Cleaning my mac mini

how to clean my mac mini

Which Mac Mini model do you have? > How to identify iMac models
What do you want to clean....? The outside, the inside, all the data off the Hard Drive....?

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HT2487 how do I clean my mac mini and get rid of old files and clutter please

how do I clean my mac mini and get rid of old files and clutter lease

Try using one of these applications to see what is taking up your hard drive space.
File Scanner - OmniDiskSweeper Requires 10.8 or better
File Scanner – Whatsize

How do I clean off mac mini for resale

I recently bought an iMac and am going to sell my Mac mini. The only thing on there are my pics and iTunes. Is there anything special I need to do when it comes to deleting those items before getting rid of the computer?
thanks.

You can actually just shut down your system safely when you get to that point. Hold down the power button for 3-5 seconds and the system will power down/shut off.
When the new owner boots the machine it'll proceed directly to the system setup as if the machine was turned on for the first time. Presuming you performed an erase and install.
We all at some point upgrade from our present Macs to newer state of the art Macs. For example upgrading from a 17" PowerBook G4 to a 17" MacBook Pro.
Macs have a high resale value and people are always looking for a second system, a system for their children, or looking for a bargain. Remember to include the restore disks, user manuals, accessories, etc., that came with your system when you first bought it.
One of the things that make a Mac special is the high resale value. It is also how many new users, "switchers" experience their first Mac. 9 out of 10 those buyers will purchase a new Mac down the road obviously because of the Mac itself but also because of their buying experience.
They always remember their first Mac and their actual buying experience, so make it as if you were buying the system. What would you consider when buying from a complete stranger and what would you want and how would you want to be treated?
Good Luck!

Installed Time Capsule, now want to delete/clean files from mac mini HD, is there an easy way to do this?

I've installed Time Capsule and using Time Machine backed up all my files from my Mac Mini (mid 2010) and verified they're there, now, as nervous as I am to do this, I want to clean/delete all the files on my mac mini hard drive, is there an easier and faster way than just moving to trash and deleting them? Looks like that can take hours.
My intention is to use the Time Capsule as a Hard drive so I can clean my Mac Mini hd since it was reaching capacity.
Thanks!

Ok, I just googled how to format my external hard drive to Mac OS extended (Journaled), no problem, understood.
Bear with me, I'm not too computer savvy, then connect to my mac mini, copy all my files to that ext. hd, then in system pref for the TC don't add to exclude?
I don't think I want to keep that also permanently connected to TC as then I'm backing two hardrives?

Help connect my new Mac Mini with my stubborn HP Printer!

I just got a used, but cleaned up Mac Mini. My HP Deskjet 6980 printer, worked flawlessly with my old G4. Right out of the box, i didn't need to install a driver, i just hooked up the USB ( most simple of the 3 connection options), and it worked fine. Now that i have a new Mac Mini, i hooked it up, it recognizes the HP printer in System Prefs, but when i try to print i just get page after page of strange code. I installed the printers' installatin cd (which, i didn't even need on my first computer), and It still won't print. Again when i hit "print"... just endless code.
What can I do. I am not totally computer computer literate or familiar with all the terminology, so please, keep it simple. Thanks so much for your help.

You don't say, but first thing we need to know is whether you have a G4 Mini or and Intel Mini. (Intel Mini has 4 USB ports on back, G4 has 2 USB ports.)
If you have an Intel Mini, odds are you need to download the latest drivers for Mac OSX 10.4 (Tiger) from the HP site. The drivers on the old CD probably won't work right with an Intel Mac. And you may have to uninstall all the HP stuff you have already installed from the CD.

My mac mini will not shutdown with either Mavericks or Yosemite (following a clean install)

First noted while running Mavericks, my Mac-Mini will not shutdown. It just hangs on a black screen with the little icon. I created a clean user account and the problem went away. Rather than do a fresh install of Mavericks, I waited until Yosemite came out. I reformatted the drive and did a fresh Yosemite install. I then restored my apps and data only to find the problem is still present. I've also tried stopping many of the applications I would normally expect might cause the problem with no luck. And I tried the one Yosemite suggestion regarding deleting the Library/Caches folder content with no luck.
My naive question: following the fresh install of Mavericks, should I have done a re-install of my (very many) applications instead of a restore from an image?
I've tried looking at the system logs after I've forced a shutdown with the power button but there's nothing I could find that shows any problems.
Any other suggestions of things to try would be appreciated.

Hi,
Thanks.
It is running 10.5.8.
I am trying to boot up an external drive with 10.5.8 on it. It works on my Macbook Pro which is running 10.5.8, runs on my IMAC running SL. But doesnt work on the mac mini?
It had been running SL, however there are a number of programs I have like Windows Live Sync which are not yet compatable with SL so i downgraded to 10.5.6 which came with the Mac Mini then loaded all updates.
It seems to just go into an auto reboot as soon as i click on it.
i thought it might be the firmware? Is it possible to downgrade them and then re-install?
I have reset the PRAM.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks

Help! limewire will not work on my Mac mini 10.4.11 now that i cleaned it

Help! LimeWire will not work on my Mac mini 10.4.11 now that i cleaned it out and had to get the new LimeWire. It keeps asking for Java 1.6 but I'm having no luck. :O( LimeWire was the reason I bought a Mac!

Very weird day in Firefoxland
First on a Powerbook G4 running 10.4.11 I respond to an invitation to upgrade to Firefox 4 (like a lot of others). Long story short, I wind up losing the browser altogether -- including all bookmarks. Why? Because neither the Firefox homepage (or CNET downloads) makes it clear that 4.0 is for OS 10.5 only! Amazing!
Then I try to register to post a reply in a thread that crits Firefox for not making this System Requirements info upfront clear. But the Register page I’m taken to (https://support.mozilla.com/bs/users/register) is in SERBO-CROATIAN!!
Then I try to log into Chat a couple of times and when it’s not CLOSED its a long line waiting and THEN it closes.
WOW!! Are the wheels off the wagon here or what!?!

How to change startup disk for a 2012 Mac mini with dual HDD and clean installed with Windows 8.1?

Hi,
I have a Mac-mini (late 2012 model), originally with Mac OS X Maverick Server installed (with two HDD). Recently, I had clean installed Windows 8.1 on one of the HDD (worked perfectly, just slow) and swapped the other HDD (with Mac OSX) with a SSD. I then cloned the Windows OS HDD in to the new SSD. Now I am trying to boot this Mac mini from this SSD, however, since this Mac mini do not have BIOS for me to change the boot sequence at the startup, is there any one can help?
Thank you,
Liusc

If you boot with the Option key depressed what boot options are shown?
Also:
Restart your computer
After Windows is installed, you can switch between OS X and Windows. Use the Startup Disk preference pane in OS X, or the Boot Camp system tray item in Windows to select your startup disk, then restart your computer
How to install Windows using Boot Camp - Apple Support

How to remove preinstalled files of adobe photoshop from my mac mini so that i can install a new version of the same software.The previous version was removed using the app cleaner software.Could not continue installation bcoz of earlier files

How to remove preinstalled files of adobe photoshop from my mac mini so that i can install a new version of the same software.The previous version was removed using the app cleaner software.Could not continue installation of the new version because of the existance of files from the previous version.plz help

What "app cleaner software" ? I ask because installing Photoshop over a previous version has never been a problem. Perhaps your difficulty stems from another source, eg. "cleaner software" ?
If you look in your hard drive, at the root level there is a Library. In there is a folder called Application Support, and in that you will find a folder called Adobe. Files from your previous version are there.
However, I urge you to call Adobe support to make sure you are not doing anything that would mess up other Adobe applications.
http://www.adobe.com/support/connect/connecthostedsupport.html

Clean Install on Mac Mini Server

I just purchased a Mac Mini Snow Leopard Server and used Target Mode from my MacBook Pro to repartition the disks. I first thought I would set up the 2 disks in the Mac Mini as RAID Mirrored. I tried to perform a clean install of Snow Leopard with the install DVD in my MacBook Pro. But the OS Install program would not let me past the restart stage because the computer with the Optical Drive was a laptop. I left the Firewire connection in tack and the DVD in the MacBook Pro's optical drive.
I then tried the Remote Install procedure, with a monitor & keyboard, while holding down the C key, but all I got was a folder with a "?" on my monitor. I also tried a startup using the "option" key and the "shift" key. I tried this again with the Firewire connection removed. I then tried to use Server Assistant on my MacBook Pro and complete a Remote Install. Still no luck, folder with "?" on the monitor, and Server Assistant could not find the Mac Mini Ethernet address.
I concluded that the RAID configuration was causing me the problem and used Target Mode to remove the RAID configuration and repartitioned the 2 disks into 2 partitions each, for various purposes. I then repeated all of the attempts above to reinstall Snow Leapord Server Software with the same results as above.
Can anyone give me some guidance?

Page 38 of the manual http://manuals.info.apple.com/enUS/Mac_mini_Late2009_SL_ServerUG.pdf has worked like a charm. Follow the steps here.
Hope this helps

Why is my mac so slow i have cleansed and cleaned it is a 2010 mac mini i5 but it runs like a 20 year old pc i have only had it for a few months and it was straight out of the box

why is my mac so slow i have cleansed and cleaned it is a 2010 mac mini i5 but it runs like a 20 year old pc i have only had it for a few months and it was straight out of the box

I'm thinking that you have a > Mac mini (Mid 2011) - Technical Specifications because the 2010 model's only have Core 2 Duo processors and the 2011 had the first i5 processor.
2 GB of RAM is the minimum requirement for Mountain Lion, but it's hardly enough to really enjoy doing anything else.
see > Memory and Free Installation Guides for Apple Mac Mini
Plus I don't have any problems running Mountain Lion and a load of App's on my 2010 Mac Mini with 8GB of RAM.

Clean install Mountain Lion on Mac mini Server (Mid 2011)

Hi.
I am trying to do a clean install of ML on a Mac Mini Server. This is just a test machine, so not interested in any backups, etc.
The machine is a Mid 2011 Mac Mini, and had Lion Server on it to start with (has been re-installed, reimaged, etc multiple times in it's short life with me so far ..)
I would like to set the internal disks up as a Software Raid 1 config.
I have a successfully created and tested USB stick with OS X ML install on it. I boot the mini with the USB stick, and once the installer options are available, I use the disk utility to create my software raid 1 config. Once this is completed, I proceed with the rest of the install.
Before I can go any further, I am warned that the installer will NOT be able to create a recovery partition, and use time machine backups on this drive.
If I break the raid and install on either one of the drives, the install proceeds without any problems.
Is there a method I can use to do a clean install on this machine with the drives configured as RAID 1?

This is the message that would happen with Lion, see this: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4649
Basically when you setup a Raid 0/1, the Lion and Mt. Lion installer won't/can't create a recovery partition.
When you boot from a recovery partition you have access to certain tools, e.g. Disk Utility to restore a Time Machine back up, redownload the OS, etc.
The recovery partition provides a certain bit of convenience but isn't absolutely necessary to run the OS. When you see the message, doesn't it let you go ahead with the install, accepting that no recovery partition will be created?
If you need some of the recovery partition tools, you have a bootable USB stick as well as a backup of the Mt. Lion installer, no?

3 x Mac minis, with external superdrives, incapable of importing a CD cleanly. ***?

I have three mac minis, each without internal drive, rack mounted in sonnet rack mac enclosures. Each one is directly connected to macbook air superdrives - as sold to me by the mac dealer.
None of these units is capable of importing a CD of any kind cleanly. They all skip the first couple of seconds of a track or play it a few times. I have tested all systems by swapping out the superdrives but always the same thing. Currently the only way to import music on these machines is to import the CD on the desktop mac then put the tracks on to a USB drive.
What do I do?
The minis are only about 4 months old, as are the superdrives. They all have Lion installed.
It's important that they have CD drives as they are primarily used for audio playback.

Hi Woodmeister
They are 2.3GHz Intel i5 machines with no internal CD drive. They have 2Gb ram and are running OSX 10.7.2.
The Macbook air superdrive is plugged in directly to to the back of the mini.
I thought it might just be a bad import but for each disk the errors seem to be fairly consistent across all the computers even using different disks, different drives and different minis. I haven't yet got a successful full import of a CD. It usually messes up the beginning of the first track (by going backwards and forwards over the same bit over and over), and then again about 5-6 tracks in of a normal CD (same thing). It doesn't seem to make a difference whether it's a bought or burned CD.
I have used iTunes, QLab, and Finder to import the CDs and it's always the same.
Thanks

Impossible to do a clean install in new mac mini server! Or is it?

Hi all, well totally frustrated but smiling here... I just unboxed two mac mini servers mid 2011s, and got part way setting them both up, up to gettting Open Directory Master and Replica to work. But then one machine started acting flakey so I did a permissions check and there was a bunch of stuff fixed. However, that box then refused to boot. So I did the reasonable thing:
1) booted to recovery partiion to start over - and while there tried to change the crazy outofbox configuration of two 500gb drives into something more managagble - I wanted case-senseitive on a partition to run webservers. But DU would not let me do anything with the drive.
2) Okay, I just booted up on a lion clone I had, and ran DU from another recovery partition. Adjusted the drives the way I wanted them... fine.
3) Rebooted into recovery partition, this time to do a clean install and I was greeted with this:
The install finally died, and after trying again, I get some error about identification information and to call applecare. ha! I live in village in Nepal, and that's not gunna happen easily.
4. So, I take a clone of the other server and clone back to the broken one and try to rid the server of any remenants of the cloned one, but I am thinking this is not going to fly. For example, I can't get Open Directory to work anymore...and that's probally just the tip of the iceberg... I need a clean install - BUT HOW?
This crazy new apple fulfillment system is getting me down....
thx!

I had a similar problem, and my solution probably isn't going to help you now. I imaged one of the machines straight out of the box with disc utility and a Firewire 800 cable. I then copied that image onto the second drive of the machine so I could always do I clean install and I needed it quite often.
My only suggestion is either to wait the week for the thing to download, image that or see if your supplier can image a server for you and you can then restore from that.
Sorry can't be of more help

ML clean install on 2013 Mac Mini - not working

Hello guys,
I have a weird problem with my new Mac Mini. I received it yesterday, the first thing I wanted to do was to format "Macintosh HD" and do a clean install of Mountain Lion using a bootable USB. I will be using the computer only for audio composing / mixing and I don't want any pre-installed junk on it. I've done this numerous times with other Macs in the past. However, when I try to boot using the Mountain Lion USB, it gives me a "prohibited sign" and I can't boot from it. Then, I tried to boot with the Mountain Lion recovery partition and re-install Mountain Lion through there, but I can't format the internal HDD using Disk Utility, most likely because the recovery partition is also on that hard drive? I've tried several things, without success:
Repair disk (permissions)
Reset PRAM / NVRAM
Make bootable USB's using Disk Utility, Lion Disk Maker and Carbon Copy Cloner
I imagine if I could boot into recovery mode and format the HDD from there, it would work using online recovery, but how can I format the HDD when the recovery partition is also on this HDD? And why doesn't the Mac Mini accept the Mountain Lion installer USB in the first place? Or does the installer not recognize the Mac Mini? Very confused, any help would be appreciated.
Best regards,
JPeters86 / NL

If your Mac mini has a fusion drive, it shipped with a "special Fusion Drive only" version of Mountain Lion. While the difference is apparently mainly a Fusion Drive aware version of Disk Utility, no other version of Mountain will boot your mini. However, you should be able to reinstall a working copy of Mountain Lion complete with all the apps you did not want by doing a Cold boot (boot from a powered off condition) while holding down the Commd+R keys and performing the reinstallation from the Recovery drive. An internet connection is required.
If by any chance you erased or reformatted the entire drive, thereby deleting the Recovery partition, you can still recover by holding down Option+Command+R during the reboot. This will force a reboot via the internet and will be a lot slower, but you should still be able to install a functional copy of Mountain Lion this way.
Hopefully the two streams of OS X will merge in Maverick.

Cleaning my mac mini

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