Selling my '09 15" mbp and getting another mac, how do I transfer?

[jasony0423]

Hello.

I've got a question, and I'm not sure what the best way to go about getting the answer is. I'm selling my 3 month old Macbook pro tonight. This being my first Mac, I love the thing, but recent job loss coupled with a pretty much too good to be true offer make the sale one I'm going to do. A guy is going to trade me his 13" Macbook that is 9 months old, with Applecare for my Pro, plus he's giving me $1,100. Seems like a good deal, so I'm taking it, plus right now the $1,100 will help me out a lot.
So, I want to know if there is some way to return my Pro to factory settings, while still saving all of my info so that I can put everything on the regular mac that I had on my pro. I've searched, but everything talks about returning to factory settings, but no mention of the other stuff I have that I'd like to keep.
I've got mobileme, and I would think that would have something to do with it, I'm just not sure what or how.
Any advice for me?

Thanks.

 

[velocityg4]

Do you have an external hard drive for time machine? You could run a fresh install of Leopard/Snow Leopard and have it move over data and settings from your backup.

You could also manually burn your files to DVD's. Most of your program preferences and e-mail can be copied from your /Boot Volume/Home/Library/Preferences folder. Then drag the files over to your new Macbook. Be sure to check some random files on the DVD's to be sure the backup did not go awry.

If your data is important to you then you should have a backup of some sort.

In either instance you would then be able to perform a clean install of Mac OS X onto the Macbook Pro. Be sure to at least zero the hard drive to prevent recovery of any sensitive files a multi-pass wipe would be even better.

 

[jasony0423]

Do you have an external hard drive for time machine? You could run a fresh install of Leopard/Snow Leopard and have it move over data and settings from your backup.

You could also manually burn your files to DVD's. Most of your program preferences and e-mail can be copied from your /Boot Volume/Home/Library/Preferences folder. Then drag the files over to your new Macbook. Be sure to check some random files on the DVD's to be sure the backup did not go awry.

If your data is important to you then you should have a backup of some sort.

In either instance you would then be able to perform a clean install of Mac OS X onto the Macbook Pro. Be sure to at least zero the hard drive to prevent recovery of any sensitive files a multi-pass wipe would be even better.

No, the only external hard drive I have is actually the internal HD on my desktop pc, so I don't think that would work. In the short time I've had the macbook, I've not put anything on it that is imperative I save it, with the exception of pictures, but they're all on my mobileme album, so I think they're safe. I was mostly just looking for an easy solution, so I don't need to set preferences, enter passwords on sites, etc.
Thanks for the help, though.

 

[tbayrgs]

Have you been backing up your MPB to an external hdd? If so, you should be able to just restore the MacBook from your backup and just wipe the drive on your MPB and reinstall OS X from the install disk before handing it over.