Reinstalling Mac OS X

After Norton, things are a mess- some of you know this from my threads.


I have music, photos, Safari settings, programs and documents that I want to save before I reinstall Mac OS X.

Is there any special method to do this?



Chris

sorry I was not following you older threads, but do you have 10.4, 10.5, or 10.6 or earlier? does you computer turn on? are you able to get to the desktop of your computer? can you define "mess" whats it doing, or what is it not doing...

there are many ways to backup your files from the time machine, to using a external or setting your computer up as a external (target mode) but what the best route is, depends on your situation ;D

mp04 said:

but do you have 10.4, 10.5, or 10.6 or earlier? does you computer turn on? are you able to get to the desktop of your computer? can you define "mess" whats it doing, or what is it not doing...

there are many ways to backup your files from the time machine, to using a external or setting your computer up as a external (target mode) but what the best route is, depends on your situation ;D

Click to expand...

The Mac OS X version is listed in my signature. My computer is fine- Norton though messed with OS X files, preventing me from doing things (such as open a Guest account). Since I need to create a Guest account on occasion, and OS X won't let me (something about writeconfig wanting a password to a keychain- a password that I never set- for any keychain- yes I tried my administrative password, blank etc.) the best route to fix this is reinstalling the OS. Oh, and I know I should've said this to begin with, but this is on my MacBook.

I don't want to lose my files, but since I know that Time Machine backs up OS X files, I don't want the problem recreated. And I don't want to use Target Disk Mode or Migration Assistant. I want a fresh, clean slate- with my music, photos, documents, Safari bookmarks and programs.

If you have time machine backup, reinstall and then copy back the following folders from the backup:

Applications/
Users/#USERNAME#/Documents
Users/#USERNAME#/Music
Users/#USERNAME#/Pictures
Users/#USERNAME#/Library/Safari

If you use Address Book or iCal
Users/#USERNAME#/Library/Application Support/AddressBook
Users/#USERNAME#/Library/Calendars

thedoc said:

If you have time machine backup, reinstall and then copy back the following folders from the backup:

Applications/
Users/#USERNAME#/Documents
Users/#USERNAME#/Music
Users/#USERNAME#/Pictures
Users/#USERNAME#/Library/Safari

If you use Address Book or iCal
Users/#USERNAME#/Library/Application Support/AddressBook
Users/#USERNAME#/Library/Calendars

Click to expand...

What about Downloads? I have a command script that I use.
And...what about prefpane programs and other programs in general?

I have iChat settings as well that I'd like to keep (my Jabber-Facebook account in iChat and Adium were a pain to set up).

Sorry, I was just going on what you said you wanted to keep, generally speaking, everything you want to keep is saved somewhere in your user folder, so things like programs settings are stored in Users/#USERNAME#/Library/Application Support. Anything you want to restore, just copy and paste back across from the backup.

I don't use iChat, but I think the preferences for them are stored in Users/#USERNAME#/Library/Preferences. Specifically the files that begin with com.apple.iChat.###.plist.

PrefPanes are saved in two places;
Users/#USERNAME#/Library/PreferencePanes
Library/PreferencePanes

thedoc said:

Sorry, I was just going on what you said you wanted to keep, generally speaking, everything you want to keep is saved somewhere in your user folder, so things like programs settings are stored in Users/#USERNAME#/Library/Application Support. Anything you want to restore, just copy and paste back across from the backup.

I don't use iChat, but I think the preferences for them are stored in Users/#USERNAME#/Library/Preferences. Specifically the files that begin with com.apple.iChat.###.plist.

PrefPanes are saved in two places;
Users/#USERNAME#/Library/PreferencePanes
Library/PreferencePanes

Click to expand...

Thanks.

I pulled out the "Everything Mac" manual book that came with my MacBook and dug through that. If reinstalling OS X, two options are given- "Archive and Install" and "Erase and Install". Additionally, using the Archive and Install option saves (archives) your files.

Would this be a safe route to take?

Basically Archive and Install copies the contents of your hard drive into a new folder called 'Previous System'. It can be quite handy, however if you have a good backup not really worth doing in my humble opinion.

There is a help page here about it: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1710

thedoc said:

Basically Archive and Install copies the contents of your hard drive into a new folder called 'Previous System'. It can be quite handy, however if you have a good backup not really worth doing in my humble opinion.

There is a help page here about it: Mac OS X: About the Archive and Install feature

Click to expand...

Archive and Install pretty much seems to do what you've described- and I've got the disk space for it. I know where to find my third-party apps- through Apple's Mac Software Download page. I think I can find my way back to files and such.


Thanks all. If there's more, feel free to tell me.

All your third party apps will be backed up by the Archive, so you will be able to drag and drop them out of the 'Previous System' folder into your new applications folder, no need to re-download.

Well I reinstalled. Thought it would reset everything- but it didn't. Of course, I do have duplicate factory apps. Guest account works, and previous problems I have had are non-existent. I kind of wanted to completely have a clean slate. But this works.

Now I'm running software update.

And now there's a huge problem. After a software update and restart, I'm getting the ? in a folder icon.

Reinstalled Mac OS X for a second time. Trying the software updates again. I also created a new admin account. As it stands, Apple must have changed the options in Snow Leopard- there wasn't an archive option. There were options though- Install, and from there restore from a TM backup, or reset to factory settings.

So, again- all my iTunes, iLife, Docs folder etc- will be accessible as explained earlier in the new account?

If you have the backup on the Time Machine, just plug it in and copy and paste the files that you need into the correct folders within your computer.

Please be careful with double posting, the edit button is on the forum for a reason!

thedoc said:

Please be careful with double posting, the edit button is on the forum for a reason!

Click to expand...

Unfortunately, the mobile Safari (iPhone) version of this website lacks an "Edit button". Not much I can do anyhow when I'm reinstalling Mac OS X- and the other two computers I do own have been stored.