Borrowing a Mac, options for use/restore

[Epoch KW]

Hi all,

My friend has lent me his Mac mini for a couple of months (it's running mountain lion and about 6 months old) so I can attempt to convince my other half she needs one.

I've switched it on, taken a full time machine backup of the system onto a usb drive I have over night.

What I'd now like to do is start the MAC from new, logging in with the wife's iTunes account etc and letting her use it with hers and the kids IOS devices and backing up to our Time Capsule.


Then when my friend wants it back I'd like to restore from the time machine image on the USB drive to give the system back to him as he gave it me.

If the wife likes the Mini, I'll get a new one and use the time Machine backup I have to recreate the machine we borrowed

Is this pretty standard and straightforward or is there a hole in my plan (or something better to do)

thanks in advance for any advise

 

[ricede]

Why not just set up a new a/c for your use. Then when you return it to your friend you can just delete your a/c.

To do this : Go to System Preferences/Users & Groups. Click the lock icon & enter the admin password ( I take it you do have his admin password ? ). Then click on the + sign & setup a new A/c. By default the new a/c will be a standard a/c - set it to administrator if you wish admin privileges
.

When youve set it up - click on Login Options ( at the base of left column of Users & Groups page ) and set Automatic Login to OFF. Then you can enter your a/c with your password every time you restart the mac. In that way your friends a/c will only be accessible to anyone else, with his password.

 

[Epoch KW]

Why not just set up a new a/c for your use. Then when you return it to your friend you can just delete your a/c.

To do this : Go to System Preferences/Users & Groups. Click the lock icon & enter the admin password ( I take it you do have his admin password ? ). Then click on the + sign & setup a new A/c. By default the new a/c will be a standard a/c - set it to administrator if you wish admin privileges
.

When youve set it up - click on Login Options ( at the base of left column of Users & Groups page ) and set Automatic Login to OFF. Then you can enter your a/c with your password every time you restart the mac. In that way your friends a/c will only be accessible to anyone else, with his password.

Hmm that sounds like an easier idea, I like that

when I delete my user account will it take off all apps, music and movies?

 

[ricede]

It will remove everything from the User folder of that a/c. It will NOT remove apps etc that have been installed in the main applications folder.

It will delete any music/movies/docs etc that are in that User folder.

 

[Epoch KW]

It will remove everything from the User folder of that a/c. It will NOT remove apps etc that have been installed in the main applications folder.

It will delete any music/movies/docs etc that are in that User folder.

Thank you, I think you've just made my life a huge amount easier

 

[ricede]

When you come to delete the User folder there are 3 options :

Save the folder in a disk image
Dont change the Home folder
Delete the Home folder

If you use the 3rd option the Home folder ( and all its contents ) will be securely deleted.

 

[Epoch KW]

all worked as described, only potential downside is the fact the iTunes download tied to user profile lock out means it'll be 90 days before my mate can download anything from the store on it

certainly easier than i first thought Thank you again ricede