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Getting a Macbook

M

macornomac

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 25, 2007
346
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Ok guys long time viewer first time poster. Finally pulled the trigger and got me a Macbook with free ipod and free printer. All with the education discount. Now got some questions before I get my macbook sometime this week hopefully or early next. I want to do a reformat when I get it and was wondering if there is a guide on this site as to how to do that. I found this site
http://www2.ucsc.edu/ihop/Reformat a Mac.htm

So is that pretty much what I need to do for a clean install???? Also can you guys tell me what I need and don't need??? I know I will use itunes but all the other stuff I don't think I'll need so I'll go ahead and delete them. Ok thanks for all your help.
 
One thing you should do is try out the apps and give them a chance, and then decide whether you want/need them or not, then you can go through and get rid of the ones you don't want.
 
Yes, I would second that.I recommend you dont delete any apps until you have at least given them a try.. you never know in the future if you will want them.
 
Yeah, getting a new Mac is nothing like a new PC. The software that comes with a Mac is meant to help you, not to bother you with annoying demo notices, trial periods, and system bloating slowdowns. That doesn't happen.

Although iWork is a demo.
 
Yeah I'm kind of a first time mac user but people say it doesn't hurt to go ahead and reformat the mac when you get it. So can anyone tell me which programs that come on the mac are demos besides that iwork one???????
 
oh and which browser is the best one to use???? Like what do you guys use??? Thanks.
 
I like Firefox because of the extensions and when I move to a Windows machine, everything is the same. With Safari 3.0 now in beta on both Mac and Windows the choices have widened a little. Firefox is also working on a new version which should be in beta shortly.

I think Mac Office '04 comes as a demo as well. Most of the other stuff is the real deal.
 
Well for browser.. IMHO i really like Safari.. i have pretty much used all the other ones and safari by far is the best.. very simple and clean looking.
 
yukon0013 said:
Yes, I would second that.I recommend you dont delete any apps until you have at least given them a try.. you never know in the future if you will want them.
Click to expand...

So if I delete some applications does that mean I'll never get them back??? Shouldn't they all be on the cd's that come with the mac? Also is it possible to back up everything on a disk when I first get it and how do I do that????? Sorry for all the silly questions but just wanted to know.
 
If you delete applications yes you can still get them back but i still would recommend keeping them and at least trying them out.. if you decide you dont like them then you can go ahead and delete them. And yes all the applications are on you discs.
 
New MacBook will come with two disks (Tiger OS X DVD and an iLife '06 DVD). Here are things that you don't need and could remove if you reinstall:

  • iWork Demo (full version, but you must pay to after 30 day trial runs out)
  • MS Office 2004 (again, full version, but you must pay to activate after 30 trial)
  • Printer Drivers - Probably save yourself 2 gigs here! You can reinstall the ones you need from manufacturers' websites.
  • Foreign Language support

BUT ... you can just delete these files directly and save yourself the pain of reformatting, which is probably the better way to go.

If you do reinstall, do yourself the favor of creating a 15 gig partition for Windows.
 
basicfiend said:
New MacBook will come with two disks (Tiger OS X DVD and an iLife '06 DVD). Here are things that you don't need and could remove if you reinstall:

  • iWork Demo (full version, but you must pay to after 30 day trial runs out)
  • MS Office 2004 (again, full version, but you must pay to activate after 30 trial)
  • Printer Drivers - Probably save yourself 2 gigs here! You can reinstall the ones you need from manufacturers' websites.
  • Foreign Language support

BUT ... you can just delete these files directly and save yourself the pain of reformatting, which is probably the better way to go.

If you do reinstall, do yourself the favor of creating a 15 gig partition for Windows.
Click to expand...

So is there no difference in dragging and deleting as compared to reformating? Also what do you mean by doing the 15 gig partion for windows??? What if I don't intend to use windows on the mac do I still need to do this and how do I do this????
 
macornomac said:
So is there no difference in dragging and deleting as compared to reformating? Also what do you mean by doing the 15 gig partion for windows??? What if I don't intend to use windows on the mac do I still need to do this and how do I do this????
Click to expand...

You could either trash (delete) the items the poster above you mentioned or you can reformat and reinstall OS X and do it that way. Reinstalling is more time consuming.

If you wanted to install Windows on your shiny new mac you can with a program called Boot Camp which is offered by Apple. It's in "beta" and will expire when Leopard is release at the end of October.

If you don't intend to use windows on your mac, don't worry about it.

If you do download Boot Camp from Apple's website, install the program and follow the directions. It's quite simple to use, the windows part well it's windows :p If you ever wanted to delete the windows partition, just fire up Boot Camp and delete the window's partition. That's it!

Hope this helps!
 
Teh Don Ditty said:
You could either trash (delete) the items the poster above you mentioned or you can reformat and reinstall OS X and do it that way. Reinstalling is more time consuming.

If you wanted to install Windows on your shiny new mac you can with a program called Boot Camp which is offered by Apple. It's in "beta" and will expire when Leopard is release at the end of October.

If you don't intend to use windows on your mac, don't worry about it.

If you do download Boot Camp from Apple's website, install the program and follow the directions. It's quite simple to use, the windows part well it's windows :p If you ever wanted to delete the windows partition, just fire up Boot Camp and delete the window's partition. That's it!

Hope this helps!
Click to expand...

So how long all together does it take to reformat?????? Also is that bootcamp thing free to download???????
 
Boot Camp is free, and it doesn't require an entire reformat of your hard disk just to have a Windows partition, it simply creates one without affecting your Mac partition.
 
Yeah I'll think I'll just keep the macbook with all mac stuff and not deal with windows stuff. Once I learn more about this bootcamp stuff I'll see if I want to put it on my mac. I saw that my macbook is coming from Bloomington CA is that California or Canada??? I thought people said it should be coming from China.
 
macornomac said:
Yeah I'll think I'll just keep the macbook with all mac stuff and not deal with windows stuff. Once I learn more about this bootcamp stuff I'll see if I want to put it on my mac. I saw that my macbook is coming from Bloomington CA is that California or Canada??? I thought people said it should be coming from China.
Click to expand...

Bloomington is California. That is where my MacBook was sent from. I got my MacBook in 1 days.
It is the San Bernardino area.
 
macornomac said:
So how long all together does it take to reformat?????? Also is that bootcamp thing free to download???????
Click to expand...

A straight reformat and reinstall could take an hour or hour and a half (these are estimates). It depends if you reinstall all the bundled software or not.

As my gnarly friend zephead said, Boot Camp is free.
 
You can check out Apple's MacBook Manual

I suggest taking a look at the software on your new MB before you do a reinstall and see what you like and what you don't, then if you want to the reinstall.
 
macornomac said:
So is there no difference in dragging and deleting as compared to reformating?
Click to expand...

Nope -- If you haven't opened Office yet, then you can uninstall by dragging the Office folder from "Applications" folder to "Trash." The first time you run it, it will put files in other places on your machine (but limited number of other places and you can delete those easily too).

iWork is drag and drop into the Trash uninstallable.

Unneeded Printer drivers and foreign language support are also easy to drag to the trash.
 
basicfiend said:
Nope -- If you haven't opened Office yet, then you can uninstall by dragging the Office folder from "Applications" folder to "Trash." The first time you run it, it will put files in other places on your machine (but limited number of other places and you can delete those easily too).

iWork is drag and drop into the Trash uninstallable.

Unneeded Printer drivers and foreign language support are also easy to drag to the trash.
Click to expand...

Oh ok well then that's kind of cool if reformating and drag and trash are the same. I'm just used to pc stuff and dell where everyone is like you must reformat your computer as soon as you get it because of all the crap they put on there. So yeah I'll see what kind of stuff I can drag and trash when I get my mac and see how much it clears up.
 
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