Clean Installing MacOS 10.6 - restoring Mail, iCal & Add

[MacUser_Since_1986]

My parents own a first-generation white MacBook.



A couple of years ago, the MacBook's internal hard disk had to be replaced under extra-extented warranty. (MacBooks of that era had hard drive problems, and Apple took care of its customers.)



As a result, I had to clean-install MacOS 10.6 off of its DVD. I remember it being a pain because I do backup with La Cie's Silverkeeper backup utility, not Apple's Time Machine. (I don't have any empty external hard disks around, so I didn't bother to use Time Machine). I used Silverkeeper to copy my parents' entire user folder over to a hard drive. Because I am cautious about restores, I carefully copied only specific data back to the MacBook once the "new" hard drive was installed. I did not just restore the entire user folder with all of its settings.



Fast forward a couple of years...



My parents were complaining of unusual fluctuations of internet speeds on their machine. (They use WiFi, with an Airport base station connected to a DSL modem.) My MacBook Pro had no problem on their Airport connection. Theirs is really screwy. I have been advised to clean install MacOS X again.



As I recall, this was a bit of a pain the last time. I don't know what has happened, but I assume that something has gone wrong with their settings or with the system software. I want to be careful in doing a clean-install this time so that most settings are not copied over, and only some things do get copied:



iTunes

iCal

Mail

Address Book

Safari bookmarks only (I want to be careful about this one)



How do I do these things without copying over all the other settings/libraries/junk?



Also: my parents use Facebook frequently. Is there anything in Facebook that can infect their MacBook? If so, what can I do to avoid re-creating that after a clean install?



I have their user folder backed up on two separate external hard drives just to be safe. Each of those drives contains other information, but I made sure to place the copied user folder inside another folder at the root level of the disk, clearly labeled, so there won't be any problems.



MY PARENTS' HARDWARE

MacBook (white, first-generation, 2006 vintage)

FireWire/USB external hard drives for backup



THEIR SOFTWARE

MacOS 10.6 Snow Leopard

iLife 2009

iWork 2009

Microsoft Office 2011: Mac

Adobe Photoshop Elements 8, with Adobe Bridge CS4

Flip4Mac

[Cypher]

Before you get too bogged down with a reinstall, try repairing permissions and maybe running OnyX on it.

after that I'd set up a new user account on the machine and have them use that to see if the problems persist with that account. If they don't you may not need to do the reinstall
_________________
Phil

Mac Mini 2.53GHz - iMac 2.0Ghz - Macbook Pro 2.4GHz - iPad 1 32GB 3G
6TB Netgear Ready NAS NV+ - 6TB Drobo S

[MacUser_Since_1986]

A separate admin user account (mine) has been on the MacBook since the internal hard drive was replaced. I tried logging-in with the admin user account, and had similar problems. I was advised by an Apple technician (former Connecting Point dealer who lives a county away from me) to clean-install MacOS X. I also repaired permissions after booting off the OS X DVD last night. No change.

[macmanmacman]

Actually it sounds like your dsl hardware might be out of date check the dsl modem and make sure its functioning correctly if it is but is still slow i would call your dsl provider and have them come and take a look at it or have them send you a new dsl modem because your parents modem could be out of date and this happens more then you think i am on my 7 th comcast modem because everytime they decide to change without letting there users know the internet connection goes into dial up mode and is slower then garbage.

[macmanmacman]

May i also recommend something keep the white mac book but upgrade to lion you can purchase lion from amazon on usb thumb stick i would recommend this because it makes using the machine easier and you can then use the mac app store if they want to purchase more software for the mac considering a lot of programs now require 10.7