Originally posted by: Shivetya
I have a WD external harddrive.
I need to protect the following information.
Folders are easy part, I can just copy them off I assume.
Oh, man, I am the right guy for this... i have had to back up and restore my stuff so many times (Windows uninstall and install issues for the most part)
What about installed applications (er, like WOW?) Can I just copy the folder out of the Applications folder and then copy it back when I am done formatting?
That should be just fine. Most applications will store all their needed information in their .app file (the icon for each app that is in the Applications folder is actually a folder, wherein is contained the application files and whatnot)
Firefox. This looks a little more annyoing. It stores stuff in odd places.
Mail. Where or where is this at?
IIRC, you copy the Firefox folder out of /Library/Application Support, though honestly your best bet for the both of these would be to copy the whole Library out of the system, both yours and the system Library. so, /Library and /Users/
YourName/Library
Then, you reinstall OS X, and can look up more specifically what you needed to have backed up, and then just copy those files back to their locations (after you have run system update for a while) that is what I used to do, and the best part was once OS X was installed I could just copy everything back to the starting points, I restarted to be safe, and my system was the same as it was pre-format (and since the format was usually do to a partitioning error, I could get away with that)
Pictures - figure I can just copy the folder
Yep, and if all your pictures are in your iPhoto Library folder within Pictures, that will make it easier... just grab that and go.
and finally....
I put the CD/DVD in and how do I use that to install a fresh copy of OS X?
Once you have everything backed up, and honestly if you have the space and time, just back up everything... you never know what one little folder you will forget to copy... so for the sake of your sanity, just copy everything.
Once it is all backed up, drop the disk in the drive, restart the computer, and then hold 'C' as it comes back on. Keep holding it until you get to the OS X install screen (the big problem is that the loading screen for the OS X install is the same as OS X... its annoying)
Once you are there, you can run Disk Utility (
just hunt around the menu bar at the top) to partition the drive if you like, or run a 35 pass Drive Zero-ing if that is your thing (Bear in mind that it takes about 1min/1GB/1pass So a 250GB hard drive, in a 35 pass zeroing would take almost year... unless i screwed up something 
[/i) or not run Disk utility its up to you.
Then quit disk utility if you had it open, and start to run the installer. I would recommend that when you get to I think Step 3, that you go through and uncheck anything you don't want installed. I for instance picked up iLife 08, so i didn't need it to install iLife 06. I also didn't want the Word 04 Trial, the iWork 06 Trial, the extra languages, and other things like that. I did however leave in the printer drivers since finding them from the manufacturer can be a pain at times.
Once you have chosen what to install, go ahead and install it, and let it do its thing.
If you have any other questions, you can reply here, to PM, or search on Google, it is your friend and is here to help
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