Selling my macbook, have a few questions!

So I am planning to sell my 17 inch MBP very soon to replace it with the new 15 inch version, I am unfamiliar with Mac OSX so I was wondering if there was any way of backing up my information and apps and then restoring them on the new MBP? Also how do I format it to make it brand new for the buyer?

 

- Get an External Hard-Drive or USB Key.
- Make a TimeMachine partition (on external drive), do a whole system backup on it.
- To format old MBP just insert CD and re-install system (you'll get prompt for format).
- On new MBP, import data from timemachine partition (you may be asked old MBP administrator password). And you're done !

Hope this helps

 

Pretty much easy as pie. truekiller28 is spot on about the backup process.

My only advice to add would be to have a second backup of your important docs, pics, etc, just in case. You can *never* have too many backups, in case something goes wrong.

 

thanks for the help guys. I will get right to it...one last question. What if I don't have a Mac OSX CD? because mine just came installed with OSX Lion, no CD was provided.

 

You should be able to contact Apple, prove to them that you own the machine, and they should be able to send you a copy. This is what I heard though, since I personally don't own any Apple computers.

 

Actually, Apple didn't include installation DVDs with systems that came preinstalled with Lion. That is completely normal and, to the best of my knowledge, Apple isn't giving out installation DVDs for Lion. You don't need them though. With Lion, you just have too boot from the recovery partion. You will have all of the same options as if you were booting from an installation DVD. You can reformat the hard drive, perform a clean install, etc. Either way, you don't need to contact Apple for any DVDs as they will tell you to use the recovery partition.

 

don't use time machine to set up your new machine right away. I have used migration assistant and even apple recommends that as well.

 

That's what Time Machine does when setting up a new system from a backup on a different machine. You make the Time Machine backup on the older Mac, get the new Mac, turn it on, and then use the Migration Assistant (which comes up when the Mac is first booted) which relies on the Time Machine backup from the older Mac. I don't think anyone here has advised the OP to restore their Time Machine backup onto the new Mac. Even Time Machine will give a few warnings not advising people to do that.

 

Wait so I shouldn't use time machine? Now I'm confused lol


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Yes, use Time Machine to create a backup of your current Mac. Then, when you get the new one, it will ask you if you want to migrate programs, documents, etc. over from a previous Mac. Say yes and then point the Migration Assistant to the Time Machine backup of your older Mac. What shriek is talking about is a little different. They are advising you to not restore your previous Mac's Time Machine backup onto your new Mac through Time Machine.

It can be a little confusing. Either way, you definitely want to create a backup of your current Mac through Time Machine. Then just migrate (not restore) everything over to the new Mac using that Time Machine backup. Your Mac will give you the option of doing so when you first turn it on.

 

It can be a little confusing as I have seen Geniuses advise hwo you can exactly copy a system from an old mac to a new one when migration assistant isn't actually a clone of your old mac. Only at a recent visit a month back did I see them mention anything about the Migration Assistant.

From my experience, the best thing to do is to start your machine from scratch and install all of the programs to avoid any old machine settings to cause any problems. I was having a page file problem (older machine was 500 gb while this one is 120 gb) when I used time machine to port over programs.

 

If you can, get your new Mac first, then, through Migration Assistant, simply move your old stuff from your old Mac to the new one. I think you should be able to do it over a network.

 

Well I am going to do the whole time machine then use migration assistant with it instead of using time machine to restore the backup, thanks for all the help guys. Also I can't do it after I get my new mac because the buyer needs the mac now lol. And I don't know when the new MBP's will release but I am just getting ready in any case.

 

Well, at least you will have a couple of beefy systems to use until you get your new MBP.