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I know this has probably been discussed before but I couldn't find exactly what I was looking for.

I just traded my Dell Win 7 laptop plus a little money to a coworker for his Macbook Pro. I am somewhat familiar with Mac OS since I have a Macbook air but not very comfortable doing this kind of stuff.

I need to know how to get all of his pictures, videos and iTunes library off of the Mac and onto his external HDD which is a 500GB drive. He doesn't have that much on his Mac, about 75GB. I then want to transfer all of that over to his new Windows 7 laptop.

Next I want to completely erase and restore the Mac to factory settings and put all of my data (iTunes etc.). Only thing is he can't find any of the software that came with the Mac to do the restore.

Any help will be appreciated.
 

chscag

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2017 27" iMac, 10.5" iPad Pro, iPhone 8, iPhone 11, iPhone 12 Mini, Numerous iPods, Monterey
Which MacBook Pro do you have? Year and model? Which version of OS X is it running?

I need to know how to get all of his pictures, videos and iTunes library off of the Mac and onto his external HDD which is a 500GB drive. He doesn't have that much on his Mac, about 75GB. I then want to transfer all of that over to his new Windows 7 laptop.

First, unless you want to spend money on drivers, that 500 GB external hard drive will probably need to be reformatted to FAT-32. FAT-32 is compatible between the platforms. Just drag and drop to the external drive.

Next I want to completely erase and restore the Mac to factory settings and put all of my data (iTunes etc.). Only thing is he can't find any of the software that came with the Mac to do the restore.

Without the original media or a retail version of OS X the MBP is running you can not do the above.
 
C

chas_m

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The first part of your list is easy: format the drive to FAT32 (if it isn't already) using Disk Utility on the MBP (Fat32 may be listed as "DOS" in the formatting options). Then drag his entire user folder over (ie let him sort out what he wants to keep).

Next, determine what version of the OS the MBP you bought is running. If it's 10.6 or higher, you have the Mac App Store and can upgrade to 10.7 for $30. Use this purchased copy (buy one even if you are already running 10.7 unless the former owner can find the original system DVDs that went with the MBP) to do a clean install. NOW the machine is really and truly yours.

Next, I'd suggest you buy at least some parts of the iLife suite of programs (particularly iPhoto and iMovie). You can get them all on DVD for $50 or buy them from the Mac App Store for $15 each IIRC.
 
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The MBP is running OS X 10.6.8. If I buy the Lion OS X from the app store and install it under his name, but under my iTunes account, can't I make a recovery USB drive? Or is it an option during the Lion install for a clean install?

Also how do I format his HDD for Fat32 using the MBP.
 
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Also it won't allow me to drag and drop the user folder to the external HDD. If I drag the folder to the blank area in the finder window nothing happens. If I drag the user folder to the HDD drive icon in the finder window it gives me the "not allowed" symbol when I hover the folder over the HDD icon. I checked the properties of the HDD and it is formatted as FAT32 and I have permission to read and write to the drive.
 
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chas_m

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I can fix that:

1. Select the mounted FAT32 drive by single-clicking on it.
2. Get Info (command-i) on the drive.
3. Scroll to the very bottom of the resulting information window and CHECK the little box next to "ignore permissions on this drive"

As for your question about Lion, the answer is no, no, no. Do not mix accounts and permissions. You need to ERASE the hard drive and install Snow Leopard FROM SCRATCH, then upgrade to Lion. Buy a copy of Snow Leopard and use it to do a clean install. Then buy Lion.

You don't have a legal copy of SL on that machine if you don't have the original discs, so you have to start there.
 
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I can fix that:

1. Select the mounted FAT32 drive by single-clicking on it.
2. Get Info (command-i) on the drive.
3. Scroll to the very bottom of the resulting information window and CHECK the little box next to "ignore permissions on this drive".

That option is not there. It does say that I have permission to read and write to the drive but not check box.
 

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