"resetting" my old iMac to "new"?

[Tumbleweed666]

I am currently waiting at home for delivery of my latest shiny toy from Apple, 2013 iMac 27inch, when it comes I intend to use my 24 inch iMacs TM disk to xfer all my stuff over, and then I want to get my 24 inch iMac back to a fairly newish state even if thats only to help it run as fast it can.

Its going to a relative so I don't have to completely wipe it if not needed, and indeed I'd like to leave them with iWork and iPhoto but something which removed all the add-on apps and so forth would be a good idea, whats the best way of me doing that? If I deleted my user would that remove most of the apps I added as that user?

The stuff I've read says to reinstall from the CD's but although I have those they are 4 years old Snow Leopard, it seems a bit extreme to install from that and then upgrade to I suppose it would have to be Mavericks, which I'm a bit leary of since the WD issue, as the internal disk is I believe WD.

Alternatively if Mavericks is OK with WD internal disks can I download that to do a completely fresh install which completely wipes what else was there?

Thoughts and advice please (update - mid typing new toy arrived courtesy of UPS )

 

[Bear]

...
Alternatively if Mavericks is OK with WD internal disks can I download that to do a completely fresh install which completely wipes what else was there?
...

The WD issue was with WD software that people had loaded on to use with the external drives. There is no Mavericks issue with WD drives.

You can download Mavericks and create a USB installer. Alternatively, restore the system with the restoration disks including iLife applications, then use software update to bring it to 10.6.8 and then upgrade to Mavericks via the App Store. Make sure you use(create if needed) an AppleID that belongs to the person the system is going to.

 

[TheyCallMeBT]

Yeah, make a bootable USB drive with the Mavericks installer. It's really easy. Here's the directions in the link below. I just did it with an old MBP a family member bought. I wiped it to 0's first in case she were to give it away later. If I were selling to a non family member, I would probably go ahead and do the full DoD compliant wipe. Those are all options in Disk Recovery, which will be on the bootable drive.

http://mashable.com/2013/10/23/clean-install-os-x-mavericks/

Note that they won't have iLife. That's just something they'll have to take as part of it. iPhoto and iMovie are each $15 on the App Store.

 

[Tumbleweed666]

Thanks BT, I'm going to do that right now, (this is first post on my new iMac )

p.s. I thought that iWork and iLife were now free on Mavericks?

 

[Bear]

Thanks BT, I'm going to do that right now, (this is first post on my new iMac )

p.s. I thought that iWork and iLife were now free on Mavericks?

Free with new computers. Or if you have the previous version installed on your computer.

 

[TheyCallMeBT]

Thanks BT, I'm going to do that right now, (this is first post on my new iMac )

p.s. I thought that iWork and iLife were now free on Mavericks?

Yeah, I'm not fully up to speed on the fine print on that. I think you get iWork with any new computer purchase, and I think it backdates it to some time in Oct.

Then with iWork, I think you get free updates to the latest version if you have it installed. But otherwise, you have to buy it.

So neither one will come with it when you wipe the disk and install the fresh OS. I'm just glad that Mavericks is free-- that made the process much easier.

 

[Tumbleweed666]

That process all worked, so thanks, there is an interesting glitch near the end which isn't mentioned on that website but is on one other one I found.

You get to a part when it says "about 1 second left". Then it seemingly hangs. It can take 10-20 minutes for it to move on from that point, its easy to think it has hung and give up and restart the whole process. Luckily having another computer I was able to google and find this issue, as I came close to rebooting before it finished.

I've now copied across iWork and iLife from the TM backup and am updating those. Not quite sure what happens when that computer is associated with a new AppleID I'm hoping the programs remain eligible for future updates.

I've posted another Q here to ask about that..