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ghporter · Jul 10, 2015, 10:04 PM

My wife's MacBook is running rather slowly, and it is apparently pretty full as well. I'm planning on backing up her personal stuff, then erasing the drive and upgrading her to Yosemite, followed by restoring the personal stuff she needs (and wants). I have a nice, new 3TB external drive for her to use for backups.

First off, I don't know what all to back up. Her User folder is an obvious start, but should I also back up her Applications folder? What other folders need to be backed up?

Also, if I simply use App Store to download Yosemite, can I use the download to erase the drive then load the OS, similar to "restoring" an iPhone? I haven't ever tried that, and I'd like to be prepared before I have a go at it.

Once the MacBook is running Yosemite and has her basic stuff on it, I'm going to help her figure out what should stay on her external drive and what she can and should get rid of. I think having a handy external drive will help keep the clutter from getting too much, provided I help her organize what stays on the MacBook and what should go elsewhere.

Thanks for the advice!

reader50 · Jul 11, 2015, 02:01 AM

Originally Posted by ghporter

My wife's MacBook is running rather slowly, and it is apparently pretty full as well.

I suspect you solved the problem right there. If the drive is nearly full, the computer will be slow. Try moving media files off, and/or programs she doesn't need. Like games she's not going to play again. The MacBook might just speed up then, after the background defragging has some time to tidy up.

Curiosity · Jul 11, 2015, 02:03 AM

Does your wife make sure that the regular maintenance tasks get done? There are daily, weekly, and monthly tasks, and it is a good idea to ensure that those get done to keep things running smoothly. Since they are scheduled (I think) to be done at about 3:30 in the morning, it is hard to do that. I have an app that installs into System Preferences called Macaroni that will do the tasks if the computer is on during those intervals, no matter what time, but it is not free.

P · Jul 11, 2015, 11:34 AM

Originally Posted by Curiosity

Does your wife make sure that the regular maintenance tasks get done? There are daily, weekly, and monthly tasks, and it is a good idea to ensure that those get done to keep things running smoothly. Since they are scheduled (I think) to be done at about 3:30 in the morning, it is hard to do that. I have an app that installs into System Preferences called Macaroni that will do the tasks if the computer is on during those intervals, no matter what time, but it is not free.

That issue with solved with the introduction of launchd, in 10.5 IIRC. Those tasks run as needed even if the computer is off now. Since... 10.8 or something, it will wake to do those tasks if it is connected to power, otherwise it will run when the machine is on and idle.

P · Jul 11, 2015, 11:43 AM

Before you do anything else, full directory scan in Disk Utility. Big copies tend exacerbate any minor issue that might be lurking on the drive, so check that first.

Originally Posted by ghporter

First off, I don't know what all to back up. Her User folder is an obvious start, but should I also back up her Applications folder? What other folders need to be backed up?

If you're uncertain, all of it, so you can restore missing folders as needed. But in general, save the entire Users folder, the entire Applications folder except obvious Apple applications, and the root Library folder. Those last should not be restored wholesale, but do include things you might want.

Originally Posted by ghporter

Also, if I simply use App Store to download Yosemite, can I use the download to erase the drive then load the OS, similar to "restoring" an iPhone? I haven't ever tried that, and I'd like to be prepared before I have a go at it.

I think you can wipe and reinstall.

ghporter · Jul 12, 2015, 02:42 PM

Got it. Thanks! P, I assume because of the way you worded it that wipe and install will also load the standard Apple apps that should come with the original setup - is that correct?

While plotting this out, I hadn't thought about my iMac, but it's running kind of sluggishly too. So I checked its storage space (I really like the new features in "About This Mac," by the way) and lo and behold, the 300GB drive has markedly less than 10% free space. So I'm going to sift through all the ~~junk~~ important information I have on that and essentially do the same thing to it.

P · Jul 12, 2015, 05:16 PM

Originally Posted by ghporter

Got it. Thanks! P, I assume because of the way you worded it that wipe and install will also load the standard Apple apps that should come with the original setup - is that correct?
.

Not that I've done this recently, but... Standard apps that Apple always bundles and always updates for free are included - that is Mail, Safari, and the like. Apps included with a new Mac but not necessarily the OS, ie things like the iLife and iWork bundles, will be available for separate download in App Store but not included by the default (side note: if you get a new Mac that includes the new iLife apps, they can be downloaded on any Mac with the same AppleID as soon as you have registered the new Mac with that AppleID)

ghporter · Jul 12, 2015, 05:25 PM

Good to know. Because Disk Utility says my iMac's drive is hosed... So I'm copying some files at the moment, and will get more done as possible before I reformat and reload the OS. Unfortunately this sort of shifts the excess files issue from the internal drive to the external drive, but I think I can manage that as I rebuild.

I'm really glad I got this MBP for Fathers Day. It feels like a lifeline.

reader50 · Jul 13, 2015, 01:19 PM

Originally Posted by ghporter

Because Disk Utility says my iMac's drive is hosed...

What does Disk Utility say? If it's data damage, reformat is OK. If it's a SMART warning the drive is failing, I'd get the data off and never use that drive again.

Mike Wuerthele · Jul 13, 2015, 02:07 PM

300GB in an iMac. Six years old? Decent lifetime.

Agreed with R50. If the DU says that SMART is throwing an error, time for a replacement.

ghporter · Jul 13, 2015, 10:28 PM

It's not a SMART error. But now that I've spent a lot of time backing up stuff, DU says it's just peachy.... I'm going to reformat and reload anyway.

donaldkepler · Jul 13, 2015, 11:45 PM

Originally Posted by ghporter

My wife's MacBook is running rather slowly, and it is apparently pretty full as well. I'm planning on backing up her personal stuff, then erasing the drive and upgrading her to Yosemite, followed by restoring the personal stuff she needs (and wants). I have a nice, new 3TB external drive for her to use for backups.

First off, I don't know what all to back up. Her User folder is an obvious start, but should I also back up her Applications folder? What other folders need to be backed up?

Also, if I simply use App Store to download Yosemite, can I use the download to erase the drive then load the OS, similar to "restoring" an iPhone? I haven't ever tried that, and I'd like to be prepared before I have a go at it.

Once the MacBook is running Yosemite and has her basic stuff on it, I'm going to help her figure out what should stay on her external drive and what she can and should get rid of. I think having a handy external drive will help keep the clutter from getting too much, provided I help her organize what stays on the MacBook and what should go elsewhere.

Thanks for the advice!

Hi ghporter,

First you can take the full backup of your system using the help of below mention options:-
1. Time Machine:
2. ICloud:
3. Time Capsule:

Now, Yosemite installation, you can restore your files and folders via any of the option. But, I suggest you to take the backup using Time Machine, as it is use and you can restore your back up files using Time Machine much easily over other options.

honestone · Jul 14, 2015, 03:14 PM

Remember that once you do the "virgin" installation of Yosemite, you'll only be at version 10.10. The OS 10.10.4 Combo Updater will get you to the latest version of the OS. You can get it from here:

https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1820?locale=en_US

By the way, I just went through something similar for my Mac Mini, and I used Migration Assistant to retrieve all the non-Apple "stuff" from my most recent SuperDuper! backup. It worked like a charm!

ghporter · Jul 14, 2015, 08:26 PM

At the moment, we don't have any real backups of my wife's computer. I'd like to use TimeMachine, but I also want to have a good chunk of the 3TB external drive I got for her usable as offline storage and not let TimeMachine take the whole drive. Unfortunately, I haven't figured out if that's possible. If I can set up TM to use a partition instead of taking over a whole drive, I'd appreciate instructions for how to do that.

My iMac is now "good to go" according to Disk Utility, run both from the GUI and from the OS X Utilites from the rescue disk. But I don't agree with that, since it's still taking forever to do some things. I'm going to restart to the rescue disk, then reformat and reload - as soon as this "Incompatible Kernel Extension Data" thing finished installing...

ghporter · Jul 17, 2015, 08:42 PM

So now I've backed everything up, formatted the drive, and reloaded OS X. It automatically loaded the current version, OS X 10.10.4, by the way. And since I just got a nice new MBP for Fathers Day, I'm also downloading Numbers, Pages, and Keynote. Nice.

I must have had tons of crapola in my Documents folder (and others). This 320GB drive has something like 305GB free at the moment, and it's right "snappy."

Now to get cracking on my wife's MacBook.

ghporter · Jul 21, 2015, 09:07 PM

My wife's MacBook was MUCH easier to clean up. I started out making sure that the external drive was formatted for Mac OS Journaled, I partitioned it with 1TB for Time Machine and the other 2TB for files, then copied the important folders to the files partition. Restart with Command-R, erase the hard drive, then reload OS X. Just like with my iMac, it loaded to the latest version and installed perfectly.

Today I installed 8GB of RAM in it, and not only is it faster, it's zippy!

Sadly, upgrading my iMac's RAM isn't so easy. It already has 2x2GB in it, and it will by all reports reliably run with 1x2GB and 1x4GB. The problem is that a 4GB SODIMM for it will cost over $120...

I'm not feeling all that encouraged by this price point.