How do I bring my 3 year old macbook pro back to "factory new" condition but install my Mt. Lion from a flashdrive?

I have a mid 2009 MacBook Pro with Mt. Lion installed, but I have accumulated so many files that I would like to start over with a fresh machine, but using Mt. Lion which I have on a flash drive. I am not worried about backup because my important files are on dropbox. I just can't seem to get to the point where the machine is like new. Do I have to start with the old original OS X install disks?

Well Factory New would be with the original version of OS X.
What you want is a Clean install of ML.
Boot from the flash drive that has the ML install files on it. Open Disk Utility and Erase the Macintosh HD partition. Exit out of DU and select Rinstall Mac OS X. When it is done you wil have a clean fresh copy of ML installed.

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I have a 2 year old macbook pro os x 10.5.8 want to upgrade to lion

I have a 2 year old macbook pro os x 10.5.8 want to upgrade to lion

Mountain Lion Requirements:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5444
App Compatibility:
http://roaringapps.com/
Check both above first. Then call Apple Sales & have them send you a retail Snow Leopard Disk(US $29)...there is no download. Update to 10.6.8, then go to Mountain Lion or Lion if you like(US $19).
Don't know if Apple is still selling Lion...you'll have to ask Apple sales when you call. You need Snow Leopard to get the Mac app store where you can then purchase Mountain Lion...Lion is no longer available in the store.

My one year old macbook pro is full. : ( How can I see what's taking up all the GB?

My one year old macbook pro is full already. : ( How can I see what's taking up all the space? I cannot download anymore pictures. It's running slower than usual.

OmniDiskSweeper (free) - http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnidisksweeper/download/
Archive files onto other media until your hard drive has at least 10% of its total size free, or at least 15+ GB at all times.

I just upgraded to Maverick on my2 year old Macbook Pro and it has slowed down the computer terribly. All I see is that whirling circle every time I do anything. How do I go back to old OS. Terrible upgrade -- forces you to buy a new Mac!!!!

I just upgrade to Maverick on my 2 year old MacBook Pro and it has slowed down the computer terribly. All I see every time I do anything is that crazy circle going round and round. I don't recommend you upgrading. How do I get rid of it. I believe it forces you to buy a new macbook!!!!

It does not. First things first have you tried restarting?
Try restting PRAM
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379
Try booting up in Safe Mode
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1455
Also open "activity monitor" and look and see what is using a lot of processing power.

HT1444 How can I upgrade the OS on my 5 year old MacBook Pro 17. It is currently running 10.4 (Tiger). I have an IMac 27 running Lion but have Snow leopard discs which came with the purchase. Can these be used to upgrade?

How can I upgrade the OS on my 5 year old MacBook Pro 17. It is currently running 10.4 (Tiger). I have an IMac 27 running Lion but have Snow leopard discs which came with the purchase. Can these be used to upgrade?

Buswab wrote:
How can I upgrade the OS on my 5 year old MacBook Pro 17. It is currently running 10.4 (Tiger). I have an IMac 27 running Lion but have Snow leopard discs which came with the purchase. Can these be used to upgrade?
If they are the grey discs which came with the iMac, then they will be machine specific and will not work on the MBP anyway. You will need to purchase a retail copy of Snow Leopard from the Apple Store for about $29 and upgrade from that. I presume your MBP is Intel and not G4.
Good Luck
Pete

How can i make more room on my 6-year old MacBook Pro?

How can I make more room on my 6-year old MacBook Pro? I already have an external hard drive.

Two options:
Delete files from your Home folder you no longer use or need (but do not delete anything from the /Home/Library/ folder.)
Buy and install a larger hard drive. You can find suitable drives at OWC. You would need a 2.5" notebook drive that is SATA II or SATA I compatible - 1.5 or 3.0 Gb/s.

How to get audio to tv from 4 year old macbook pro

I have a 4 year old macbook pro, i am trying to view it on my samsung tv, i can get video thru the mini port adapter and hdmi cable, but i cant get audio?

If you Macbook Pro is a 2009 model the mini display port does not carry audio. You must use a separate audio cable from your computer's audio out to your TV's audio in.

I have a 3 year old MacBook Pro with MAC OSX 10.6.8, iPhoto '09 version 8.1.2 and have downloaded two software programs: one is Aperture 3.2 and the other is Photoshop Elements 9 (which I got from a friend who didn't need it). I am totally happy with the

I have a 3 year old MacBook Pro with MAC OSX 10.6.8, iPhoto ’09 version 8.1.2 and have downloaded two software programs: one is Aperture 3.2 and the other is Photoshop Elements 9 (which I got from a friend who didn’t need it).
I am totally happy with the way iPhoto organizes my photos and how I can work with iMovie to create slide shows with music from iTunes, etc.
I have been shooting mostly high resolution jpegs and I continue to learn more and more about photography, post processing etc. I realize that the small adjustments I can make in iPhoto are good, and are adequate most of the time. However, a have started to experiment with shooting RAW images and would like to go the next step, ie. post processing.I am totally technically challenged and need SIMPLE, INTUITIVE programs and am certainly NOT anywhere ready for Photoshop CS whatever!
After having these programs sit on my computer, I decided to try to see if I could figure them out. When I opened Aperture, this is what first comes up.
“Welcome to Aperture 3.2
Your library needs to be upgraded to work with this version of Aperture. Once upgraded, you will not be able to use this library with previous versions of Aperture.
Upgrading a library from previous versions of Aperture 3 generally takes a few minutes or less, though larger libraries will take longer. After that, Aperture 3.2 will upgrade your library's thumbnails, but you can use the application during that time.
Tip: To open a different library, quit Aperture and hold the Option key down while starting Aperture
Current Library Location:
Jadzia (home) -----Pictures------Aperture Library
QUIT UPGRADE”
I have heard horror stories about moving your entire library to Aperture, ending up with 2 libraries, etc. etc. hence my previous reluctance in attempting Aperture. In addition, many of my photography friends are saying: Go with Lightroom 3.....you’ll love it!
So here is my dilemma. I don’t want to mess around with my iPhoto library. All I want to be able to do, is to isolate a few photos, export them to Aperture, Elements, and work on them there, then bring them back into iPhoto.
Can I do this? Should I forget about Aperture and Elements and look at purchasing yet another program like Lightroom?

Export those few photos via the File ➙ Export ➙ File Export menu option with Kind = Original to the Desktop. Then import them into the Aperture library. That would keep one copy in your iPhoto library and another in your Aperture library to edit, etc.
You can use Photoshop Elements 9 from within iPhoto as your editor of choice. However, if you edit a raw file in iPhoto with PSE9 the resulting edited version must be saved outside the iPhoto Library and imported back in as a new file. For editing jpegs just do a Save (not a Save As) and it all will be kept within iPhoto.
Using Photoshop or Photoshop Elements as Your Editor of Choice in iPhoto.
1 - select Photoshop or Photoshop Elememts as your editor of choice in iPhoto's General Preference Section's under the "Edit photo:" menu.
2 - double click on the thumbnail in iPhoto to open it in Photoshop. When you're finished editing click on the Save button. If you immediately get the JPEG Options window make your selection (Baseline standard seems to be the most compatible jpeg format) and click on the OK button. Your done.
3 - however, if you get the navigation window
that indicates that PS wants to save it as a PS formatted file. You'll need to either select JPEG from the menu and save (top image) or click on the desktop in the Navigation window (bottom image) and save it to the desktop for importing as a new photo.
This method will let iPhoto know that the photo has been editied and will update the thumbnail file to reflect the edit..
NOTE: With Photoshop Elements the Saving File preferences should be configured as shown:
I also suggest the Maximize PSD File Compatabilty be set to Always. In PSE’s General preference pane set the Color Picker to Apple as shown:
Note: to switch between iPhoto and PS or PSE as the editor of choice Control (right)-click on the thumbnail and select either Edit in iPhoto or Edit in External Editor from the contextual menu. If you use iPhoto to edit more than PSE re-select iPhoto in the iPhoto General preference pane. Then iPhoto will be the default editor and you can use the contextual menu to select PSE for your editor when desired.
OT

My 3 year old Macbook Pro is getting slow..

Hello, i have a 3 year old Macbook Pro which have been great use to me. When i first purchased it, the boot up time was extremely fast, and the general speed of the mac was superb. However 3 years later the machine take at least 3 mins to boot up and is pretty slow when i use it to carry out my daily tasks.
It originally came with Tiger but i upgraded to Leopard, basically i'm after advice on how i can increase the speed or how to make my mac as fast as it was 3 years ago. anyway help or information would be greatly appreciated. Many Thanks in advance.

Use a Utility like MainMenu or OnyX to clean out the caches, archived and temporary files.
Do a Parameter RAM reset - hold down apple/option/p/r keys at start up and wait for three chimes before releasing the keys.
Use Disc Inventory X to examine your hard drive and see a) if there's anything there taking a lot of space you can delete and b) that you still have 10%+ free space.
Consider doing a clean install of the OS and all Applications, it's a lot of work but is the one sure way of "starting over"

I have a 2 year old MacBook Pro and the superdrive has stopped working, it won't take discs in as if there is one already inside but iTunes or the dvd player doesn't recognise that there is a disc inside and if there is it can't be ejected

I have a 2 year old MacBook Pro and the superdrive has stopped working, it won't take discs in as if there is one already inside but iTunes or the dvd player doesn't recognise that there is a disc inside and if there is it can't be ejected, i have tried shutting down and restartinf while holding down the trackpad, as recommended on some forums but that has done nothing
It might be a huge coincidence but the drive was working fine before i installed lion?

Installing Lion would not cause the superdrive to stop working. Are you unsure as to whether or no a cd/dvd is inside? Something may be broken inside and you should consider bringing it in for service.

All of a sudden my 3 year old macbook pro screen is blurred - I can hardly read the words - any ideas?

All of a sudden the screen on my 3+ year old macbook pro has blurred badly - I can hardly read the words - any ideas?

You likely didn't erase the ENTIRE drive of the later OS X operating system before installing Snow Leopard. You just targeted the Macintosh HD partition.
Try again, this time make sure to select the name and size of your boot drive at the top to catch the hidden EFI partition that's responsible for the splash screen at boot time (no screen = white)
It will take two reboots to reset the EFI again, so once Snow is installed and reboots, reboot again.
How to erase and install Snow Leopard 10.6
How to revert your Mac to Snow Leopard
Restoring firmware on Intel Mac's

I just tried to wake up my 4 year-old MacBook Pro after perhaps an hour of inactivity, and it just 'pinwheels' and won't restart. HELP!!!!!!!!!

I just tried to wake up my 4 year-old MacBook Pro after perhaps an hour of inactivity, and it just 'pinwheels' and won't restart. HELP!!!!!!!!!
Semi-experienced user - Western New York.
System was operating nominally until I opened it from 'sleep' mode after ~1 hour of inactivity.
No idea what's going on. I had just installed a Flash Player update [not an atypical occurrence] at ~6:00 PM this evening, but used the system without incident after that. Re-Start attempt does not appear to succeed, the circular pre-OS icon never clears and displays the authorization screen.
Anyone with an idea how to help would be greatly appreciated. We have so much personal and business data on this machine!!!
Thanks!
Jim F.

Press and hold the power button for a few seconds until the power shuts off, then release, wait a few more seconds, and press it again briefly to restart.
The fact that you're worried about the data implies that you have no backups, or that you don't have confidence in your backups. Your first priority must be to back up all the data you intend to keep. Ask if you need guidance.

The trackpad on my 4-year-old Macbook Pro barely works anymore. It moves around by itself sometimes, can't scroll, etc. Is there a way to fix this?

The trackpad on my 4-year-old Macbook Pro is completely screwed up. It moves around by itself sometimes, can't scroll, randomly freezes etc. Is there a way to fix this??

Portables and Magic Trackpad: Jumpy or erratic trackpad operation

My 1 year old Macbook Pro won't turn on and won't charge - no power light at all. Any suggestions?

My 1 year old Macbook Pro which ran out of warranty this month on the 3rd of June, won't turn on and when I plug in the charger, there is no charging light and it won't turn on. Can someone tell me what I should do? Has it died? It's only new! And I've never dropped it. Will I loose all my data? Help!

Try here > Troubleshooting: My computer won't turn on
And here > Apple Portables: Troubleshooting MagSafe adapters
Try the help from the suggestions above.
Hopefully it's nothing serious and you have a backup you can restore from if necessary.

Why is the internet faster on my 3-year-old Macbook Pro than on my iPad???

Though I love my iPad, I am puzzled why surfing the web is so much slower on the iPad than on my three-year-old MacBook Pro. I have a cable modem and an airport extreme. Loading the same pages on Safari, the MacBook is much faster than the iPad. Is this normal? Could something be slowing down the connection to the iPad?
Thanks!
Steven

Even a 3 year old MacBook has 4 times the CPU power and about ten times the RAM of an iPad.
You can run speed tests on the iPad and make sure that you don't have a connection problem.

How do I bring my 3 year old macbook pro back to "factory new" condition but install my Mt. Lion from a flashdrive?

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