Snow Leopard

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I have had the new iMac for less then a month. Love it! I also enjoy using the new Apple OS. I just wanted to ask everyone what new features do you like in the Snow Leopard? I really like Time Machine, makes doing backups easy the first time. Learn something new everyday using the Apple PC! Look forward to learning something new from all of you!

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Besides Time Machine, you might want to do a FULL IMAGE backup of your Mac too with something like Super Duper or Carbon Copy Cloner. The Time Machine backups can restore a FULL IMAGE to a new drive if you crash, but you can’t boot from the Time Machine backup. If you want to get up and running quickly, you can actually boot from a backup made by Super Duper or Carbon Copy Cloner on an external drive.

I use Win7 and OSX 10.6. I like and dislike features of both OSes.

New features in Snow Leopard that I like? The main one is the Mail app being able to talk to Exchange Servers but there are still some things I need and use Outlook in Windows for.

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Besides Time Machine, you might want to do a FULL IMAGE backup of your Mac too with something like Super Duper or Carbon Copy Cloner. The Time Machine backups can restore a FULL IMAGE to a new drive if you crash, but you can’t boot from the Time Machine backup. If you want to get up and running quickly, you can actually boot from a backup made by Super Duper or Carbon Copy Cloner on an external drive.

I use Win7 and OSX 10.6. I like and dislike features of both OSes.

New features in Snow Leopard that I like? The main one is the Mail app being able to talk to Exchange Servers but there are still some things I need and use Outlook in Windows for.

You could also install an OS to an external drive to act as an emergency rescue drive, you can trim its size by removing unneeded apps, and then add utilities you may need in emergency….

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I’m glad to see other Mac users here. A little odd to get a Mac thread going on a “Windows” Lounge.

If you think Snow Leopard is good, try the new Magic Mouse. It takes a little getting use to, but it is leaps and bounds better than the “Mighty” mouse.

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A little odd to get a Mac thread going on a “Windows” Lounge.

Seems only fair to me — I use Parallels to run XP seamlessly from BootCamp on my Mini. 🙂

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I had used Macs for years back in OS 9, and only got back into them with OSX a couple of years ago, and I really love my Macs now. Virtualization has become my best friend, since I have 4 different versions of Windows on the same machine and switching between them takes a matter of seconds.

Your question is quite open ended, there are lots of things I really like about the OS, but it does have its weaknesses in some places.

I’d be happy to make some suggestions on tweaks and software you might like to improve things even more if you like.

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Thanks all. Frank I really like your tip about using Carbon Copy Cloner. E.Wetzell any tips you have will be greatly appreciated!

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Hi to all and a hearty welcome to the Lounge to all the first posters!

I purchased an iMac last November, and really enjoy it. I have always been, and still am a PC guy, but I love the Mac too. Frank, I downloaded the Carbon Copy Cloner you suggested and cloned an image on my external drive. Thanks for that tip. I have a question though. How do I boot from the external HD to restore Snow Leopard to the system drive?

Also, I downloaded AppCleaner to remove applications and supposedly remove all traces of a removed app. I have used it from time to time. What do you guys think of AppCleaner? Maybe there is a better one out there.

I have a lot to learn about Snow Leopard, but it has been fun so far. I love tips.

I am considering the download of IBM Lotus Symphony 3.0 beta for the Mac. I have done so for the PC and I like the software. It seems a good alternative to MS Office. I have iWorks, and I use it, but I’m thinking Symphony may be more along the lines I have been use to working with.

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To boot your Mac from an external drive, hold down the option key during boot-up. Not all external drives will show up, though. Firewire drives are best, but USB drives are “iffy”.

I have had good luck with the following workaround, if your Mac formatted USB drive won’t boot your Mac:

1) Create and format an NTFS partition on a blank drive with a PC, or start with a fresh NTFS drive. Don’t put any files on it yet. This creates an MBR partition table, rather than the GUID table that Mac OS X uses.

2) Now connect the drive to a Mac, and open Disk Utility. Create a fresh HFS partition. This will wipe out the NTFS partition, but preserves the MBR partition table. You can even add back an NTFS partition later if you leave some unallocated space.

3) Now create your clone or emergency OS on the Mac HFS partition, and hopefully it will be recognized in boot options on OS X.

YMMV, but this has worked for me on Tiger and Leopard; I don’t believe I have tried it on Snow Leopard yet.

Good luck. Further comments or advice on this procedure are welcome…

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Hi John, and welcome to the Lounge!

Thanks for your suggestions. I will try them out soon. I’m soon going to do another image with the Clone software.

I have another question. I am dual booting (Boot Camp) Windows 7 on the iMac. What effect, if any, will it have on the dual boot setup if I have to restore my Win7 from an image at some point?

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Gerald,

If you don’t disturb the bootcamp partition when you restore Win 7 from image, it shouldn’t have any effect, but I have not had to do this yet, either. BTW, if you wish to reallocate hard drive space between Mac OS X and Win 7, for 20 bucks you can get Paragon’s CampTune, which is advertised to seemlessly reallocate space between the partitions WITHOUT having to reinstall bootcamp and Win 7, as Apple’s help file instructs must be done for reallocation. I have not tried it, though. Go to http://www.paragon-software.com. I have no affiliation with them at all, they’re just a company whose partitioning software I have had good luck with…

The caveat in all this, as I understand it, is that both GUID and MBR partition tables exist simultaneously for all partitions on a bootcamp’ed hard drive, and they must be kept “synchronized”, or problems result.

john

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Thanks John, I hope to not have to test things for a good long time. I have used Paragon’s Windows software to do some backup images. It was of very good quality. I appreciate the tips. I have a lot to learn about OS X.

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