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Complete Steps to Perform a Clean OS X Reinstall on Your MacBook Air

kming05 said:
hey everyone. sorry i'm a mac newbie, but i'm wondering if there is another way to just delete some of the bundled applciations without doing a fresh reinstall?
Click to expand...
The problem is that the applications have a lot of support files scattered around various locations on the system. So deleting the GarageBand program from the Applications folder may kill the app, but it leaves a lot of crap behind. It would take more time to find and eliminate all of that than it would to just do a fresh install and choose specifically what you want.

I agree that it would be nice if Apple would have something similar to Windows' control panel which allows you to remove and reinstall Windows components... but that would be counter to the Apple "It just works" philosophy, which dictates that you have EVERYTHING installed up-front so it's there if and when you need it (e.g., 3.4 GB worth of printer drivers).

PS: Glad you all like the thread. It took a while to write all that stuff up, but I knew it would come in handy.
 
clayj said:
The problem is that the applications have a lot of support files scattered around various locations on the system. So deleting the GarageBand program from the Applications folder may kill the app, but it leaves a lot of crap behind. It would take more time to find and eliminate all of that than it would to just do a fresh install and choose specifically what you want.

I agree that it would be nice if Apple would have something similar to Windows' control panel which allows you to remove and reinstall Windows components... but that would be counter to the Apple "It just works" philosophy, which dictates that you have EVERYTHING installed up-front so it's there if and when you need it (e.g., 3.4 GB worth of printer drivers).

PS: Glad you all like the thread. It took a while to write all that stuff up, but I knew it would come in handy.
Click to expand...

It will be very useful, so thank you once again!
 
Thanks, clayj.

This combined with a streamlined XP install under Boot Camp will make me set!

-Peter
 
AppZapper

kming05 said:
hey everyone. sorry i'm a mac newbie, but i'm wondering if there is another way to just delete some of the bundled applciations without doing a fresh reinstall?
Click to expand...

it won't work for uninstalling language, printer drivers ... but i've use AppZapper. haven't tried removing apple apps, but it works well for others.
 
Bye bye Alex!

If you want to get rid of another 670Mb dump the Alex voice from /System/Library/Speech/Voices
 
ViperrepiV said:
what is the Alex voice?
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The Mac has a voice feature where the computer can read stuff to you that's on the screen. There are several different voices you can choose from. Apparently, the Alex voice is a rather large one (I am guessing it sounds better than the others).

Hopefully tonight I will have a chance to look into this, as well as the "disable hibernate" option which can save you 2 GB of space. I'll report my findings in the top post in this thread.

One thing I will definitely be doing is looking into sharing my iTunes library from my Mac Pro to my MBA... copying all 35 GB of my music onto the MBA has left me a scant 5 GB of free space, and that simply won't do. (One nice thing about getting a machine with less storage space is that it forces you to think about new ways to distribute your data between systems. I may end up with a single iTunes repository which ALL of my machines can access.)
 
loghyr said:
Okay, it restarted and I didn't let it eject the first DVD. I went ahead and ejected it myself (too used to other OSes).

It went straight to the Welcome menu.

Do I have a failed install?
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As a follow-up, no, it was not a failed install.

I did it again and the screen said that the installation was done. I must have avoided everything on the second disk.

Start to finish this was done in under 30 minutes on the 80G HD with a USB attached DVD unit.
 
loghyr said:
Start to finish this was done in under 30 minutes on the 80G HD with a USB attached DVD unit.
Click to expand...

Hah! Took me another two and a half hours to apply all of the Windows Updates, restart half a million times, add Acrobat Reader, Flash and Java and strip more stuff out of the XP install with the free version of XPLite.

That said, I now have iPhoto and iWeb on OS X taking up 10.8GB on a 50GB partition and 7 GB of XP with Media Player and all of the stuff I need to run on a 25GB FAT32 partition. I guess I'm set. Thanks for the clean-up guide, clayj.

Reminds me why I don't build PC's anymore! :mad:
 
First of all, I'm convinced I'll get an Air and this is a great compilation of info for folks who've never customized an OSX install, so shanks!

And then, I'm tempted to do this:
Salty Pirate said:
Here is another space saving tip...
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...but on my MB. No, I do not swap batteries, no I do not run the sucker down (juice-wise). Would this 1) work on the MB and 2) be advisable?

I ask because it has the same amount of storage, 80GB and it'd be helpful since I just upgraded it to Leopard-- to remove some of the OS bloat. :eek:
 
devilot said:
First of all, I'm convinced I'll get an Air and this is a great compilation of info for folks who've never customized an OSX install, so shanks!

And then, I'm tempted to do this:
...but on my MB. No, I do not swap batteries, no I do not run the sucker down (juice-wise). Would this 1) work on the MB and 2) be advisable?

I ask because it has the same amount of storage, 80GB and it'd be helpful since I just upgraded it to Leopard-- to remove some of the OS bloat. :eek:
Click to expand...

I ran my MBP in mode 0 for the past 6 months with no adverse issues. Last night, I let the battery completely run down, and the machine went to sleep. I did not have to re-boot once I recharged it. pretty cool. Right now, I have 16.94 GB free. Loving life.
 
Salty Pirate said:
I ran my MBP in mode 0 for the past 6 months with no adverse issues. Last night, I let the battery completely run down, and the machine went to sleep. I did not have to re-boot once I recharged it. pretty cool. Right now, I have 16.94 GB free. Loving life.
Click to expand...
Now when you say it "went to sleep", does that mean when you powered it back on, it was like starting up from being turned off? Or did it come back with all of your apps and stuff still running? I'm just trying to figure out if there is any downside at all when we get back 2 GB of disk space by switching from mode 3 to mode 0.
 
clayj said:
Now when you say it "went to sleep", does that mean when you powered it back on, it was like starting up from being turned off? Or did it come back with all of your apps and stuff still running? I'm just trying to figure out if there is any downside at all when we get back 2 GB of disk space by switching from mode 3 to mode 0.
Click to expand...


came back with all desktop intact since I had shutdown all programs because it only showed 1 minute left. I simply opened the lid, I did not need to push the power button.
 
Salty Pirate said:
came back with all desktop intact since I had shutdown all programs because it only showed 1 minute left. I simply opened the lid, I did not need to push the power button.
Click to expand...
Ah, so we don't know yet what happens to apps like iTunes or Safari or Entourage if we have a complete power failure in mode 0. That's what I am interested in knowing.

I think tomorrow I'm going to be looking into getting .Mac so I can use Back to My Mac. I've removed all of my music from my MBA and am playing with sharing it across the network here in my home... but how that would work when I am out of the house is another question. Back to My Mac might be a good solution if it truly works like you're on your home network.
 
Thanks...

clayj, this is a great thread and initiative... I have wanted (and forgotten) to ask the question for the last 3 days. And now I already have the answer !

Don't hesitate if you have another "sticky-quality" thread ideas ! :)

w.
 
Partial Migration?

maroulis said:
this is insane... I still can't get it to work I must have tried over 30 times now from my macbook (latest revision) sharing the install DVD starting up holding down option key, selecting WLAN, etc then the disk which it can see...

only ONCE did it actually go through the proper set-up and then hang again..Am I the only one?
Click to expand...

I can give you a possible clue, having spent 5 hours in your situation.

IF you force quit the Migration Assistant, you probably didn't completely transfer "owners/users" and your preferences are set to automatically log in a User Name, that really isn't there.

Some of the experts here can tell you how to use FSDCK command or whatever it's called, to create a new administrator, which will then allow you to get past the "blue screen" & change the automatic log in.
 
Do u get the Leopard disk with the Macbook Air or is it already installed or both? Basically wat i mean is do i need to have a copy of Leopard in irder to reinstall it or does a copy come with the Air?

Cheers
 
shuffles said:
Do u get the Leopard disk with the Macbook Air or is it already installed or both? Basically wat i mean is do i need to have a copy of Leopard in irder to reinstall it or does a copy come with the Air?

Cheers
Click to expand...

It's already installed and a DVD is included.
 
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