16 years PC, now over to MAC: Help! :)

Lately I've been thinking about reinstalling my Mac OS. Just to give my laptop a "fresh start". It runs all the time and is packed with stuff. Seems it is going a bit slower and the fan is working more often than what it once did. Time machine do a back up to a external HD.

Does anybody reinstall their Mac once in a while, or is that unnecessary on Mac? Does time machine have all I need or should I do my own file by file back up in addition? Can I install Mountain Lion on my Mac and at the same time install it as a new software (like on PC where you install a OS as a fresh new OS, and not an upgrade)?

Thanks.

magnitude said:

Lately I've been thinking about reinstalling my Mac OS. Just to give my laptop a "fresh start". It runs all the time and is packed with stuff. Seems it is going a bit slower and the fan is working more often than what it once did. Time machine do a back up to a external HD.

Does anybody reinstall their Mac once in a while, or is that unnecessary on Mac? Does time machine have all I need or should I do my own file by file back up in addition? Can I install Mountain Lion on my Mac and at the same time install it as a new software (like on PC where you install a OS as a fresh new OS, and not an upgrade)?

Thanks.

Click to expand...

OS X, being based in UNIX, is designed to never be reinstalled. It does not build up cruft in its system directories like Windows does, nor does it have a registry while rots over time. So, as a matter of routine maintenance, no, you shouldn't do a reinstall.

At worst, you'd need to create a new account and delete the old one - but even that probably isn't necessary.

Grab a copy of Onyx (if you don't already have one):

Titanium's Software • Home

Run the tasks under Maintenance and chances are your Mac will feel like new again.

cwa107 said:

OS X, being based in UNIX, is designed to never be reinstalled. It does not build up cruft in its system directories like Windows does, nor does it have a registry while rots over time. So, as a matter of routine maintenance, no, you shouldn't do a reinstall.

At worst, you'd need to create a new account and delete the old one - but even that probably isn't necessary.

Grab a copy of Onyx (if you don't already have one):

Titanium's Software • Home

Run the tasks under Maintenance and chances are your Mac will feel like new again.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. I'll update to Mountain lion and give that titanium software a try.

[reply outdated and irrelevant]

Ok, I am ready to take the last step. Since starting this thread I now am the proud owner of 1 MacBook Air, 1 MacBook Pro (in the mail), I have tons of Apple gear+++, an iPad, iPhones, Apple TV on all my TV's etc., but now I am ready to take the last step which is removing my addiction to Microsoft Outlook!

I's a tough one. Is there an alternative out there? I opened Apples "Mail" and chuckled a bit. There's just no way that can replace my Outlook tasks. In Outlook today I have somewhere between 15 and 20 GB with emails and attachements. I'm guessing tens of thousands of emails. Part of my job creates these amount of emails. The amount of emails shouldn't be reason enough for staying with Outlook, but everything is heavily systemized with folders, categories etc. So it is a system that works, only it works better on PC but that is another story (I guess MS don't want it to be as good on Mac because they have left out some important functions on Outlook for Mac) and that is starting to annoy me a bit. Maybe there is something better out there?

Anyway, is there any other converts out there, heavy mail users dependent on automatic systemized folders etc., who can tell me their Mail software switching story? I'm all ears...

What specifically do you think Mail can't do for you? I would be willing to bet good money you are probably wrong -- you just haven't explored the program much (or grokked that Mail is integrated with other apps such as Calendar, Contacts, Reminders and Notes for their respective functionality).

chas_m said:

What specifically do you think Mail can't do for you? I would be willing to bet good money you are probably wrong -- you just haven't explored the program much (or grokked that Mail is integrated with other apps such as Calendar, Contacts, Reminders and Notes for their respective functionality).

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Well first of all you are right about me not checking it out. I just browsed it quickly and took someone elses word for it. I have calendar, contacts, reminders and notes also synchronized with Outlook. I a little tricky but it works.

Anyway, my needs:

I need to have a folder system with many folders where an email is checked for its sender, receiver and/or subject to put that email in the right folder. It needs to work for several email accounts simultaneously without messing it up. A quick count now says that I have 31 folders today in system. The folders often have folders, within a folder, within a folder. There often are two or more rules crossing where you must be able to say which rule is valid when several rules are applicable.

This is the MAIN thing among my needs....

Smart Mailboxes. Child's play.

chas_m said:

Smart Mailboxes. Child's play.

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The only thing I'm getting from that reply is that you say it is possible (and possibly like to play with children)....

Childs Play means it's EASY. Where do you live? Just curious as I have heard that saying for many years.

dtravis7 said:

Childs Play means it's EASY. Where do you live? Just curious as I have heard that saying for many years.

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I know what it means. I just felt giving a silly reply back to a (IMO) arrogant reply from him. I live in a tiny village somewhere up in Europe. Doesn't matter where. I'm here to discuss mail server software. Seems that guy knew something and for what ever reason felt like keeping it to him self.

If somebody would care to elaborate around the subject smart mailboxes that would be much appreciated.

He told you smart mailboxes. If you ARE NICE and not snap back maybe he will elaborate a bit. I am not 100% sure what you want. I hate Outlook. Always have so never used it so not 100% sure what you are trying to do. I have 15 boxes and boxes for friends and smart boxes and it all does what I want it to and use rules. Never had a issue getting Mail to do what I need and my needs are complex. I have hundreds of thousands of emails saved also.

And how do you take him saying Smart Mailboxes - Childs play as arrogant?

Also since I had no idea you were being sarcastic, I wondered where you lived as maybe you had never heard of the saying. I really don't care where you live. Not at all.

Being nice will get you farther here BTW.

Mail has an excellent Rules system. I can get it to do anything I have ever wanted.

If I knew Outlook better I could probably give you the answers you need.

Normally I just ignore people who demonstrate a bad attitude, but it didn't occur to me that you wouldn't know to look up the term Smart Mailboxes in Mail's help (a resource you should probably avail yourself of), so I apologise for making the answer so short. Here's a link that will explain more about what Smart Mailboxes are and how to make them.

Lion Mail: Use Smart Mailboxes

Some good examples to get you started here:

Some handy Mail.app Smart Mailboxes | 43 Folders

So touchy, amusingly ironic, then helpful in the end. Popcorn experience.

Thanks...

I have no idea what that means, but if you're unsatisfied with my answer I'll be happy to send you a complete refund on what you paid for it.

chas_m said:

I have no idea what that means, but if you're unsatisfied with my answer I'll be happy to send you a complete refund on what you paid for it.

Click to expand...

Bottom line was that I am happy with your help. Thanks again. And all the surrounding noise was also very fascinating and entertaining too. Hence the popcorn experience ;D

I'm giving Mail a go next month when I get my new Pro...

I'm very glad I was able to help, and thank you for clarifying.

Thumbs up chas. Good thread. ;D

Mail is up and running. So far quite satisfied with Mail. Had a bit of a bumpy start though...

First problem tackled was that 70% of my emails was corrupted and not visible after trying a standard mbox transfer. Got the error message "this message is in mime format...". After some days with try and fail I purchased the software called Emailchemy which allows you to convert a .olm file to several options including Mail 2.x - 6.x. I did that and then imported the folders and all the mails was now 100%.

Second issue was the fact that Mail want to attach my picture attachments as icons in the email only and some windows users had to copy the icon and paste in an photo software to get the attach picture. Purchasing the software called Attachment Tamer solved that problem too and now all my attached files are shown as attachments on windows computer and any Mac computer running Outlook.

Recommend others to try if they're considering the same switch. I find Mail much more user friendly than Outlook for Mac. E.g. "rules", which are a big disapointment on Outlook for Mac, is more similar to the Outlook on Windows computers. A function I love.

Thanks again for your help...