Wiping your computer

[Nick]

I've had my mac for 2 and a half years now so it has more than enough **** on it and tbh I still don't know how to fully delete things so I wanna just do a wipe of my mac so i was googling things about it and there was this time machine thing but idk how it works but i looked at it and it shows u can backup ur hard drive, what if i don't want everyhting on it? isnt the point of wiping to get rid of the things you don't want? can u backup files n stuff u wanna keep on drop box as well? need some advice plss

[Matt]

I use time machine and back up to my hard drive and I'm sure it does the job. I've never had to use it really but once you back it all up just click on the latest backup folder and then I'm sure you can delete certain things you don't want.

[Nick]

I use time machine and back up to my hard drive and I'm sure it does the job. I've never had to use it really but once you back it all up just click on the latest backup folder and then I'm sure you can delete certain things you don't want.

So you just hook up a hard drive to ur mac and then turn the time machine on and back up from like a day ago and then when you re install the OS you just pick out the things you want from the backup then delete ur stuff and then hook it back up to the time machine so it does back ups like every week or so

[Matt]

So you just hook up a hard drive to ur mac and then turn the time machine on and back up from like a day ago and then when you re install the OS you just pick out the things you want from the backup then delete ur stuff and then hook it back up to the time machine so it does back ups like every week or so

Well I just know that I've got it set up on my hard drive so every time I plug it in it backs up all my stuff automatically. I know my mac prompts me to back up every week but I only do it every month or so. I'd just Google it or see if anyone else on here knows something I don't. I don't want you to shoot me if I wipe your whole mac and files and you don't back them up :rolleyes:

[Nick]

OK so i hooked up a hard drive and connected it to my time machine so does that mean once i wipe my computer I re install OS X and plug in my hard drive and open time machine and restore the files i want????????????

I've found a WD hard drive which hasnt been used since 2009 so i have formatted it for mac n stuff but it wants you to choose if ur backing up or putting files on there so i chose back up and its not doing anything but my time machine says its backed up on the hard drive so if i do this and my files dont show i will die

like i can't actually see the files on the hard drive bc apparently i have to install stuff like i said above but it has a progress bar and est time but doesnt change

[xxMATTGxx]

Have you backed everything up now or not? Wiping on Macs is very easy if you just want to start again on it.

[Nick]

Have you backed everything up now or not? Wiping on Macs is very easy if you just want to start again on it.

This is my time machine right now (i can restore stuff n tht) so im guessing its been backed up to the hard drive but i just can't see the files on the hard drive itself since i can't really install the driver since it said i couldn't because some files were missing? So i assume once i wipe it i just plug the hard drive back in and open up time machine and it should have my backups there?

[xxMATTGxx]

This is my time machine right now (i can restore stuff n tht) so im guessing its been backed up to the hard drive but i just can't see the files on the hard drive itself since i can't really install the driver since it said i couldn't because some files were missing? So i assume once i wipe it i just plug the hard drive back in and open up time machine and it should have my backups there?

So when you go into Pictures you don't see the files that should be there on the Time Machine?

[Nick]

So when you go into Pictures you don't see the files that should be there on the Time Machine?

I click pictures in time machine and i see all the files and stuff and i can restore them but this is the hard drive folder itself, it has the installer thing, it used to have a password n all tht but its all unlocked



but it shows up like this and will stay like that so yeah i can't actually see the files on the hard drive but i can in the time machine so assuming they are on there but i can't get to them through the hard drive only through the time machine when the hard drive is plugged in

[Nick]

Ive figured out the hard drive problem so i backed everything up and earsed the maim mac hd via the start up and apparently its installing os x mountian lion 10.8 and taking 11 hours and 52 minutes lool

@xxMATTGxx;