What do I have to face if I re-initialize my mac?

Question

Hi!
Unlickily I have to re-initialize my mac, and meanwhile I'm taking the chance to free some Gbs.
Now.. (I've already backed-up all my data).. I wonder:
A) What kind of complex configurations will I lose? (For example my internet provider..)
B) Can I save only that settings?
C) Is there a manual that explains me step by step how to re.configurate my mac?
(In conclusion: is this operation accessible to a middle user, or not?)
Thanks to everyone!

Answer 1

Why did you conclude that you need to reinstall your system? What problems are you experiencing? It is lot less common to reformat your hard drive and install the software again on Mac OS.
You did not say how you back up your system. If you have a copy of your system on an external hard drive, you could use migration Assistant to move over your data from the external drive to your new system.
Macintosh-HD -> Applications -> Utilities -> migration Assistant
You can do an archive install which will keep your old system in a backup directory on your hard drive while doing a completely new install. There some options during the install to let you copy over your old data. This assumes you did not reformat your hard drive or have a clone of your hard drive on an external hard drive. I haven't done an archive and installed so I don't know all the details.
"Clone, synchronize, backup. Schedule and forget it."
http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html
"SuperDuper is the wildly acclaimed program that makes recovery painless, because it makes creating a fully bootable backup painless."
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html
Monolingual is a program for removing unnecessary language resources from Mac OS X,in order to reclaim several hundred megabytes of disk space. It requires at least Mac OS X 10.3.9 (Panther) and also works on Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger). It worked for me on 10.4
http://monolingual.sourceforge.net/
A detailed write-up on how to use Monolingual:
http://www.jklstudios.com/misc/monolingual.html
These pages have some hints on freeing up space:
http://thexlab.com/faqs/freeingspace.html
http://www.macmaps.com/diskfull.html
WhatSize is a simple tool that allows the user to quickly measure the size in bytes of a given folder and all subfolders and files within it. You would be surprised at to how many useless files might be laying around on your hard disks. The files and folders are automatically sorted by size, with the biggest sizes first. Note: WhatSize displays only files accessible by the current user. See:
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/13006/
Disk Inventory X is a disk usage utility for Mac OS X 10.3 (and later). It shows the sizes of files and folders in a special graphical way called "treemaps".
http://www.derlien.com/
Yasu is a “Universal Binary” Macintosh utility that performs maintenance routines and clears the many cache files used by OS X. Yasu was designed to be a simple, first line of attack for a workstation that has started “acting up.” More often than not, a thorough purge of the cache files of a Mac will bring its behavior back into line.
http://jimmitchell.org/projects/yasu/
OnyX allows you to run misc tasks of system maintenance, to configure certain hidden parameters of the Finder, Dock, Safari, Dashboard, Expose, Disk Utility... to delete cache, to remove a certain number of files and folders that may become cumbersome, to see the detailed info of your configuration, to preview the different logs and CrashReporter reports, and more.
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/20070
Robert