Tips/Advice For Setting Up New Mini?

[Sammy's]

So I just received my new Mini the other day (i5/8/256) and I'm getting ready to set it up.

I want to start fresh with this machine so I don't plan to use Migration Assistant or Time Machine.

I'm going to install all the apps I use - upgrading where possible and I've backed up all of my relevant data from the old Mini (2009) to an external (WD Passport).

I plan to keep the internal drive as lean and mean as possible with just OS and apps on it and my iTunes, Photos, work stuff on an external (Samsung T5 500GB).

Both of the current machines I have are both 2009 (Mini and MBP) and I just realized I haven't set up a new machine out of the box in almost 10 years!

So I was hoping for any tips/advice anyone might have for making this as painless and thorough as possible?

Thanks in advance!

 

[harriska2]

I moved my itunes and pictures to an external drive. Then I imported the itunes library and pictures. Because I’m coming from Windows, I had 60 years of photos in folders by date so I was able to have Photos just set to import photos and leave files in folders - it then just points to the location of the picture instead of importing the actual picture file into the photos database. As I curated the collection I dragged only select pictures from the folders into Photos using Albums. itunes required some special menu item to compress and prep for export, I exported from Windows. I created a /kathy directory on the external drive and use it instead of the users/kathy on the boot drive. I read up on moving the whole user directory to the external but it seemed there might arise problems if the boot drive failed and a user/password were required to get to the files on the external so I just point apps to the external. Also added a link on finder side menu to the external volume (in my case /Volumes/DataStore1/Kathy). This mac was far easier to setup than my every 3-5 year clean reinstall Windows ritual I’ve had for 28 years. My husband had to explain how to install apps (kind of embarrassing) so I’ve been careful with what I install and use App Cleaner and Find Any File to thoroughly remove anything I don’t want.