Reformatting A Macbook Without Losing My Entire Life

multimoog

My Macbook Pro is getting sluggish and clunky, because I've been using the same backups since about 2006, including from when I switched from a PC to a Mac. I want to finally get Lion, and I figure now is a good time to completely clean out my Mac by erasing and restoring it to factory settings.

BUT!

I also want to keep the apps I like and use most, but like the rest of the internet I haven't actually bought disc-based copies of anything for years now. Is it possible to copy apps from my Macbook onto an external drive and just move them back to Lion-formatted Macbook, or will I have to re-download them all from their respective websites? The second option would suck because I paid for some and didn't keep the receipts. This goes for iLife apps, like iMovie and iPhoto, as well - can I drag and drop from an external disc back to my Mac, or will I need to reinstall them from the discs that came with my Macbook?

Thanks very much!

useless4

iLife probably won't work in lion unless they are latest versions.

Here is what I do: get an external drive and copy everything to it with Carbon Copy Cloner so it's bootable. That's your safety net.

Now do a clean install of 10.6 MAKE YOUR USERNAME AND PASSWORD THE SAME.
Update to 10.7. Plug the drive in and start copying over apps and documents.
Almost everything should copy and work without too much issue.

mts

cant you just set up time machine to back up only apps. i am pretty sure thats an option

useless4

I would do a full Carbon Copy Clone to make sure I got EVERYTHING before I tried anything.
You can never be too safe.

AgentBryant

Your text is kind of vague, so I'm not sure if your macbook is from ~2006 or simply your apps, but if its really that old you may want to reconsider using Lion, as its going to use more resources than Snow Leopard.

Seconding the full carbon copy. Personally, what I did was used two external hard drives (JUST in case of any disk error), one can have a carbon copy, and the other all the apps and files you want to save. This is a tad excessive, but eh, I wanted to further decrease the chance of losing data.

eponagirl

useless4 wrote:

iLife probably won't work in lion unless they are latest versions.

Here is what I do: get an external drive and copy everything to it with Carbon Copy Cloner so it's bootable. That's your safety net.

Now do a clean install of 10.6 MAKE YOUR USERNAME AND PASSWORD THE SAME.
Update to 10.7. Plug the drive in and start copying over apps and documents.
Almost everything should copy and work without too much issue.

to piggy-back off of useless4, i'd agree, given you want to keep things same-old, same-old; however, i'd recommend upgrading to Lion and updating all of your apps. you should be able to transfer your old docs/files too (from external hd backup), but updating everything will be worth it in the long run, despite the time it will take.

i have lion right now and it is excellent. it was a pain in the behind to transfer all my files, but it's worth it, and everything is so clean, smooth-running, and organized!

Divebommah

I want to chime in about a Time Machine backup. It saved my butt and made transitions to new computers easier. One caveat, though: Time Machine absolutely sucks on anything other than a genuine time capsule. I tried numerous NAS, USB external drives, etc. and Time Machine inevitably threw up all over them after a week or two.

useless4

Yea, you really need to check that your laptop is in fact a 64bit intel mac or you are going to be disappointed when it doesn't work out.

I started Mac life with a Powerbook 15" 1ghz... it was only after I got a G5 to go with it did I realize the only thing better than a mac is two macs. They go out of their way to play nicely with one another. And until Mobile Me goes away with it's keychain syncing, that combined with the iCloud and App Store it's the ultimate way to keep your crap together without having to Ghost everything.

Things I have learned:
ALWAYS make your username and password the same on your machines, just makes it 100% easier.
Always have a CCC .dmg file laying around (if you have two macs) or a formated, bootable image if only one mac.
Embrace and love target boot mode if you have two macs - nothing beats target disk mode and ccc together
Make sure you keep your keychain backed up and encrypted. You will want a password out of it at some point in life.

A best practice:
Do a clean install to a external hard drive.
Set up your mail account , book marks and must have apps but no data or apps that significantly change osx
Do a backup

you now have your "clean" install to go to when you are itching for a new install.

Oh and if you have friends that have macs you can ccc that to them if they have issues, make a new account for them and delete your account. That has saved my friends more times then I would like esp. when they have busted cd drives in their laptops.