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Before I trust the "apple guy at Best Buy"...

eyesawred2

eyesawred2

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 23, 2009
35
0
...a little history

I currently have a Macbook, white, 13inch screen, 2.16 GHz Intel Core 2
with 2.5.GB of avaliable space. She is running OSx Tiger hahahaha I am just learning so excuse me if I sound ignorant to the lingo, I am.

So, I tried to install Leopard and it said "no". I am upgrading because my new school isn't mac friendly.

I don't really know what I can delete to free up more space. I tried to drag the applications I don't use to the trash but I see this had little effect.

I mainly use this for editing my photos,internet,school work and email. So, I brought a external HD and put everything on it.

I obviously did something wrong because this did not affect my avaliable memory. So I decided to buy a new HD. I am looking at a Western Digital - Caviar GP 1TB Internal Hard Drive.

I am a full-time college student, full-time mom, part time dancer,photographer/personal trainer (seriously, I should be in a mac commercial). Why is this important? Because I have alot of crap I need to keep on my mac. I'd rather upgrade my mac while I have the time (this month) and money.

I think the 1TB will be best so I can continue to keep all the pictures of my daughter and other words, music and whatever else I want without worrying about memory. That's what I am under the impression will happen. Let me know if I am wrong about this.

So, I searched for previous post on th HD switch subject and have learned that it is possible to take the data from your old HD and put it in your new one. You can use carbon copy or some software like that to and copy the data onto your new HD.

So a few silly questions...

What can you do with your old HD?

Should I do a full backup before I install a new HD or will the carbon copy software do that?

When I install Leopard can I pick and choose what items I want copied from my old HD to my new HD or will everthing transfer?

Is there anything I should do before I attempt this? Or should I trust the best buy guy?

Thanks
 
Being the "Apple Guy at Best Buy" here is a little bit more accurate information for you. Right now there are not any 1TB internal HDD's for laptops. Currently the largest is a 500GB. At BB, there is a Western Digital one for roughly $150.
More than likely the reason it said "no" when trying to install Leopard was because you didn't have enough HD space. Everything lingo wise you sound good so far.
I am in college also, and I am not sure that there is any school that is not "Mac Friendly." The reason why you might get that vibe is because the people on campus for tech support might not know Macs. But as far as online classes and everything like that, you will be golden. (I can't help with the parent thing though.)

Unless you see this pin (attached below) on somebody as BB, don't trust everything. You will be able to tell when you are talking to somebody who really knows what they are talking about, and if they pointed out a 3.5" HD for a laptop that only holds a 2.5, steer away from that person.
 

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So wait, you copied everything from your computer to an external drive? If so...did you delete it off your computer afterwards?
 
You guys are FAST!!!

Hahaha...YES my trash is empty!! I didn't delete my pictures. I like to have them handy. I haven't figured out how to view my pictures all at once in my external HD as opposed to looking at them individually. When I figure that out I will delete the pictures in iPhoto.

However, I followed the instructions for moving songs to the external and I was KINDA successful but when I deleted the songs from iTunes they were gone. So, I restored and it restored EVERYTHING!! All the songs I hated, the porn I deleted, everything I ever had in iTunes. I went through the steps again and the same thing happened.

As far as school goes, I like using those supplemental CD's that come with the textbook and (believe it or not) I have had a class that the CD was not mac compatiable. Yes, this only happened once but I like to use all my resources. I know that eventually Apple will stop writing code for Tiger. If I understood the article right, this will be bad for me.

Since we are "talking". Can anyone recommend a phone that is mac compatible? I would like an iPhone but 70.00+$ a month is too much for my pockets.

I will speak with the "apple guy at Best Buy" and see what he says. The 1TB HD was my mistake. I will let you guys know what he says after I speak with him.

Thanks
 
Here's some answers to your questions.

1. CDs that aren't compatible with Macs from school, get VMware or Parallels or just use BootCamp to install a version of Windows XP on your mac, problem solved, best of both worlds.

2. What phone is not mac compatible? I don't know what you mean by that...please clarify.

3. As to your deleting iTunes files and also deleting your HDD, I don't know the cause to this problem, but a suggested fix would be to transfer everything you want to your external HDD, unplug it from your comp, then delete the stuff from iTunes within your mac.

Hope that helps!
 
welcome to the world of macs!

A couple things about "disappearing space on your hard drive"

Let's say you had a 10gb folder music on your desktop. And you ask iTunes to import it. By default, iTunes COPIES the music to its own folder located in the "home directory -> Music -> iTunes -> iTunes Music"

So now there are 2 copies of your music (10gb x 2 = 20gb used up)

Delete the original folder, and not the "iTunes Music" folder.

The same goes for iPhoto. You can mistakenly have 2 copies.

The best software for backing up is SuperDuper. The free version is MORE than enough to do the job.
It is much easier to use than "Carbon Copy Cloner" (based on personal experience when I started to use macs)

also, when you delete music from iTunes, there are 2 warnings that pop up. You might have accidentally told iTunes to "Do not ask me again" regarding one of the warnings.

Warning #1 - "Are you sure you want to remove the selected song from your iTunes library?" (you want to chose "remove")

Warning #2 - "Do you want to move the selected song to the Trash, or keep it in the iTunes Music folder?"

(you want to choose "move to trash" or else it will disappear from iTunes, but NOT from your hard drive, so when you import the music again, the unwanted music appears again because you never truly deleted)

I hope this helps.
 
Quickest way to solve your problem eyesawred2.
Purchase 2.5"sata hdd of your choice and a cheap caddie/enclosure for same type of drive.
Put new drive in your mac.
Put old drive in caddie
Install leopard to new drive in mac
Leopard setup will ask you if you want to import data from another mac. About screen 4 I think. At this point plug in the enclosure and wait about a minute. You should then be able to import all your personal data from the old drive (can take several hours but is fully automated once started)
Finish Leopard setup
Make sure everything you want has copied over to new drive. If it has...
Format old drive in caddie and use it for backup/extra storage

Result should be new bigger drive in machine with leopard installed and all your content copied across.

If you are missing any files after data migration, before formatting old drive just plug it in and drag across anything that was missed
 
Thanks

Outstanding!! You guys are TOO good!! I will print this off and follow the steps. I don't (at least I don't think) have boot camp on my mac at this time. I am using Tiger.

I got this mac in June 2007 after my first mac (may she rest in piece) fell victim to mass stupidty. She was my first laptop and I did nothing but search the internet and watched porn. Then, I decided to put this one to better use. So, I have slowly been learning more about my mac.

My question about a compatiable phone. What I mean is I would like a phone that I can import my contact and ical (iTunes would be a bonus). There is a list on apple.com. I printed it off and looked at a few phones. Nothing I liked.

Thanks again.
 
eyesawred2 said:
Outstanding!! You guys are TOO good!! I will print this off and follow the steps. I don't (at least I don't think) have boot camp on my mac at this time. I am using Tiger.

I got this mac in June 2007 after my first mac (may she rest in piece) fell victim to mass stupidty. She was my first laptop and I did nothing but search the internet and watched porn. Then, I decided to put this one to better use. So, I have slowly been learning more about my mac.

My question about a compatiable phone. What I mean is I would like a phone that I can import my contact and ical (iTunes would be a bonus). There is a list on apple.com. I printed it off and looked at a few phones. Nothing I liked.

Thanks again.
Click to expand...

You could always search craigslist or ebay for a iPhone 2G, they're hovering around $200AUD for a 8GB these days, dirt cheap if you don't want to have to pay a contract, and you could just jailbreak it and use any sim with it. Glad we could help. :)
 
eyesawred2 said:
My question about a compatiable phone. What I mean is I would like a phone that I can import my contact and ical (iTunes would be a bonus). There is a list on apple.com. I printed it off and looked at a few phones. Nothing I liked.

Thanks again.
Click to expand...

Another idea: Get an iPod Touch for all the PDA stuff (iCal/Address Book/iPhoto/iTunes/other Apps) and have a cheap phone/camera of your choice of networks (AT&T is inferior around here). You'll be carrying 2 items instead of 1 but it's a lot cheaper. No monthly fee on the iPod Touch and it even connects to wifi for Safari browsing and Mail. Oh and yes...it's Mac compatible. :) -GDF
 
Google Monlolingual and install that, then remove all the extra languages and scripts you dont need! And enjoy another 4+GB's of space that you never new you had.
 
As far as the mac compatible phone, if you pick up any phone with Windows Mobile then you can buy Missing Sync and it will sync all the contacts in your phone to the Address Book on the mac, the events to iCal and it will even back up your call log and text messages onto the mac. This is what I have been using with my BlackJack till my contact runs out. Im fairly certain it works with Palm phones too
 
tdgrn said:
Unless you see this pin (attached below) on somebody as BB, don't trust everything. You will be able to tell when you are talking to somebody who really knows what they are talking about, and if they pointed out a 3.5" HD for a laptop that only holds a 2.5, steer away from that person.
Click to expand...

I have that pin. It took me 2 hours to get 16000 points on Apple Sales Training (I work for an Apple Premium Reseller). The courses are very easy..
 
Apple pin

yea i have that pin too, the tests are easy if your know your apple stuff, which i do.
 
Just an update

You guys have been super-great!! I wish I could give you all a complimentary "good-game" slap on the a*s. So, I have decided to get a 400MB, Western Digital HD, with 5400rpm, 8MB cache and an aluminum SATA harddrive enclosure for my old HD.

Just so I am clear...

When my enclosure and new HD get's here I am going to back-up everything on my external HD and then erase my current HD, take my whitebook, new HD and enclosure to Best buy and get the "apple guy" to put in the new HD and put the old one into the enclosure.

I take my whitey home and put leopard on it and then import whatever I want from my external HD (the first one) and then delete all the language stuff, printer drivers and whatever applications (AppZapper) I will never use. I put my old HD in a safe place to use later and then I will be all done.

Correct? Did I miss something? Add something that isn't needed?

Thanks for all your help.
 
eyesawred2 said:
Just so I am clear...

When my enclosure and new HD get's here I am going to back-up everything on my external HD and then erase my current HD, take my whitebook, new HD and enclosure to Best buy and get the "apple guy" to put in the new HD and put the old one into the enclosure.

I take my whitey home and put leopard on it and then import whatever I want from my external HD (the first one) and then delete all the language stuff, printer drivers and whatever applications (AppZapper) I will never use. I put my old HD in a safe place to use later and then I will be all done.
Click to expand...

Wow...way too much work. How about:

1) Put new drive into enclosure
2) Clone your current drive to the new drive in the enclosure.
3) Switch the drives
4) Upgrade to Leopard

There's a little more to it than that like preparing your new drive and the switching drives part requires a couple tools but it's all pretty easy. No need to involve the Best Buy dude unless he'll do it for free. There are complete instructions all over the place. Heck I'll do it for free for another slap. :D
 
GfulDedFan said:
1) Put new drive into enclosure
2) Clone your current drive to the new drive in the enclosure.
3) Switch the drives
4) Upgrade to Leopard
Click to expand...

i would like to emphasize that you should use the program "SuperDuper" for step #2

don't use carbon copy cloner. SuperDuper is MUCH easier to use.

also, if you need to backup your bootcamp partition, that is also possible.
 
That sounds easy and sexy enough. I have a trail version of WD anywhere backup. I was planning on using that to do a backup on my external drive then switch over the HD's. I read a previous post and no one had anything negative to say. So, when I install leopard I will need to do a custom install to prevent the extra languages and printer drivers from installing. Right?

Thanks again. You saved me from dealing with the "apple guy" who is never there.
 
eyesawred2 said:
That sounds easy and sexy enough. I have a trail version of WD anywhere backup. I was planning on using that to do a backup on my external drive then switch over the HD's. I read a previous post and no one had anything negative to say. So, when I install leopard I will need to do a custom install to prevent the extra languages and printer drivers from installing. Right?
Click to expand...

The method that I just laid out didn't include the use of an external drive. Just the new one and the enclosure.
The trial version of WD anywhere backup is for windows only.
If your new hard drive is big enough, you won't need to worry about getting rid of extra languages and drivers.
 
OOOhhhhkay...that sounds even easier. Thanks for all you help, again. Another "good game" slap on the as* for you.
 
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