Ticket Options
Question Profile
| DATE | Nov 9, 2007 |
| TICKET | #334953 |
| STATUS | Closed |
| SUBJECT | Tiger cleanup, refresh, reinstall |
| CAT | Computers, Operating Systems, Applications or Connected Devices |
| TYPE | Operating System Features, Bugs and Problems |
| DESC | Apple |
| DESC | 10.4.X (Tiger) |
| PLATFORM | Apple Macintosh (PowerPC G3,G4,G5) |
| MODEL | Mac Mini |
| PROC | 1.25 ghz |
| RAM | 512 MB |
| DRIVE | 40 GB |
| NAME | Travis |
| USERNAME | pyr0_musician |
| TECHNICAL | Lots of Experience |
| ISSUE | Need Advice |
Question Details
TICKET ARCHIVE -> Tiger cleanup, refresh, reinstall
pyr0_musician - Nov 9, 2007 - 4:53 pm
Hey i'm upgrading to a MacBook in a week or so and I want to be sure i know what's going on.
First off, i'm giving my Mac Mini to my mother, who is pretty computer illiterate, so i want it to be in tip top shape. I was thinking i might just wipe the hard drive and reinstall Tiger on it, but i wasn't sure if that was the best idea, since i'll have to reinstall a lot of stuff for her. But right now my Mini is running extremely slow, much slower than when i purchased it. It might be that I am using it a little harder now, but i don't think so. YouTube drops frames and gives me the beach ball when i only have Mail and Firefox with 3 tabs open.
So my question is, what do you recommend doing to prepare the computer for a new user. She doesn't need anything powerful, i just want it running the bare minimum as fast and flawlessly as possible.
Second, for my new macbook. I was told once before I bought my Mac Mini, that macs were great because if you upgraded all you had to do to keep your settings was copy your home folder. Is that true, especially with Leopard now?
How should I go about transferring files and settings to my new macbook?
First off, i'm giving my Mac Mini to my mother, who is pretty computer illiterate, so i want it to be in tip top shape. I was thinking i might just wipe the hard drive and reinstall Tiger on it, but i wasn't sure if that was the best idea, since i'll have to reinstall a lot of stuff for her. But right now my Mini is running extremely slow, much slower than when i purchased it. It might be that I am using it a little harder now, but i don't think so. YouTube drops frames and gives me the beach ball when i only have Mail and Firefox with 3 tabs open.
So my question is, what do you recommend doing to prepare the computer for a new user. She doesn't need anything powerful, i just want it running the bare minimum as fast and flawlessly as possible.
Second, for my new macbook. I was told once before I bought my Mac Mini, that macs were great because if you upgraded all you had to do to keep your settings was copy your home folder. Is that true, especially with Leopard now?
How should I go about transferring files and settings to my new macbook?
ScottW - Nov 9, 2007 - 9:02 pm
Travis,
First, I'll address your MacBook question. Apple provides an application called Migration Assistant, and it can be run manually or at install time (toward the end of the install process) and it will migrate over all your applications, home directory and what based on your desired level, via a Firewire connection. I have used it many times and it works great, no issues. If your Mac Mini is buggy, there might be a potential you might copy the "buggy" stuff with the migration, but you never know.
I'd recommend going the full route, and in the worst case scenario, you move it all over and it's slow and buggy and you have to try something else. But, it probably won't happen. It's always my "fear" that is going to happen when I use it, but that has never been the case.
Now, concerning your Mac Mini. To save you ample time and still keep your "user account" in tact (in case worse case happens above), I would simply create a new user account on the Mac Mini. Log out of your account, and log into it. It will be a "fresh" user account and see if you suffer the same fate of slowness with the new user account. Chances are, it might work much faster without all the "junk" that has piled up under your user account.
This way, you don't need to re-install everything, and it's almost like reinstalling the OS. Of course, if you still have issues with slowness, even under a new user account, you can always format and re-install the OS, which would be my recommendation if the new user account doesn't provide what your looking for.
Hope that helps out. Let me know what you choose and how it works out for you.
Scott
First, I'll address your MacBook question. Apple provides an application called Migration Assistant, and it can be run manually or at install time (toward the end of the install process) and it will migrate over all your applications, home directory and what based on your desired level, via a Firewire connection. I have used it many times and it works great, no issues. If your Mac Mini is buggy, there might be a potential you might copy the "buggy" stuff with the migration, but you never know.
I'd recommend going the full route, and in the worst case scenario, you move it all over and it's slow and buggy and you have to try something else. But, it probably won't happen. It's always my "fear" that is going to happen when I use it, but that has never been the case.
Now, concerning your Mac Mini. To save you ample time and still keep your "user account" in tact (in case worse case happens above), I would simply create a new user account on the Mac Mini. Log out of your account, and log into it. It will be a "fresh" user account and see if you suffer the same fate of slowness with the new user account. Chances are, it might work much faster without all the "junk" that has piled up under your user account.
This way, you don't need to re-install everything, and it's almost like reinstalling the OS. Of course, if you still have issues with slowness, even under a new user account, you can always format and re-install the OS, which would be my recommendation if the new user account doesn't provide what your looking for.
Hope that helps out. Let me know what you choose and how it works out for you.
Scott
pyr0_musician - Nov 10, 2007 - 10:04 pm
Hey thanks, I got a chance to try a new user account and that seems to be working great so far. And Migration Assistant sounds great, i'll try your suggestion. Thanks a lot.
ScottW - Nov 11, 2007 - 10:18 am
Good to hear! Have a good one!
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