I have been using Macs for about 7 years now, I like the simplicity & design but I’m not that good on OS side of things!

I have an Intel iMac, and I want to back up my whole HD to an external one (via time machine?) then do a complete re-install of OS X Snow Leopard, and then pick all the stuff I want off my external HD, then wipe the external HD so I have a clean OS on my iMac with only the music/pics/bookmarks etc that I want.

Is it just as simple as that? or is there more too it?

cheers

What you will want to do is:

1) Create a bootable clone of your current drive using something like SuperDuper which is free just for cloning. You can use Time Machine, but personally I have never got on with it.

2) Reinstall OSX using the OSX discs.

3) During the reinstall the migration assistant should pop up. From here you will be able to select what settings/apps you will want to pull across from the external drive (which of course you will have plugged in at this point)

4) Depending on what you are copying across it may take some time.

…I have to ask though, why clean install if you are not having any software problems? Why not just delete off the stuff you don’t want?

1) I will have a look at super-duper

2) Yep, no probs

3) I havent really got any apps, just pics/music and I know migration asst doesn’t let you transfer pics/music

4) Mainly because my system has become a bit slugish, i have upgraded to 2gb ram, and no matter how well you delete stuff, there are always bits lurking about!

You might want to try more Ram.

I have just gone from 2gb to 4gb with my MacBook Pro and it has made a huge difference when browsing images etc

curvature, I can go to 3gb on my mac so may try that!

thanks

One thing you could try, before nuking the drive from orbit, would be to verify your disk, and if needed run a repair. This may resolve any possible fragmentation that may be causing the slowdown.

1) Run Disk Utility in Applications/Utilities folder

2) Select your drive in the left hand pane.

3) Click the Verify button on the right.

4) Once complete hit the Repair Disk button if required.

5) Reboot and cross your fingers.

3) I havent really got any apps, just pics/music and I know migration asst doesn’t let you transfer pics/music

Actually, it does.

Note: Just to clear up any possible confusion, Migration Assistant is the same as Setup Assistant which actually pops up during the install of Snow Leopard.