Reformatting MacbookPro

[ApleSmaple1981]

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

 

[Whaletrain]

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

I mean in terms of utilities I wouldn't really know. My advice is just to look through EVERY personal folder and see if there is anything there.

In terms of the best way to format, just use the inbuilt utilities. Hold Command+R on boot. Choose 'Disk Utility'. Choose the 'Erase' tab and format the HDD. Exit Disk Utility and choose 'Reinstall Mavericks'. Follow the instructions.

 

[ApleSmaple1981]

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!