Reformatting MacbookPro

Greetings community,

I have an August 2011 MacBook Pro 15" laptop and really do enjoy it. Over the years it has aggressively slowed down and now it is time to do a few things. I am going to purchase a 27" iMac do be able to render HD video and do editing with that.

I'd like to clean my MacBookPro for work and general computing.

I have almost all of the memory locked up and need to find the best way to transfer my documents, pictures, and videos to an external harddrive.

Some questions:

1. What is a great hardrive solution for backing up such documents?
2. How best can I scan my computer to find all the important files/pictures/documents/videos and transfer it to the new external harddrive. I guess I would also need to make folders for each to keep it clean and organized
3. What is the best way to reformat the MacBook pro once I am done?

Thanks in advance!

Cheers

 

Thanks

I appreciate the feedback.

Yea I am sure there are utilities out there that can scan my computer so I can pick which video/picture/document files I want to transfer and which ones I do not.

I'd also like suggestions for harddrives that are reliable, cost efficient, and large for backups (4tb-8tb).

I will be editing raw video files at some point on a new iMac and will need to save the final edits on the drive in addition to movies I purchase, music, photos, and documents for work/life.

Suggestions welcome!