To re-install or not, that is the question?

I have an early 2006 intel iMac with OSX 10.4.11. Little things are starting to act up, but nothing really major. IChat doesn't work properly, I lose tunes in iTunes, startup sound went on the fritz and the little beacon on the front right hand side is getting dimmer. I used to have an old Mac Powerbook 180 (1993) and periodically, I'd re-install the system from all of the floppy discs and it would work perfectly and I'd never lose any data. Sometimes, I wish I still had it. Is it a totally different world now? Can I take the start up CD that came with the iMac, place it in the slot and do a total re-install? What would happen and is this a plausible idea? Or,,, should I just leave well enough alone? I feel like I just need to do a clean up of the system. Thanks!!!

How to Perform an Archive and Install
An Archive and Install will NOT erase your hard drive, but you must have sufficient free space for a second OS X installation which could be from 3-9 GBs depending upon the version of OS X and selected installation options. The free space requirement is over and above normal free space requirements which should be at least 6-10 GBs. Read all the linked references carefully before proceeding.
1. Be sure to use Disk Utility first to repair the disk before performing the Archive and Install.
Repairing the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger.) After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported, then quit DU and return to the installer.
2. Do not proceed with an Archive and Install if DU reports errors it cannot fix. In that case use Disk Warrior and/or TechTool Pro to repair the hard drive. If neither can repair the drive, then you will have to erase the drive and reinstall from scratch.
3. Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When you reach the screen to select a destination drive click once on the destination drive then click on the Option button. Select the Archive and Install option. You have an option to preserve users and network preferences. Only select this option if you are sure you have no corrupted files in your user accounts. Otherwise leave this option unchecked. Click on the OK button and continue with the OS X Installation.
4. Upon completion of the Archive and Install you will have a Previous System Folder in the root directory. You should retain the PSF until you are sure you do not need to manually transfer any items from the PSF to your newly installed system.
5. After moving any items you want to keep from the PSF you should delete it. You can back it up if you prefer, but you must delete it from the hard drive.
6. You can now download a Combo Updater directly from Apple's download site to update your new system to the desired version as well as install any security or other updates. You can also do this using Software Update.

Similar Messages

HD Upper or lower interlace or not that is the question

Ok Im a bit confused and cannot seem to get a straight direction on this. I shoot in 30fps 1080i, I capture in HD via firewire, I edit and when outputting for regular DVDs do I encode UPPER FIELD first since the source media is HD or LOWER FIELD first because it is doing to DV.
When encoding with Media Encoder should I check the deinterlace button when encoding HD for a DV project going to encore or not check it...that is the question.
Where is my Commedore 64 when I need it?

Choose the correct field order for your
export format when exporting, in this case DV.
Choose progressive/interlaced depending on your export format when exporting. Since DV is interlaced, do not de-interlace.
Who needs a Commodore 64 when you have a Vic 20! ;)
Cheers
Eddie
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Install , install again ? That , is the question .

Upon serious disaffection with rising
OS trifles I have taken the time to rein-
stall the OS . From the original discs to
the retail Tiger distribution to Software
Updates three loads and out , I have rein-
stalled the OS . The orphaned or unident-
ified files or folders that freeze the comp-
uter were among the hated 'trifles' . They
appear as healthy as ever and what a pain
. A quick fsck showed the drive was fine
but the mount revealed the awful orphan-
ed files . These quick or permanent lay-
abouts wasted no time returning and I
wonder how and why . The computer runs
pretty well outside of this . About a year
and a half ago found me doing this same
routine for the same reasons and now
leaves me wondering if it is the Installa-
tion Discs or the computer . I was consid-
ering reinstalling again just to see if I
could get it “Right” perhaps with persis-
tence , lacking abundances of most every-
thing else . Thanks for your thoughts
, Frederick

I think I can help you determine if the
reinstall of the OS can be the problem
either because of something wrong with the
discs or just that things happen. Things can
happen once can be of a singular nature.
But those that happen twice are suspect by their
duality. Sand can be removed from the eye
carefully but sandy fingers will redeposit it.
Best course of action under unfortunate circumstances
would be to backup your entire disk, erase &
install, then start with your OS Tiger install disk.
Minimize your installs. After installing 10.4.x you
will want to use the
10.4.10 Combo Updater PPC
that should be all you need. Remember to Verify
Disk before update and repair permissions after
update from /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility.
Now your system should be a clean as a fresh mountain
brook and happy as a clam. The trick is not to bring over any
cancerous cells from your pathological old directory.
A fresh start should put you good as new and
help your put meter to measure.
-mj
[email protected]

To 64 bit or not, that is the question...

I'm finally able to build a new sytem and am wondering if 64 bit offers any advantages over what I'm doing now given what I do with a computer. First, lets get my specs out of the way so that if anyone with similar interests can possibly help me on this decision. As an added note, not that it makes a difference one whit, I'm going to be liquid cooling and a tad bit of overclocking may be involved.
Shuttle SX38P2-Pro
Seagate Barracuda 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor
ASUS EN8800GT GeForce 8800GT 1GB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0
CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (4 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
Now for what I use my system for. I'm heavily involved in graphics. I use both the GIMP and Inkscape intensively and to their limits (which is my main reason for my new build), so this was my main reason for the quad as I've discovered that my benefits may be extraordinary. That coupled with a buttload of ram (4 gigs) should give me a bit of futureproof to the bottlenecks I've been experiencing with my P4 1.5 from about 7 years ago that I've been experiencing lately. I've also been known to compile extensively just due to the fact that I prefer more bleeding edge features. I enjoy a challenge and will be willing to try out the latest widgets but am nowhere experienced enough of a programmer to try and rewrite an entire program that I didn't start to begin with.
So, can you expound on my dilemma and elaborate to the point where I can reach an informed solution?

jb wrote:
I linked the two together, although they should probably have a more unified name. Good for now I guess.
Also, I took a stab at it and declared it Czech. If my recognition skills were of epic fail, please correct.
your recognition skills are superb, it's Czech - the CZ version seems to be translated version of the same article, the EN version has a bit more information, so it seems someone updated the English original sometime after the Czech traslated the article...

To bitmap or not, that is the question

Hello my tuning friends.
I am running Oracle 11.2 (on Solaris 10) for a very active OLTP database, but that is also frequently used to pull reports on the most volatile critical table in the database.
My database has anywhere from 100 to 400 concurrent users.
Our application (REMEDY) is designed to put "tickets" in a single main table (with approx. 560 fields that 40 are clobs).
The dilemma I need help with is whether to put a bit map index on some of the low cardinality columns or not.
And, for that matter, many columns in this table are very low cardinality.
My fear is that I am afraid that putting a bitmap index on a highly active OLTP table might impede performance of ticket creations (new rows in the table).
Or, if I did it, can I have a job run every night that recreates the bitmap indexes on this table?
But what about performance on the table between the time of rebuilding the BM indexes?
In this case, this is a typical query that is run against our main table (containing approx. 6m records and is 16G in size).
When I look in OEM, I see that it does a full table scan on this table, and in this case, only returns 262 records.
Obviously, you can infer the columns in the predicate clause are very low cardinality (by the names of the columns and the values searched).
SELECT "Main_Ticket"."SHORTTICKETNUMBER"      ,
        "Main_Ticket"."OUTAGESEVERITY"        ,
        "Main_Ticket"."OUTAGESEVERITYTEXT"    ,
        "Main_Ticket"."OUTAGESERVICESLIST"    ,
        "Main_Ticket"."OUTAGESTATUS"          ,
        "Main_Ticket"."OUTAGEOVERALLSTARTTIME",
        "Main_Ticket"."OUTAGEOVERALLENDTIME" ,
        "Main_Ticket"."CITY"                  ,
        "Main_Ticket"."STATE"                 ,
        "Main_Ticket"."MASTEROUTAGE"          ,
        "Main_Ticket"."GROUPCREATEDBY"        ,
        "Main_Ticket"."GROUPASSIGNEDTO"
FROM "ARADMIN"."MAIN_TICKET" "Main_Ticket"
WHERE "Main_Ticket"."OUTAGESEVERITY"<=2
        AND NOT
                "Main_Ticket"."GROUPASSIGNEDTO" LIKE 'BBSG%'
                OR "Main_Ticket"."GROUPASSIGNEDTO" LIKE 'CIA%'
                OR "Main_Ticket"."GROUPASSIGNEDTO" LIKE 'DESIGNED%'
                OR "Main_Ticket"."GROUPASSIGNEDTO" LIKE 'IHD%'
                OR "Main_Ticket"."GROUPASSIGNEDTO" LIKE 'NABB%'
                OR "Main_Ticket"."GROUPASSIGNEDTO" LIKE 'NCC%'
                OR "Main_Ticket"."GROUPASSIGNEDTO" LIKE 'NFC%'
        )I'm assuming to put the bitmap index on "OUTAGESEVERITY".
Not sure about GROUPASSIGNEDTO, because it uses the LIKE function and may not use the BM index if it had one.
In this case, would a FBI be better?
Edited by: 974632 on Feb 27, 2013 6:29 AM

>
clobs).
The dilemma I need help with is whether to put a bit map index on some of the low cardinality columns or not.The whole "low cardinality" thing for bitmap indexes is very misleading - the primary consideration for bitmap indexes is whether or not your queries can COMBINE enough of them to produce high-precision access path into the table. (And, of course, they're almost always very bad news on an OLTP system).
When I look in OEM, I see that it does a full table scan on this table, and in this case, only returns 262 records.Is this because a very small fraction of the rows have "OUTAGESEVERITY"<=2, or do a lot of them match that predicate but disappear on on the next predicate ?
>
FROM "ARADMIN"."MAIN_TICKET" "Main_Ticket"
WHERE "Main_Ticket"."OUTAGESEVERITY"<=2
AND NOT
"Main_Ticket"."GROUPASSIGNEDTO" LIKE 'BBSG%'
OR "Main_Ticket"."GROUPASSIGNEDTO" LIKE 'CIA%'
OR "Main_Ticket"."GROUPASSIGNEDTO" LIKE 'DESIGNED%'
OR "Main_Ticket"."GROUPASSIGNEDTO" LIKE 'IHD%'
OR "Main_Ticket"."GROUPASSIGNEDTO" LIKE 'NABB%'
OR "Main_Ticket"."GROUPASSIGNEDTO" LIKE 'NCC%'
OR "Main_Ticket"."GROUPASSIGNEDTO" LIKE 'NFC%'
)In this case, would a FBI be better?Depends on why you get only 262 rows as a final result, and whether or not you're allowed to change the code. A simple b-tree index on outagseverity with a frequency histogram on the column MIGHT be enough if there are only a small number of rows with outageseverity = 2.
An FBI might be more stable if this form of query is common and you are only interested in "rare" values - in which case a simple option would be to create an FBI (or virtual column with index) that was null for common values, and exposed the outageseverity for "rare" values.
If you need to cross-check the groupassignedto at the same time as checking for "relatively rare" values, you could create a two column index where the first column exposed the "relatively rare" values of outageseverity, and the second column exposed the groupassignedto only if the first column was not null.
You'd have to modify the SQL suitably to use the FBI's though - which is why the availability of virtual columns might be of some benefit.
Tables with more than 254 columns are a bad idea, by the way, and get worse for every (approximate) multiple of 256.
Regards
Jonathan Lewis

To Contribute or not - that is the question

Hi folks - this is my first post here so please bear with me.
I'm in the process of building a site for my local football
(soccer for all US readers) team - I'm using XHTML & CSS and
pulling it all together in DW8.
However, with over 18 teams at all age levels, to manage the
content on a weekly basis is going to be very time consuming, and
not something that I want to be involved with.
Therefore, I need a solution whereby the managers of each
team can easily add, remove, amend content on their own pages.
I've looked at CMS packages such as Etomite and Drupal, but
they seem to be very restrictive on layout of the site and won't
easily allow me to import my DW code.
Has anyone else come across this problem and found a cost
effective and easy (some of the managers are technophobes)
solution?
Hope to hear from some of you soon.
Thanks for reading this.
Dave
<Keep the web alive>

I have deployed contribute with schools and a community
website and it has
not been without its problems.
However, it is not difficult to use and I think an easier
solution than
trying to integrate a DW site with drupal etc.
Cost would be the decisive factor IMO
"(_seb_)" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:evo451$fu6$[email protected]..
: lawrie wrote:
: > Hi Dave,
: > Contribute would be a very good solution to your
problem.
: > I think that you may need a separate license for each
of your 18
managers
: > unless they all use the same PC.
: >
: I personally don't consider Contribute to be very
technophobe-friendly,
and the major draw-back is
: that each one of your team managers will have to BUY
contribute, and even
then, they will only be
: able to update their site from ONE computer (the one they
have installed
Contribute on).
: The fact that contribute is deskop software as opposed to
browser software
makes it very
: constraining (and very old-fashion)...
: Then of course any other option requires some server-side
scripting
knowledge, which you might not
: want to spend time learning - however if you whish to
practice web
design/developpment seriously
: you'll have to learn it sooner or later.
: seb ( [email protected])
http://webtrans1.com | high-end web
design
: An Ingenious WebSite Builder:
http://sitelander.com

Email signatures, to (include) images or not, that is the question!

We just had this discussion internally and decided against it. When they work, they look good, but when they don't work, signatures full of picture place holders look terrible. I think it really depends on what kind of business your company is in and whether there is a benefit to the recipient to get a little web page in every email you send.

Greetings all,I am looking at options for email signatures for a client. I have used Exclaimer in the past for in-house Exchange servers and like it. I am trialing the Office365 version presently.Just looking for thoughts on if you include images any more in email signatures? I'm talking company logo at a min and a few social media icons and links at a maximum. I note gmail now block embedded images (and I'm sure they're not alone) and we're all familiar with mail clients that will block the other option, web based images and give the option of downloading them.There's much to be said for a nice looking signature I think with a good logo and but not OTT, whilst there is also much to be said for a simple text based approach and nobody receiving broken images or blocked links when they open your mail.What say my fellow spiceheads?...
This topic first appeared in the Spiceworks Community

HT1040 trying to make an ibook and have 800 photos, want format of 8 photos/page, but default is not that- "create" the initial book from iphoto "album" it loads less than 800 pics and then when i change layout i have blanks.

trying to make an ibook and have 800 photos, want format of 8 photos/page, but default is not that- "create" the initial book from iphoto "album" it loads less than 800 pics and then when i change layout i have blanks.
if i clear the book so that it is all blanks and then try to load in the pictures i have it loses the chronology of the pictures that i had established in the album.
is there a way to import photos into an ibook template and keep the original order of the photos without having to do them one at a time?
also, is there a way to insert a photo rather than just dragging it? i have tried the cut and paste funciton but it doesn't seem to work, the target site doesn't seem to register with iphoto.
many thanks for your help.

Photos are added to book in chronological order. So if you want to add them to a book in the order you have placed them manually in an album do the following:
1 - select all the photos in the album.
2 - use the Photos ➙ Batch Change ➙ Date menu option as shown here. Select any date and add 1 minute between photos.
3 - select just one photo from the album and create a book from it.
4 - in the book click on the Options button ➙ Book Settings button and make sure the checkbox for Auto-layout pages is unchecked.
5 - drag the album with your book photos onto the book icon and they will be imported into the Photos tray of the book in your pre-determined order but not into the pages themselves.
OT

I just updated my iPhone 4 to iOS 7.1. The apps I had previously installed are not showing on the screen. They are located in App Store icon. How do I move the icons so they are showing on the screen.

I just updated my iPhone 4 to iOS 7.1. The apps I had previously installed are not showing on the screen. They are located in App Store icon. How do I move the icons so they are showing on the screen.

You can move apps around in iOS 7 the same as iOS 6. Press an app icon until you see it wiggle; then drag it to where ever you want it to be. Drag it onto another app to create a folder with the two apps. Tap the Home button to stop the wiggle.

Saving the domain file in iWeb fails. I have tried deleting the cache. I see that the file uploads to iWeb but the message is that the domain.sites2 file can't be saved. I note that duplicating the domain gives me different size files. Ideas?

I have read other discussions and my problem persists.
I note that duplicating the domain file user/library/applications support/iweb/domain.sites2 gives me files of varying sizes (I'm at around 200Mb).
I tried rebuilding the cache ../library/caches/com.apple.iweb - no change
I found a note to delete also a preference file ../library/prefernces/com.apple.iweb bt found more than one (.../plist and .../plist.lockfile) so ducked that.
The website seems to update out of sync - as if I have a domain file elsewhere (in the cloud?) that is saving on my drive later - that doesn't make sense of the comments I have read. My domain.sites2 file is stadily growing - so one interpretation is that files are being saved and the error message is the error.
This has been a problem for about a year as I have tried many alternative solutions. I;m looking fro somethign substantially different.
One repeated situation is that I write a new page and upload it. I get the usual error message. I visit the site and there is the new page. My domain (on my machine) shows no new work, so I copy the stuff on the web back to my domain and steadily the file increases in size. Bewildering.
Everything is as up to date as it can be. I don't reboot very often as my machine is rarley off.
I'm looking for different ideas and approaches.....

Although some of the following will be a repeat but try the following:
delete the iWeb preference files, com.apple.iWeb.plist and com.apple.iWeb.plist.lockfile, that resides in your Home() /Library/Preferences folder.
go to your Home()/Library/Caches/com.apple.iWeb folder and delete its contents.
Click to view full size
launch iWeb and try again.
If that doesn't help continue with:
move the domain file from your Home/Library/Application Support/iWeb folder to the Desktop.
launch iWeb, create a new test site, save the new domain file and close iWeb.
go to the your Home/Library/Application Support/iWeb folder and delete the new domain file.
move your original domain file from the Desktop to the iWeb folder.
launch iWeb and try again.
OT

How can I tether via USB my iPhone 4S with iOS 7.1.1 to my MacBook with Snow Leopard 10.6.8 and iTunes 11.2.2 ?? Please note that at the same time Personal Hotspot via both WiFi and Bluetooth works perfectly!

How can I tether via USB my iPhone 4S with iOS 7.1.1 to my MacBook with Snow Leopard 10.6.8 and iTunes 11.2.2 ?? Please note that at the same time Personal Hotspot via both WiFi and Bluetooth works perfectly!

Hello, lustige luka.
Thank you for visiting Apple Support Communities.
The Personal Hotspot feature using USB should be as simple as connecting the device to your Mac via the USB cable when Hotspot is enabled. Here is some more information regarding this feature and an article that will provide some troubleshooting steps if you are experiencing an issue.
iOS: Understanding Personal Hotspot
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4517
iOS: Troubleshooting Personal Hotspot
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2756
Cheers,
Jason H.

I have a new iPod and now I can't buy something on it ,because of the safety questions. I have not the answers. I can't remember that answer the questions.

I have a new iPod and now I can't buy something on it ,because of the safety questions. I have not the answers. I can't remember that answer the questions.

Frequently asked questions about Apple ID - http://support.apple.com/kb/HE37 --> Can I change the answers to the security questions for my Apple ID? --> Yes. You can change the answers to the security questions provided when you originally signed up for your Apple ID. Go to My Apple ID (http://appleid.apple.com/) and click Manage your account.
Forgotten security questions - https://discussions.apple.com/message/18402551 and https://discussions.apple.com/message/18625296
More involved forgotten question issues - https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3961813
Kappy 09/2012 post about security questions - https://discussions.apple.com/message/19569468
John Galt's tips (09&11/2012) - https://discussions.apple.com/message/19809294 and https://discussions.apple.com/message/20229239
If none of the above work, contact iTunes Support at http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/contact/ and follow the instructions to report the issue to the iTunes Store.

Ok i have been trying to download albums, songs, apps, etc. and my itunes keeps asking me for the security question and for the life of me i cant remember the answers. I dont know what the email is that receives the question reset.

ok i have been trying to download albums, songs, apps, etc. and my itunes keeps asking me for the security question and for the life of me i cant remember the answers. I dont know what the email is that receives the question reset. is there anything i can do to fix this or am i screwed?

If you have music that was purchased on different iTunes accounts than the one you use, then you must provide the password, otherwise the tunes are not considered yours. You can turn off iCloud and just use the usual USB sync method. But I wonder whether you'll have the same problem?

Hi .. I can not re- set the questions of confidentiality in order to forget the answers in my account

Hi .. I can not re- set the questions of confidentiality in order to forget the answers in my account

If you aren't getting the reset link on the Password & Security section of your account on http://appleid.apple.com then you don't have a rescue email address (an alternate email address is different), and you won't be able to add one until you can answer your questions - you will have to contact Support in your country to get the questions reset.
Contacting Apple about account security : Contact Apple for help with Apple ID account security
If your country isn't on that page then try this form and explain and see what they reply with : https://ssl.apple.com/emea/support/itunes/contact.html
When they've been reset you can add a rescue email address for potential future use : Manage your Apple ID primary, rescue, alternate, and notification email addresses

To Mac, or not to Mac, that is the question...

Okay, so I don't know if I'm allowed to ask this in this forum, but I'll give it a try anyway.
I will be starting college in the fall and will need a computer. I've had myself convinced for a while now that I want a MacBook...but now I'm starting to have second thoughts.
It's just that I've always used PCs in my life, I know how to do anything I want really on a PC, and I don't know if it's worth the bother to relearn a whole new system. Plus, I mean, I'm starting college, I should know how to use my computer before going, don't you agree? Just how hard is it to adjust?
Another issue is the whole windows/mac os thing in that I'm worried about programs running on it. I don't really understand how Boot Camp works. You just install Windows XP (do you have to buy it? is it a special mac version?) and your Mac turns into a Windows machine? As in it looks just like my HP lap top looks now, wiht the bar at the bottom, etc.? But then I've read some posts on these threads and ppl say you could get viruses that way b/c you are using windows. Which is one of the reasons I would want to switch to a mac. If you do use Windows and the Mac OS, you can just switch back and forth whenever you want? Are all the programs and files the same then in both systems? Like I wouldn't want half my files to be in one program and the other half in another. I don't know, I don't really understand it all.
Also, my mom got a MacBook and I guess they bought a new laser printer yesterday and had to return it today b/c they realized it's not apple compatible. They went to Office Max and realized barely any printers are apple compatible! The had the toughest time finding an affordable printer that they liked! How can this be? Is this how it's always going to be when I'm buying accessories?
I just love all the features the Mac has. I am constantly frustrated w/ Windows and all the **** viruses and adware I have on my computer, which is a major reason for my wanting to switch. FrontRow seems like the coolest thing ever. And the cool magnet things. And I already have an iPod, so they'd run nicely together. Plus, it's pretty. (I know it's a dumb reason to buy a computer, but I'm a girl, what can I say, that stuff is important to me.)
So anyway, I'm now debating between a MacBook and a tablet PC, possibly Gateway or IBM. Could anyone try to convince me one way or the other (considering I'm on a Mac discussion board, I'm sure it'll be the Mac way)? Thanks everyone, I really appreciate your help.

My guess is that you're likely to find more Mac users at a college than most other areas, so I wouldn't worry too much about 'making the switch' right before going to college -- you'll have lots of help nearby.
Boot Camp is pretty cool!
It's a free utility from Apple that basically prepares your Mac so it can run Windows XP. Boot Camp divides your hard drive into seperate areas (partitions) -- one for OS X and another for XP. Boot Camp doesn't come with a copy of Windows XP -- you'll need to provide that. The XP that Boot Camp installs isn't a special version for Mac -- it's the same version that runs on any computer, although to work with Boot Camp, you'll need an XP install CD that has Service Pack 2 applied. Once XP has been installed on your Macbook, it should look (and act) like XP on your HP (with the exception of any special tools/programs that HP loaded on your HP laptop, obviously).
When you restart your MacBook, it will boot into whichever OS that you set as the default. If you want to boot into the other OS, you just hold down the OPTION key when you restart and then you pick which OS to load. Your computer is basically divided into two systems, so no, programs are not automatically on both systems. If you install the Mac version of Microsoft Office in OS X, you're not going to have Excel/Word/etc when you boot into XP unless you specifically install the Windows version of Microsoft Office.
Regarding accessories, you always need to check that they work with OS X. My printer was a problem too. It was an el cheapo Samsung laser printer and Samsung apparently didn't feel like spending the money to write OS X drivers for it, but it turned out that an older Samsung OS X driver worked just fine. I had zero problems getting my Kodak camera to work -- I just plugged it in an OS X started using it ... no drivers to install or anything, which made it way easier than the crap I had to do in XP to get XP to see it. My iPod nano worked with no problems too.
I really, really love my MacBook. I don't know when you have to make your decision, but try using your moms as much as you can (if you can). I bought a Mac mini for my other half last year (birthday present). I had NO interest at that time in Macs or OS X, but after a few days of watching over his shoulder, I was hooked and got myself a mini (and then a PowerBook and then a MacBook Pro and then a MacBook) .. it's addicting.

To re-install or not, that is the question?

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