have you picked the right formatting option, there are a few - can't this second remember the Apple standard one.
Dragging usually moves things - use cmd C and cmd V to copy paste the the drive or select, copy, paste from the finder menu.
Pretty sure I have the right option - Mac OS X Extended (Journaled) - which is what the internet told me to do!
If I do Time Machine won't I just be back to square one? All I want to keep are [i]some[/i] letters, all my photos and my iTunes and Amazon music files.
About this Mac says I have
Processor 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory 1 GB 800 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
Can I put anything more recent than Snow Leopard on that?
If it were me I'd make a copy of everything and then be selective about what i copied back onto the newly reset iMac. So basically copy everything onto external drive, reset iMac, copy just the files you want back onto the iMac, put external hard drive in a safe place in case you realise you've forgotten something that you need in future.
Dragging usually moves things
Even between disks? I never knew that if so.
In the Windows world, dragging moves (by default) if you drag between locations on the same partition, but defaults to copy if it's a different partition.
If it were me I'd make a copy of everything and then be selective about what i copied back onto the newly reset iMac. So basically copy everything onto external drive, reset iMac, copy just the files you want back onto the iMac, put external hard drive in a safe place in case you realise you've forgotten something that you need in future.
Can I do that with Time Machine then? I assumed it just put everything back, but if I can pick and choose...?
About this Mac says I haveProcessor 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory 1 GB 800 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
Can I put anything more recent than Snow Leopard on that?
This MBP is from mid-2010 (Core2Duo), with 8GB RAM, and I'm running Yosemite.
I did install an SSD inside it, and do a fresh install. Perfectly fast enough, and I'd consider myself a power-user for the things I do...
Has it, what does that 1 GB refer to then? The App Store won't let me and tells me I need 2GB.
Can I do that with Time Machine then? I assumed it just put everything back, but if I can pick and choose...?
You should be able to. [url= http://techinch.com/blog/Selective-Restore-a-Mac-From-a-Time-Machine-Backup ]instructions[/url]
Cheers, looks easy enough.
In Finder under Users you will find a folder with your account name. As a minimum, copy all that to your external HD, though as others have suggested I would do a full Time Machine backup and selectively restore.
The desktop folder is a bad idea. Your slow machine will bog down even more as the desktop sees everything there as a window.
Ram upgrade instructions should be available from the system profile. Choose about this Mac from the Apple menu (top left of menu bar) then more info from the window that opens.
OP
1gb ram isnt enough, my mini had 2gb and ran mavericks like a dog till I put in 8. I would look into some more ram as you are going to the trouble of rebuilding the disk. I'll look it up later. Might be £50 odd well spent
Time Machine yes you can copy back individual bits
@Cougar dont quite me on the drag, you may be right thats its a move when on same volune but not between
Also I second the prior post, keep desktop folders to a minimum I have zero
It's mainly for the boys to play minecraft on, and go on the internet for homework, so I don't think it's the end of the world if it's not completely up to date.