Oops...pre-install advice, please...

My OS partition on the MBP is about 5G shy of being full. When I got this machine last December, I figured 40G was enough; never thought that Apple OS would be so bloated and big. Well, it is, and I'd like to bump up to Leopard sometime soon, but find myself in a quandary with the amount of space left. I'm sure Leopard won't fit on what I've got left.
SO...what are my options? Is it possible to repartition during the upgrade and spare myself a headache, or am I just hosed? Or is there something wrong with my OS and there's a bunch of hidden stuff I can get rid of? Or...?

Your system looks all absolutely normal. Yes, don't repartition next time - there's no need whatsoever, and it always leads to all sorts of problems exactly like this.
To clone your system disk, it's easy, but read through this first (and other online options if you like - search for 'cloning bootable backup') to reassure yourself you're ready for it, as you will be erasing everything on your disk to do this, so it's not for the faint of heart.
Hook up an external firewire disk and ensure it's formatted as HFS+(Journaled), open Disk Utility, click on your system partition, go to the Restore tab, drag your system disk to the Source field and the Firewire disk to the Destination field, and click Restore. Once the copy to the external disk is complete, select that Firewire disk as your Startup Disk (in System Prefs) and reboot to confirm it all works OK. Your computer will restart from the external drive and should to all intents and purposes appear to be completely normal except a bit slower. Now you can copy all the contents of your 'Media partition' over to the Firewire drive too - put it into a folder in your home folder.
Note that you can also use third-party drive cloners like SuperDuper or CarbonCopyClone to clone your system partition. All options work well, but Disk Utility doesn't cost you anything.
Now, once you're absolutely sure all is working fine from your external cloned drive (maybe run a few apps, browse your iTunes, etc), you can repartition to 1 partition and erase your original laptop drive. This will DESTROY EVERYTHING on that drive, so proceed with caution.
Once that's done, you can use Disk Utility to Restore in the opposite direction as before - using the Source as your Firewire disk and the Destination as your laptop disk. Then reset your Startup Disk to be the laptop drive and now you should have a laptop with a single partition and everything on there. As a side benefit, you now also have a bootable clone of your system disk on the Firewire drive!

Similar Messages

HDD Upgrade on a Late 2006 Mini - Some Pre Op advice please!

Hi there
I'm looking to update the HDD in my Mac Mini (Model MA608LL/A) and would like a bit of advice and to ask a few questions on whether the drives I'm looking at are suitable.
The drives i'm looking at are:
Hitachi Travelstar 7K500 250GB 2.5" SATAII 7200rpm 16MB Cache / Hitachi Travelstar 5K500 250GB 2.5" SATAII 5400rpm 8MB Cache
Seagate ST9250315AS 250GB 2.5" Hard Drive SATAII 5400rpm 8MB Cache / Seagate ST9250410AS 250GB 2.5" Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 16MB Cache
Firstly my concerns are regarding the cache on the drive would the Mac Mini benefit from the having a 16mb cache? The original drive has a 8mb cache on it? Also one of the dives is a 7200rpm drive will the SATA controller on the MIni allow it to run at full speed or will the drive just run at 5400?
Secondly are there any unexpected things I need to know regarding changing the drive? I've built literally hundreds of desktop PC's (I work as a IT Tech at my local high school) and I have successfully taken apart a couple of mini's before to install new RAM so I feel quite confident in my ability to physically do the swap however it's always good to get some advice from people who are more experienced and have actually done this job. Are there any other sensors / cabling that would not need to be considered on a normal HDD swap on a PC? Also are there any specialist tools (other than putty knives!) I would need?
Any advice / warnings will be greatly appreciated.
Cheers
John

More cache on the drive will always be a good idea. The 7200 rpm drives are also a better idea. Neither of these things are effected by the SATA controller in the mini. The controller only asks the drive for data, and the drive itself uses the larger cache and faster rotational speed to hand over that data faster. The only issue that would arise is heat, and many people have upgraded to 7200 rpm drives without any serious issues.
If you want some good visual guides to help you with the upgrade, there are free videos on OWC's website:
http://eshop.macsales.com/installvideos/macmini_06-08_mem_hdopt/
And a very nicely illustrated guide on iFixit.com:
http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repair/Installing-Mac-mini-Model-A1176-Hard-Drive/11 08/1
There are some things to be careful of with respect to cables and drive temperature sensors which will be more obvious and easier to understand by using those visual resources.

Apple Remote Desktop - Pre purchase advice please!

I received a Mac Lab this year and I am looking for the best way to administer it.
Here is what I have available:
1 MacBook (Last gen white)
20 MacBook Pro 13 (New this year)
10 MacPro g5
I use the white MacBook as my main computer (for now).
Questions:
Do I need a server to use ARD?
Will I be able to administer the older G5's?
Can I do it all from my white MacBook?
Is there a better option in the same price range?
Any advice is appreciated.
Thanks,
Jeff

1. No
2. Yes
3. Yes
4. As effective? Not really.

I want to re-install my Pre-Installed Lion Macbook Pro, but I can't get the Lion OS from App Store with my Apple ID. Please help, thanks!

Hi, I want to do a clean re-installation of my end 2011 Macbook Pro which comes with pre-installed Lion OS. I go through the installation steps and after App Store verified my Apple ID, it prompted me that I did not purchase the Lion OS. I am very surprise to see this message which my pre-installed Lion Macbook Pro should have it. Please help and advise how can I get the OS? All other bundle softwares were in the purchase record except the Lion OS.

That was my mistake - sorry - it IS Command-R to boot to the Recovery disk, not Command-D: I either just hit the wrong key or am just now coming awake from my nap.
Let me see if I can just explain it in a few steps - I don't know of any link (but it would make a good User Tip):
Create an up-to-the minute back-up of your internal hard drive using an external hard drive and Time Machine.
Boot to your recovery partion - holding down Command-R on boot.
Use Disk Utility to erase Macintosh HD - use one GUID partition and format as "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)". Unless you're selling the machine, there's no need to do a secure erase (which can take hours).
After you erase the disk, re-install Lion from the same Recovery partition.
After installation is complete, reboot, again holding down the Command-R keys to boot into the Recovery Partition.
Restore your Time Machine back-up. This could take several hours.
Reboot after restore and you're back in business.
That should take care of everything - all you need is an Internet connection.
Call back if I didn't explain things too well - at least I got the Command-R right this time!
Clinton

I keep having the message the software required for communicating with your ipad is not installed correctly please reinstall, I've uninstalled and reinstalled the latest version of itunes 8 times and no luck does anyone have any advice?

I keep having the message the software required for communicating with your ipad is not installed correctly please reinstall, I've uninstalled and reinstalled the latest version of itunes 8 times and no luck does anyone have any advice?

First, for the forum view issue. Go to My Settings (on the right) and in General Settings change the Topic Page View to Flat. Click Save. Posts should show up in the order they were written.
Have you seen this?
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93764
Also, since you said that you've gone through the 5 Rs, I would assume that you used the iPod Updater to restore (since there is no other way of doing it and you don't "run" the 5 Rs).
When you restored, did you use the latest updater?
You may also want to try formatting the iPod through Windows. Connect it to the computer and when it appears in My Computer right click it and go to format. Does anything happen? Can you format the iPod through Windows?
btabz

When i try to download iphoto ( wich was already pre installed when i bought my macpro) it says "These apps cannot be accepted on this computer." HELP ME PLEASE!!!!!! thanks MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.3)

when i try to download iphoto ( wich was already pre installed when i bought my MacBookPro) it says "These apps cannot be accepted on this computer." HELP ME PLEASE!!!!!!
MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.3)

Hey there! So, I already contacted Mac App Store support several times, the response:
- "Apple is currently working toward a resolution for the issue you have reported. You will receive an email after the matter has been investigated and further information is available.
Thank you for your patience. Apple wants your iTunes experience to be as enjoyable as possible"
I answered I really needed it, and if they knew the estimated time it would take to solve the issue. Here's the last response.
- "According to your previous correspondence, you have not been able to install iLife after reinstalling OS X Lion. I understand that this issue is under investigation, and that you would like to know the amount of time needed to find a resolution. As a fellow iTunes customer, I certainly understand that you need to use iPhoto for professional reasons, and I'll gladly help you to resolve this problem.
Unfortunately, I am unable to give you the exact amount of time this issue could take. I do assure you that our engineers are currently working towards a resolution. "
I'm going to an Apple Sotre Genius today, in 2 hours. I'll keep updated!!

I probably misclicked when I activated the security lock on the iPhone and now I can not figure out what password I entered. Moreover, I have patches and funky looking phone so I can not restore iphine pres itunes. Please advice.

I probably misclicked when I activated the security lock on the iPhone and now I can not figure out what password I entered. Moreover, I have patches and funky looking phone so I can not restore iphine pres itunes. Please advice.

Your only recourse is to force it into DFU mode:
Turn your phone off and connect your cable to the computer, but not the device just yet. Start up iTunes. Now, hold down the home button on your phone and plug it in to the cable - don't let go of the button until iTunes tells you it's detected a phone in recovery mode. Now you can restore to factory settings.

IPhoto v9.3.2 = v9.4.2 I feel it unfair and unjustifiable to charge for an upgrade of a pre-installed iphoto programme. Please refer to the above version. This will result in payment on your very bad App Store of £10 Extremely unhappy loyal Mac user!

iPhoto v9.3.2 => v9.4.2
I feel it unfair and unjustifiable to charge for an upgrade of a pre-installed iphoto programme. Please refer to the above version.
This will result in payment on your very bad App Store of £10+
Extremely unhappy loyal Mac user!!!!!!

iPhoto v9.3.2 => v9.4.2
Thank you for your response but in App Store it shows a price of £10+ for this down load.
(This is a free update. Contact with Mac App Store support > http://www.apple.com/support/mac/app-store/contact)
Perhaps you are correct but this is not made clear in the update window of this App Store.

How to make a image file from Pre installed Mac osx ? "PLEASE HELP :("?

hey guys ..Thanks u for the time.
So i have this eMac which has crashed and i have got may hands on another eMac.. and it works
... the only problem is.. I can take my eMac to the working eMac to do Target Mode or any thing...
So Help me..
My question is .. Is there a way to make a .DMG image file from pre installed mac osx OR
Is there a way to may a recovery disc??

You can use Carbon Copy Cloner to copy everything from the working eMac onto the non-working eMac while the working eMac is running. If your eMac will still do target mode into the working one, you can download the above software, select the booted drive as the source drive, and your eMac's drive as the target, however it is possible this will not work.
When you say your eMac crashed, what exactly happened? It is possible that the hard drive in your eMac failed or is failing, so in order to get it running again you would need to replace the hard drive. On the eMac, this repair is somewhat involved, and you have to be very careful because it exposes the CRT, which has several areas which can be extremely dangerous to touch if not properly handled. CRTs retain a great deal of voltage, even when unplugged, sometimes for weeks, and they can give you a nasty shock if you touch them in the wrong place.
Also keep in mind that cloning from the working computer to the non-working computer will ERASE any data that you have stored on that eMac, so if you don't have it backed up anywhere, you may want to attempt that with target mode before proceeding.
Good luck!

With the latest update I get the following error: The update could not be installed. Please make sure there are no other copies of Firefox running on your computer, and then restart Firefox to try again; suggestions, advice, help.

Help>About Firefox> says I am using Firefox/3.6.10./GTB7.1 I get a note from Mozilla that there is an update. I download it after granting permission to change my machine. I say OK. A green bar slides across the monitor announcing that the update is being downloaded. When I then assume it is being installed I get the following error: The update could not be installed. Please make sure there are no other copies of Firefox running on your computer, and then restart Firefox to try again. There are no other copies running. The machine is not on a network. I am using WIN7

Thanks for the info about Trojan. It may be the problem. Meanwhile I went to Admin/Owner side and did some cleaning -- including trying to reload my Favorite/Bookmarks that have always carried forth from previous levels of Windows XP and earlier.
The new computer here did not grab the Bookmarks from the previous, and yesterday I thought I had them loaded, and today went to Worker-Bee side and they are not showing.
About those add-ons... I have no idea, but think I got everything up to date yesterday. I will look at your earlier reply tomorrow or this weekend when I have more time at home to learn from it.
Thank you for your time in helping.
Late here, heading to sleep. Marilyn

Updating N70 - first-timer advice please

First off, I'd better say I've never attempted to update the firmware on any phone before. My T-Mobile Nokia N70's current firmware is – and I hope you're sitting down – v2.0537.1.7, which was out of date when I got the phone around a year ago.
I've downloaded the Nokia software updater and sorted out my phone's connection to the PC, so I'm pretty much ready to go, but just have a few questions - well, concerns really.
I know I need to back up my contacts to the PC and also save any pictures/files in the gallery, but I was wondering what else will be lost when I do it?
I don't mind losing any of the games that came pre-installed (don't know whether by Nokia or T-Mobile), but Adobe reader is useful to me. What programs etc will I lose, and what will stay after I upgrade?
What I'm probably most concerned about, however, is the connection settings. Once I have updated the firmware, will the phone retain the call and SMS/MMS connection settings, which I presume were set by T-Mobile, meaning I will be able to carry on without having to change anything, or will I have to sort them all out?
I guess it's just a case of first-time nerves, but any help or advice anyone can give me would be hugely appreciated.

Basically once you run the Software Updater tool and it upgrades your phone, it will revert to the condition that you got it when you first took it out of its box. So there will be no settings on the phone whatsoever, and any applications that you installed after you bought the phone will not be there anymore - applications that were on there when you bought it (e.g. calculator etc.) will be there.
If you have a memory card, I would recommend that you backup your phone contents to your memory card, and then restore them once the upgrade has been completed. From memory (no pun intended) I think on the N70 you can access the memory card by going to Tools->Memory card - then goto the Options menu and "Backup phone contents to memory card" or something similar. When I did this on my N70 and more recently on my N95 it also restored not only the SMS, MMS settings, but also the applications I had installed too. Once the upgrade process has been completed, you can then go back to the memory card and restore the backup to your phone.
I'm not trying to put the frighteners on you, but be aware that as with any firmware update for any device, there is always the possibility of "bricking" the device - i.e. the firmware upgrade process may go awry and you may be left with a non functioning phone.
Having said that, before Nokia disabled the ability to upgrade the firmware on a phone more than once, I ran the NSU on my N70 about 3 or 4 times and only had one problem - I've also recently upgraded my N95 and the process went flawlessly, however if you rely on your phone for business or emergency use then I would recommend that you make provisions to have another phone available in case it does go wrong.
Please ensure you are running the most recent copy of PC Suite and the NSU before going ahead with the upgrade.
The software updater can be found here : http://www.nokia.co.uk/softwareupdater
The PC Suite program (to create and restore backups) can be found here : http://www.nokia.com/pcsuite
One final word of advice - don't be in a rush when you do the process - it doesn't take a long time (at the most 10 minutes), but if you are in a rush to do this then you may be tempted to disconnect the device before the upgrade has been done - this is a VERY VERY VERY bad thing to do and will definitely turn your phone into a brick - so don't !
During the process itself you may see the screen power up and say "Test mode" - this is fine - just let it carry through and the phone will eventually come back up. If there is a scenario where you've given it half an hour and there's been no joy (e.g. the screen is blank), then take the battery physically out of the phone for 5 minutes then put it back and power the phone back on. If it doesn't come back up then you will have to visit your nearest Nokia Service Centre.
I know I've probably painted quite a negative picture, but as I've said I've upgraded the firmware about 4/5 times successfully and had no problems whatsoever, but it's only fair I paint a balanced picture so you are aware of all the pros and cons of doing this.
Good luck and please let me know how you get on.
Regards,
Edward

Screen flicker on iMac 21.5" (2011, Lion Pre-installed)

My iMac has been purchased a month ago, and probably the first batch in Singapore to be pre-installed with Lion.
I have been experiencing screen flicker since the first week. It's a slight flicker that happens randomly for duration of less than a second, and occurs approximitely three times in an hour. I have slight yellow tinge on my screen, but it's negligible, and I'm not concerned.
During the flicker, the screen does not go completely blank like what many 27" users are experiencing, the flicker resembles the flicker of a candle light.
Is anyone experiencing the same problem? Will a future software update fix this issue?
Although chances are slim, I'm hoping Apple can replace a new set for me. I'm very concern that if they are just going to repair my set, it will take time and it may come back with other problems. I have called Applecare and their advice is for me to bring in to authorised service centre, unfortunately I don't feel confident that they will be able to solve the problem once and for all.

Thanks for taking your time to reply!
I feel relieved knowing that it's not a hardware issue, so I'm definitely not bringing in for any repair, the technicians might just make things worse!
Anyway, something really unfortunate happened when I was trying to do a clean install of Lion. I rebooted my iMac into the Lion recovery partition and erased my hard disk without a second thought. Then went back to initiate the reinstallation procedure, only to be greeted by an error 'Could not find installation information on this machine. Please contact AppleCare.'
I contacted them and performed some basic resets, and finally did a 'zero-out' erase of my drive. And I'm still getting the same error. A search on Google reveal only a few people who had experienced the same. Hence, my iMac became completely useless overnight.
It's a shame AppleCare doesn't operate round the clock, I tend to work long hours and could not find an appropriate time to talk to them. I would like to make a request for them to mail me a copy of Lion in any media, so I can install Lion back onto my iMac. Maybe they don't offer anything that sort, but I'm still going to try! This problem is annoying.
I'm glad you can revert back to Snow Leopard, Lion has it's attractions, but problems outweigh its features.

I have a 2012 Mini with a fusion drive that won't boot from a usb cloned drive. It came with 10.8.2 pre installed. I have zapped the PRAM and reset the SMC. Any thoughts?

I have a 2012 Mini with a fusion drive that won't boot from a usb cloned drive. It came with 10.8.2 pre installed. I have zapped the PRAM and reset the SMC. Any thoughts?

When I tried using a recently downloaded (from the App store) version of MtLion 10.8.2 (12C60) I could NOT get the new MacMini to install or boot from a USB I had previously made. I was however able to use the Recovery Mode of the MacMini to create a bootable SSD which I had installed. The problem arose when I went back into Recovery DU as it saw the seperate drives (SSD & HD) as a broken Fusion Drive. Interestingly DU from the boot volume had NO issues and reported NO faults. It was the Recovery DU that identified the faulty Fusion Drive configuration. At this point I am definately out of my depth but my speculation is that the Recovery Volume is being used in some fashion to form the method or pattern that DU assigns files to the drives, System Report sees the drives as seperate volumes with all their individual characteristics.
Disk Utility did not make a bootable USB, I don't have or use CCC or Super Duper.
Here is the longer version I've been compiling:
Having bought a late 2012 Mac Mini(6,2) i7 2.66GHZ with the standard 1TB 5400 HD and 4GB of RAM (base model) I immediately decided to install a Mercury Elite 6g 240GB SSD and up the RAM to 16GB. I received both shipments on the same day and had all my new toys in front of me. After following the video advice on OWC’s website for the installation of the second drive I started the mini and formatted the SSD to accept the OS from Recovery on the original HD. This MacMini shipped with 10.8.2 (12C2034) as the OS, the normal build of 10.8.2 is (12C60). Having used Recovery Disk Utility to format the SSD it came back with an error that DU could’t Repair. I went ahead and installed the OS on the SSD and the Mini booted normally from both drives. The issue I encountered with this setup was that iMovie encountered an “unexpected error” and would not save a completed project. I therefore decided to figure the drive issue out because I suspect the new Fusion File Management software didn’t like my configuration with drives that Recovery DU saw as needing to be “fixed”. After spending some time on the phone with both OWC and Apple Support I took the plunge and used Internet Recovery Disk Utility and allowed both drives to be “fixed” after which DU created a Fusion Drive (Logical Drive) that I then ran Repair Disk on and it showed up as a single drive in DU. It works perfectly as described by Apple’s site:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5446
Having checked the Link Speed and Negotiated Speed they both show as 6g so I’m pleased not to have lost performance due to it being fuzed to a 3g 5400 drive. The biggest drawback is that Apple’s Fusion Management only allows for 1 additional partition and I would have preferred more than that.
I have sourced some additional information here:
http://blog.macsales.com/15619-special-note-for-adding-an-ssd-to-a-2012-mac-mini ?
http://blog.macsales.com/15619-special-note-for-adding-an-ssd-to-a-2012-mac-mini ?
http://blog.macsales.com/15619-special-note-for-adding-an-ssd-to-a-2012-mac-mini ?
http://blog.fosketts.net/2011/08/05/undocumented-corestorage-commands/
If anyone has a factory Fusion Drive could you please post the Link and Negotiated Speeds of both drives? This information can be found in Apple > About This Mac > More Info… > System Report > Serial ATA and the drives should show up as discrete drives with their info listed separately.

Pre-installed win 8.1 and new hard disk

Goodevening, I have a G50-30 with win8.1 pre-installed. I didnt recived any disk, no driver disk, no software disk, no windows disk, even no windows product key.
Anyway, I'd like to change my hdd to ssd. So i've started with trying to create a windows-boot-copy using some free software to get the windows product key, in order to use a microsoft tool to create a boot-disk, but the product key i get results invalid, it doesnt' work. Microsoft support suggested me to ask lenovo, about my problem, so does anyone have a suggestion for me?
Matteo

hi Matteo,
Welcome to the Forums.
Can you try the following:
1. Check this guide on how to obtain a Windows 8.1 ISO (see Option One)
2. Follow this guide to make a bootable UEFI Win8.1 installer via DVD/USB flashdrive and use it to install Windows (the installation should be able to detect the Windows 8.1 product key in the UEFI firmware that should automatically activate Windows).
Let me know your findings.
Regards
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My Mac wont let me update pre installed Apps.

It tells me I have updates available for this computer but as soon as I click on update in the App store, it says You Have Updates Available for Other Accounts (please sign in to your other account to update these apps). I only have 1 Apple ID and it was used at time of purchase. The main apps in question are; Pages, Keynote, Numbers, iPhoto, iMovie, Garage Band. I had them Pre installed during purchase. Can i fix this on my own, or am i making a trip to Apple?

What exacly happens? With iOS 6 you do not have to enter the password to for free app updates?
It appears you have apps purchased ffrom different accounts that need updating
- Apps are locked to the account that purchased them.
- To update apps you have to sign into the account that purchased the apps. If you have apps that need updating purchased from more than one account you have to update them one at a time until the remaining apps were purchased from one account.

Oops...pre-install advice, please...

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