Hard drive wipe/reload question

[TheBiggmann]

A while back I put a post up about seeing a decent performance drop in my MBP, and it was suggested that I back up m harddrive, wipe it, reinstall the operating system, and reload everything. Only problem is, I have no idea where to start as I've never done that before, and I don't have the SL disk, as I bought a license from a kid back at school. Can someone help me out here? Maybe a little instruction or a link to where I can find it at?

 

[TheStu]

IF you don't have the disk, then you are a little SOL.

However, I will give you the instructions anyway, and you can fill in the disk part later.

1: Get external hard drive equal to or larger than your laptop's hard drive (this can also be done with a partition on said external)
2: Run Time Machine, backing up your data to the external
3: Insert Snow Leopard Disk
4: Run Disk Utility from the disk, and erase the laptop drive
5: Install Snow Leopard (I would advise clicking the customize/options button on the screen where you choose the drive it is going to, and deselect printer drivers and languages and whatnot, saves space and time)
6: Once it is done installing, it will ask if you want to import information, select time machine, make sure the external is hooked up, and go hog wild.
7: Do some laundry, go for a run, learn a second/third/eighteenth language as this may take a while.

Shazam.

Another alternative is to replace 'Time Machine' with 'CarbonCopyCloner', and replace 'Restore from Time Machine Backup' with 'Another drive on this computer'.

 

[umrigar]

if you didn't get the original disc, you didn't "buy the license," mate.

you got ripped off.

 

[Billb2]

Magicjellybeans will find your key.

But if your key is in use on to many other installs you may not be able to activate.

Duh! Apple, huh?

 

[TheStu]

Magicjellybeans will find your key.

But if your key is in use on to many other installs you may not be able to activate.

Uh, key?
Activate?

OS X has no keys, and does not activate.

 

[sjwaste]

Just go drop $29 on the SL "upgrade" at the Apple store and go to town using Stu's instructions.

 

[TheBiggmann]

That's what I did. It wasn't some shady upgrade that I got. My ex roommate bought the family upgrade pack and I bought a license off of him. So am I SOL without buying another copy or do you think if I maybe emailed Apple they could help me out? Also with carbon copy cloner and diskutility, is one better than the other? Someone also suggested Onyx back in the day to speed up my system, just not sure what to do with that either.

 

[TheStu]

That's what I did. It wasn't some shady upgrade that I got. My ex roommate bought the family upgrade pack and I bought a license off of him. So am I SOL without buying another copy or do you think if I maybe emailed Apple they could help me out? Also with carbon copy cloner and diskutility, is one better than the other? Someone also suggested Onyx back in the day to speed up my system, just not sure what to do with that either.

I believe that you can actually replicate Carbon Copy Cloner's functionality using Disk Utility, but since I am not entirely sure how, and CCC is free, just use CCC.

As for getting Apple to help you with the whole disk thing... There actually is a proviso in the Family Pack EULA that says (and I am paraphrasing from memory) that it is only valid for family units under the same roof. So, roommates don't count, your sister across town doesn't count, and strictly speaking, the plan that my mom had to get me, her, my friend across town, and my sisters in two separate states a Family Pack wouldn't have counted.

You are out $10 from your friend since he didn't give you a copy of the disk, and if you don't have any friends with an SL disk, then you probably should spend the $30 to get one.

Onyx... I have had mixed luck with this speeding up my system. Have you considered my suggestion from your previous thread? Going into Activity Monitor to see if anything is sucking cycles?

 

[TheBiggmann]

Ok, so if I can find an SL disk I'm good? And yeah I did look at Activity Monitor, the only thing that was using a decent amount of resources was firefox from what I could tell.

 

[TheStu]

Ok, so if I can find an SL disk I'm good? And yeah I did look at Activity Monitor, the only thing that was using a decent amount of resources was firefox from what I could tell.

Did you tell it to show processes from all users?