backup, erase and reinstall...

U

urmyuk1

Registered
hi all,

this is my frst post so go easy :)

i bought my first MAC last November (iMAC G5 iSight) and must i say i'm very pleased with it and glad i made the swap from PC..

As you can imagine ive installed and uninstall many apps over the last 10months..

now what i want to do is start my iMAC fron scratch again and just install the apps i know i will be needing.

i am lookin for a all in one soloution that will backup al my accounts, passwords, bookmarks and anything else i might miss after a fresh install..

also is reinstalling as simple as booting from the original disks and following the on screen instuctions ???

cheers for any replys..
 
Archive and install will keep any software that you have installed, so it's probably not the solution you are looking for.

Probably the cleanest solution is to gather all of the files on your computer that are NOT in your home folder and put them in your home folder (somewhere like the desktop). Then backup your entire home folder to another hard drive or a DVD or whatever.

Once you're certain that your home folder is safely backed up, you can erase and install Mac OS X 10.4 again. At the end of the installation when it's asking for your name, address, account name and password, don't use your name. Instead, create a temporary user account. Once setup is complete, you'll be logged in as the temp user. Copy your old home folder from the disk you backed up to into the /Users folder. Open System Preferences and create a new user account with your name -- making absolutely certain that your short name is identical to the name of your home folder. Make sure you give the new account admin privileges. System Preferences will confirm that you want to use the existing home folder as the home folder for the new account you've just created and will correct file permissions & ownership on that folder. Once you've finished creating the account, log out as the temp user and log in as you. You're then free to delete the temp user account.

NOTE: This only works with 10.4 in an "automatic" fashion. For versions prior to 10.4, you would have to go into the terminal and manually correct ownership and permissions on the home folder.
 
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