03-21-2016, 06:17 AM
I pretty much agree with sekker's plan, with a few twists.
The programs for which you don't have installers seems the biggest issue.
1. Some programs just need to be dragged to the Applications folder to work. They don't install a bunch of extra stuff. Make a list of the applications for which you do not have installers.
2. Get an external drive and do a new 10.11 install on that, while keeping your current OS/Applications/etc. on your Mac. Then copy the applications you for which you don't have installers over to the external drive. Boot from the external drive and see if they work. If not, it could be an incompatiblity with El Capitan, or it could be that something necessary wasn't copied.
This will narrow down your list.
3. Then start hunting for installers. If not available from the developer, you might find them via that Wayback Machine, although my experience with this is not as good as I'd like, as often the pages have links and the links no longer go to a download. But worth a look.
https://archive.org/web/
Another place to look around is Low End Mac, which has a lot of resources on using older things Mac.
http://lowendmac.com/
Also, note that OS X has gotten pickier and pickier about doing a machine specific install. I'd do a separate clean install of 10.11 on each Mac, unless the two desktops are identical (and I mean identical) models.
You can get most of what you need of user files by copying over your Documents, Mail, Photos, etc. from your old User accounts to the new OS setup. However, if you are really trying to clean things up, there will be stuff in your Library folder that you may want, but you might not want to copy the entire Library folder. Browser bookmarks and history come to mind. Pretty much every web browser has a way for you to export bookmarks, then import them into the new setup.
If you are using iPhoto, note that Apple has replaced iPhoto with Photos. Some people are happy with this, and some are not. The last version of iPhoto will still run on 10.11, as long as you don't let Photos take over your iPhoto library. You may also need to copy the iPhoto application over to the new install for the App Store to allow you to update it to the last version. And if you can't get it to update you may need to get help at an Apple Store.
Same may be true if you have iMovie and Garage band - these are still active, but updates for 10.11 may require that they are installed.
Apple has been a bit stupid about this - if you bought iLife separately and the App Store has a record of this it will allow you to redownload it. But if iLife came on your Mac, the App Store won't let you do this, and may not let you do an update. Hence the need for Apple Store help.
iDVD and iWeb have also been discontinued, but should run under 10.11 if you copy over an old version that's updated to the last version.
Once you have the external set up the way you want, and have backups of the internal drive, I suggest you use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the new installation back to the Mac. CCC can, as part of the clone, create a new Recovery partion on the Mac, which you really need, so it's a one-step solution. (The Recovery partion, being a hidden partition, isn't copied directly by CCC.)
Also, if you get CCC, you can use it to copy over items from your User folder in a more automated way, as you can select exactly what it does and does not copy.
Good luck.
- Winston
celliott wrote:
But there is some software that I no longer have the installers for. Some makers have archives available, but some do not. Any solution for that one? Some don't exist anymore and some only offer new versions for software I don't use much and what I have works just fine.
The programs for which you don't have installers seems the biggest issue.
1. Some programs just need to be dragged to the Applications folder to work. They don't install a bunch of extra stuff. Make a list of the applications for which you do not have installers.
2. Get an external drive and do a new 10.11 install on that, while keeping your current OS/Applications/etc. on your Mac. Then copy the applications you for which you don't have installers over to the external drive. Boot from the external drive and see if they work. If not, it could be an incompatiblity with El Capitan, or it could be that something necessary wasn't copied.
This will narrow down your list.
3. Then start hunting for installers. If not available from the developer, you might find them via that Wayback Machine, although my experience with this is not as good as I'd like, as often the pages have links and the links no longer go to a download. But worth a look.
https://archive.org/web/
Another place to look around is Low End Mac, which has a lot of resources on using older things Mac.
http://lowendmac.com/
Also, note that OS X has gotten pickier and pickier about doing a machine specific install. I'd do a separate clean install of 10.11 on each Mac, unless the two desktops are identical (and I mean identical) models.
You can get most of what you need of user files by copying over your Documents, Mail, Photos, etc. from your old User accounts to the new OS setup. However, if you are really trying to clean things up, there will be stuff in your Library folder that you may want, but you might not want to copy the entire Library folder. Browser bookmarks and history come to mind. Pretty much every web browser has a way for you to export bookmarks, then import them into the new setup.
If you are using iPhoto, note that Apple has replaced iPhoto with Photos. Some people are happy with this, and some are not. The last version of iPhoto will still run on 10.11, as long as you don't let Photos take over your iPhoto library. You may also need to copy the iPhoto application over to the new install for the App Store to allow you to update it to the last version. And if you can't get it to update you may need to get help at an Apple Store.
Same may be true if you have iMovie and Garage band - these are still active, but updates for 10.11 may require that they are installed.
Apple has been a bit stupid about this - if you bought iLife separately and the App Store has a record of this it will allow you to redownload it. But if iLife came on your Mac, the App Store won't let you do this, and may not let you do an update. Hence the need for Apple Store help.
iDVD and iWeb have also been discontinued, but should run under 10.11 if you copy over an old version that's updated to the last version.
Once you have the external set up the way you want, and have backups of the internal drive, I suggest you use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the new installation back to the Mac. CCC can, as part of the clone, create a new Recovery partion on the Mac, which you really need, so it's a one-step solution. (The Recovery partion, being a hidden partition, isn't copied directly by CCC.)
Also, if you get CCC, you can use it to copy over items from your User folder in a more automated way, as you can select exactly what it does and does not copy.
Good luck.
- Winston