"reformatting" and "de-fragging"
As you can tell by the "defragging" I am a PC guy, been around PC's none stop, and would considered my knowledge above average... well above average when it comes to PC's but Mac might as well be in german.
Annnnyways, I am going back to school and I want/need a good laptop. I don't need anything flashy, just something I can bring to school take notes on, write reports, do some graphic stuff, and access internet with. I was planning on going with a generic PC, but my girlfriend has a G4 and an Ibook ... and well i love it. So I figure, why not get an ibook? It will give me a reason to try my hand at photography and video editing (assuming FC pro works on a ~800) and I have really wanted to get back into that.
So I hop on craigslist and see some in my price range, not the fastest in the world but I will take slow OSX over fast xp/2k. But since it's used, is there a way I can basically start from what it would be from apple? Reformat would be ideal since you are truley starting from a blank slate, but I don't know if apples "work like that" Can I just format, and than re-install putting in the "serial" that came with the comp and make it my own? If not than could I just do a system restore than something like "defragging" to help with the speed. Basically, I don't want it to be slowed down with the years of use.
Sorry for being such a noob, I really only have a few months of OSX experience and than a year of experience with Final Cut Pro but 0 days of that actually touching the os. And I am sorry for not searching, I just didn't know what to search for, i didn't think defrag would be a popular word on a mac forum.
And since I already have 1 thread going, anybody know of some good bags for an ibook/school? Maybe something that has a special hardshell/lockable section of a normal backpack so I don't have to have a laptop bag AND a bag for books.
Annnnyways, I am going back to school and I want/need a good laptop. I don't need anything flashy, just something I can bring to school take notes on, write reports, do some graphic stuff, and access internet with. I was planning on going with a generic PC, but my girlfriend has a G4 and an Ibook ... and well i love it. So I figure, why not get an ibook? It will give me a reason to try my hand at photography and video editing (assuming FC pro works on a ~800) and I have really wanted to get back into that.
So I hop on craigslist and see some in my price range, not the fastest in the world but I will take slow OSX over fast xp/2k. But since it's used, is there a way I can basically start from what it would be from apple? Reformat would be ideal since you are truley starting from a blank slate, but I don't know if apples "work like that" Can I just format, and than re-install putting in the "serial" that came with the comp and make it my own? If not than could I just do a system restore than something like "defragging" to help with the speed. Basically, I don't want it to be slowed down with the years of use.
Sorry for being such a noob, I really only have a few months of OSX experience and than a year of experience with Final Cut Pro but 0 days of that actually touching the os. And I am sorry for not searching, I just didn't know what to search for, i didn't think defrag would be a popular word on a mac forum.
And since I already have 1 thread going, anybody know of some good bags for an ibook/school? Maybe something that has a special hardshell/lockable section of a normal backpack so I don't have to have a laptop bag AND a bag for books.
Comments
It defrags itself. On the fly. All files under 20MB are defragged when written, if above a threshold of fragmentation. The only time you ever *really* need to run a defragger is if you're doing something that requires real-time disk spooling, like high-end digital non-linear video editing.
Otherwise? Don't worry about it.
But yeah, just pop in the installer CD, and tell it to Erase and Install, and it will wipe the drive, and you'll have a stock installation, with everything but the fresh-from-the-factory smell. (Well, okay - you won't have the extra apps that came with it, but those should be on the companion installer CD, so a *second* run should get those...
Also Macs don't tend to get slower over time. I took a speed test using XBench before and after reformatting/reinstall and my computer was actually faster before reformatting.
About Final Cut Pro working on an iBook...I'm not too sure how well that will run. Might be fine but I cant' really tell you. I Switched when the Intel iMacs came out.
Basically, I don't want it to be slowed down with the years of use.
You really don?t need to worry about this with OS X, it looks after itself and doesn?t slow down over time. Unlike our crappy family PC bought in 2001, running XP, slow as tar running down sandpaper.
Also, like the other posters have said, OS X requires no serial number.
It may be an idea to do a fresh install just to start fresh with your own stuff.