Things to do post format with a dual partition Mac OSx #reformatted-my-mac

So I had to do, what I had to do! and reformatted my Mac and now - I’m getting up in running again. I’ve been using Mac for a few years now and before that I’ve been used to running partitioned hard drives - it saves time when you reformat and usually means (touch wood) you can keep your user data safe from your OS.

Critical Apps to Install and get up in running in no time  

Immediately after logging in for the first time, I did the following -

• Update User preferences and point my home folder to the second partition (and reboot) 
• Download and Install Chrome (then login and all my bookmarks, extensions, etc are syncd)
• Download and Install Dropbox - point to my Dropbox folder on my other partition (done)
• Download and install 1Password (yay, all my passwords and product keys are safe)

Software Installed from App Store

Now that I have Chrome, Dropbox and 1Password … I can do anything (pretty much)

Open App Store and Login - check for system updates and go away for 30 minutes

Open iTunes - play a song and sync that iDevice

Apple Software I couldn’t install from the App Store

I had to dig out the discs for the following - and also the licence keys!

Install Aperture from DVD Image (ahem I had to find the original Aperture v2 DVD and licence key)

Keynote, Pages, Numbers (as it came bundled with a iWorks when I brought this Mac)

I’ve now taken a note of the serial numbers and will try to make an image in case I ever lose the discs.

I’ve not installed Microsoft Office - in the hope that I can use Numbers instead of Excel. Which I can’t really. But so far I’m trying to live with Google Docs instead.

3rd Party Software installed from the Web

There is a ton of software I realised was installed from the web. like -

• VLC
• Onyx
• SequelPro
• MampPro
• Sourcetree
• Git
• Coda 2
• Transmit
• Jollys Fast VNC

Meet the author

Damien Saunders
An experienced management consultant and business leader interested in digital transformation, product centred design and scaled agile. If I'm not writing about living with UCTD (an autoimmune disease), I'm probably listening to music, reading a book or learning more about wine.
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