Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Backup Programs
- Thread starter MBPiPTiMiP4S
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
GGJstudios
macrumors Westmere
You can use Carbon Copy Cloner to make a clone of your entire hard drive, including apps, OS and user data. You can use 3.5.1 ($40) or 3.4.7 (free, and works well on OS X 10.6, 10.7 and 10.8). As apps may have components in multiple locations, just backing up the .app files may not be sufficient for your needs.
shucks,
I was hoping for a program to just back up my installed programs and preferences for them.
I was planning to do a clean install.
GGJstudios
macrumors Westmere
If you want a truly clean install, also reinstall your apps. What are you hoping to achieve by doing a clean install?
Im an graphic design student.
I make my own brushes in Corel painter and have many of settings.
I wish to keep my programs setup like that "as is" and re-install them.
GGJstudios
macrumors Westmere
My computer is running a little slow,
and I'm ready to upgrade to Mountain Lion.
Rather do a clean install...
GGJstudios
macrumors Westmere
supermariofan25
macrumors regular
This may help
If you want to do a clean install im pretty shure you can backup you entire hard drive using time machine, do a complete clean install to Mountain Lion and then copy only your apps and their settings from the backup that you made using Migration Assistant after installing
hope this helps and good luck🙂
EDIT: if that doesn't work for you then you still have the backup to do a full restore to Lion or Snow Leopard, what ever you are using
If you want to do a clean install im pretty shure you can backup you entire hard drive using time machine, do a complete clean install to Mountain Lion and then copy only your apps and their settings from the backup that you made using Migration Assistant after installing
hope this helps and good luck🙂
EDIT: if that doesn't work for you then you still have the backup to do a full restore to Lion or Snow Leopard, what ever you are using
A "clean" install and keeping everything as is are incompatible. You are upgrading your computer which means things are gonna change. Even application specific prefs in some cases.
And without knowing what exactly you want to keep, it's hard to give advice. Adobe keeps things all over the place, for example. Other applications are much more tidy: move Application Support folders, prefs and the application package and you're good to go.
The safest and most efficient method would be to make a current backup, upgrade the Apple way, and then see if anything breaks. If so, fix those problems manually. Its usually pretty obvious, and easier than hunting all over for the files to manually move. I've migrated and the entire Adobe Master Suite and other messy stuff worked fine. Just had to enter a few serials.
And without knowing what exactly you want to keep, it's hard to give advice. Adobe keeps things all over the place, for example. Other applications are much more tidy: move Application Support folders, prefs and the application package and you're good to go.
The safest and most efficient method would be to make a current backup, upgrade the Apple way, and then see if anything breaks. If so, fix those problems manually. Its usually pretty obvious, and easier than hunting all over for the files to manually move. I've migrated and the entire Adobe Master Suite and other messy stuff worked fine. Just had to enter a few serials.