Starting Afresh

[speed12]

Hey,

I'm looking to make a clean install on my iMac as unfortunately OSX is doing some pretty random things (like program features literally falling off the face of the planet!). So yeah, I'm looking to basically do a totally clean install and have a couple of questions.

First off, I'm literally looking to start totally afresh, so documents, music etc I will be transferring, but settings I will just make a note of and start from scratch (to make sure any bad whatevers dont get transferred over). So I know how to move the docs and music etc over, but was wondering where three things are kept:

1) Calendars for iCal
2) E-mails (although I use googlemail in Mail so if I'm right it will all be on the server yes?)
3) Contacts

Or would it be easier to simply sync back my iPhone after the install?

Finally, I will probably be selling my iMac in the next month for a MacBook, so will want to do an "as new" install....does doing a clean install revert back to the screen you get when you first buy a mac?

I'm sure thats as clear as mud but any help appreciated!

Cheers

 

[LZrees123]

Saving iCal and Address Book is easy.

Backup iCal

For saving Mail, maybe I'm mistaken but I believe the only way to do this is to save the actual Mail folders. I know this works because I've done this myself quite a few times. The folder you want to save, and then replace on your new formated system is: users/your_user_folder/library/mail <-- that entire folder. That folder contains all your mail messages etc. For example on my computer that folder is over 1GB in size. I believe I also save the Mail preference files in the Preferences folder in the user/library folder.

Backup Address Book

And yes, when you do a clean install the Mac will be like it was when it was new. If you want to be 100% sure that no data can be recovered, you'll want to do boot from your OSX CD, Open Disk Utility, and then Securely Erase your Disk

Sorry for all the videos but it's easier than writing it up..probably for the both of us. Hope all this helps.

 

[speed12]

sorry for taking ages to reply! Brilliant, that was fantastically helpful! Cheers!