How to buy an External DVD Burner for Macs (5 Steps)

Determine the speed you want. External DVD burners have different capabilities when it comes to the speed at which they burn DVDs. While the quickest burner sounds like the best option, you could be sacrificing other options.
Check your home DVD player to determine which types of DVDs it plays. Some home DVD players don't play either DVD-R or DVD+R disks. Purchase an external Mac DVD burner that will burn disks compatible with the players you plan to use them in.
Buy a Mac external DVD burner that can also play DVDs, if you have an older model Mac that does not support playing DVDs. A Pioneer mechanism in many newer Mac external DVD burners allow you to play DVDs produced by movie companies. Certain DVD burners like CD CyClone's DVD Revo don't support this feature.
Purchase an external DVD burner like the ClubMac FireWire for your Mac laptop computer that uses your laptop battery as a power supply for ultra portability. One downside of Mac units that don't use external power supplies is they tend to have loud cooling fans.
Pick a design that fits your needs. Mac external DVD burner cases come in styles that are barely larger than the drive itself to elaborate and colorful designs. The QPS Que Fire DVDBurner Pro has a small design for portability. Other drives are larger for desktop Mac computers.
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How to Connect FireWire to MacBook Pro

Connect one end of a FireWire cable to the external device’s FireWire port.
Connect the other end of the FireWire cable to the FireWire port on the Apple Thunderbolt to FireWire adapter.
Plug the adapter into the Thunderbolt port on the side of your MacBook Pro.
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How to Retrieve Data Off of a MacBook That Will Not Start

Connect the non-working MacBook to the working Mac with a FireWire cable.
Press the start button of the non-working MacBook as though you were turning it on, while holding down the 'T' key on the keyboard. Wait for the MacBook's hard drive to show up on the working Mac's desktop as an external drive icon.
Create a new folder on the working Mac computer. Double-click the drive icon to open the drive folder. Select your user account in the 'Users' folder in the drive and copy it by pressing the 'Command' key and 'C' key at the same time.
Open the new folder you created on the working Mac and paste the user account folders and files into it by pressing the 'Command' key and 'V' key at the same time. Wait while the user account's contents is copied onto the working Mac computer.
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How to Clean Up Your MacBook System

Launch your disk inventory utility (Disk Inventory X, GrandPerspective or WhatSize -- all are freeware or shareware) to see a visualization of the files taking up space on your computer. Every bit of information on your drive is color-coded in this visualization. For instance, if you have a large music collection on your hard drive, these files will be indicated by large blocks of a solid color. Examining what takes up the most space on your drive can help you locate misplaced or unwanted files and determine what files can be moved to an external drive.
Connect a USB or Firewire external hard drive to your computer. Locate document and media files that you do not frequently use on the computer. Photos, music and videos are ideal candidates to store on an external hard drive. These files can be accessed anytime the drive is connected. Do not copy system or program files. For example, computer games may take up a large amount of space on your hard drive, but these files would need to be physically installed on the drive. Even then, running the game from the external drive would significantly decrease performance speeds.
Organize your system folders, primarily the Downloads and Documents folders. Click the asterisk button in the Finder window to create new subfolders and assign easily remembered titles to them. Drag and drop files into these new folders instead of storing a mixed bag of media in your Downloads folder. Many files downloaded from the Internet are automatically copied from the browser to your Downloads folder, however, so you may have a picture or an email attachment that was stored on your drive even though you only viewed it the first time you opened it. By default, the Mac operating system keeps your important system files together in a separate folder away from your personal and regularly accessed media. Do not try to copy and relocate system files.
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How to Create a Backup for a MacBook (3 Steps)

Connect an external hard drive to your MacBook.
Click 'Use as Backup Disk' when you are asked if you want to use the hard drive to backup your MacBook. Time Machine will then open and backup everything on your computer.
Close the Time Machine window when the backup is complete.
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How to Transfer Video to the MacBook Air (9 Steps)

Attach a USB hard drive to a secondary computer and copy any video files you wish to transfer to your MacBook Air. On either an OS X or Windows-based computer, highlight the files you want to transfer and use your mouse to drag them onto the external hard drive.
Eject the hard drive and connect it to your MacBook Air. Use the hard drive's USB cable to connect to a USB 2.0 port on the side of the MacBook Air.
Wait several seconds for the hard drive to appear within the MacBook Air's Finder. Select the hard drive's entry under 'Devices' --- on the left side of the Finder window --- to bring up the hard drive's contents.
Select the video files saved on the USB hard drive. Drag them with your mouse from the USB hard drive onto your MacBook's desktop. This will cause a transfer progress bar to appear. Once the bar is finished, your video files will be transferred onto the MacBook Air.
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How to Set the Display on a Macbook to Mirror

Locate a video-out port on the side of your MacBook. The available ports will depend on your MacBook's model. For example, a MacBook Air has a Thunderbolt port, while a MacBook Pro with Retina display has two Thunderbolt 2 ports and an HDMI port.
Examine the video port on the external display, and then use the appropriate cable or adapter to connect your MacBook to the display. For example, if your display has a DVI port and your MacBook has a Thunderbolt port, use a Mini DisplayPort to DVI Adapter to connect the two devices. In this example, connect the Mini DisplayPort end of the adapter to your MacBook's Thunderbolt port, and then connect the other end to the display's DVI port.
Open the 'Apple' menu, and then select 'System Preferences.'
Click the 'Displays' icon, and then select the 'Arrangements' tab.
Click the 'Mirror Displays' check box in the lower left corner of the window.
Click the red button in the upper left corner to close the window.
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How to Use a Sony eBook Reader With a Mac

Use flash memory. The easiest and most reliable way to transfer files to and from the eReader is using memory cards. The eReader is powered by Sony's proprietary series of flash memory cards--the Memory Stick Duo. Using a card reader, files can be transferred from the Mac to the card and vice versa.
Connect with the USB cable. Regardless of the type of device, Macs can read any device with flash memory as an external hard drive. When bridged by USB cable, the Mac will treat the eReader as if it were a card reader, permitting the user to move files to and from the Memory Stick.
Utilize Boot Camp. Since 2005, Apple's MacBook and iMac computers have been equipped with Intel microprocessor chips--the same chips used in Windows-based PCs. The Macintosh operating system features an application called Boot Camp, which, when paired with the Intel processor, allows users to install Windows on their Macintosh computer and operate it. With Windows operating, install the Sony eReader software and use it to download and manage files.
Install Parallels. Parallels is an application which, when installed directly to a Mac, permits the user to run Windows and its applications as if it were just another Macintosh program. This can be installed and run concurrently with other Macintosh software without having to boot in a different mode. The eReader software can be run from Parallels.
Install Calibre. This open-source software is available for free from the developer's website. Calibre is a digital media management program that provides management of all digital files. What makes it attractive is its ability to convert files--PDF, HTML, Office documents-- nto the native file format of the eReader (*.lrf). Calibre cannot download new books from Sony, but it can assist with the backup and loading of non-eBook files to the unit.
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How to Restart From Apple Grey Screen

Attempt a basic restart. Press the 'Command,' 'Control' and 'Power' buttons simultaneously. Your computer should automatically restart unless completely frozen.
Hold down the 'Power' button for about 10 seconds to shut down the computer. Then press the 'Power' button again to start up the machine.
Disconnect any external devices and peripherals such as printers, scanners, external CD/DVD drives and other devices. Remove any Ethernet cables as well, and try restarting again. Sometimes a faulty peripheral will cause your startup to fail.
Shut down your computer again if you continue to see a gray screen on startup. This time, start up your computer again and immediately hold down the 'Shift' key to perform a safe boot. If your computer starts up successfully, try restarting to see if the safe boot resolved your problem.
Reset your paramater RAM and nonvolatile RAM. Shut down your computer, start it up again and immediately press and hold the 'Command,' 'Option,' 'P' and 'R' keys simultaneously. Make sure to press these keys before the gray screen appears. Release the keys when your computer starts up successfully.
Insert your Mac OS X installation disc into your CD/DVD drive and restart your computer. As soon as your computer screen begins the startup process, hold down the 'C' key on your keyboard to use your installation disc as a startup disc. When your computer starts up, select your 'Disk Utility' option and perform a basic repair. Restart your computer again.
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How to Add eBooks to Kobo (11 Steps)

Connect the Kobo reader to your computer by using the USB cable that was shipped with the device. The reader displays the 'Computer Detected' screen.
Tap the 'Connect' option on the Kobo reader. Windows immediately detects the reader as an external storage device. If you want to keep reading, tap 'Cancel' instead of 'Connect.'
Press 'Windows-X' and choose 'File Explorer' from the Power User menu to launch the File Explorer app.
Open the folder that contains the eBooks you want to transfer to the reader, select the files and then press 'Ctrl-C' to copy them to the clipboard. To select several files, hold 'Ctrl' and click each file. To select everything in the folder, including subfolders, press 'Ctrl-A.'
Select the drive Windows assigned to your Kobo and then press 'Ctrl-V' to transfer the eBooks from the clipboard to the eBook reader.
Disconnect the USB cable from the Kobo after the transfer is complete.
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How to Connect a MacBook to a Dell External Monitor

Check to see if your Dell monitor has a VGA or DVI connection. VGA is an older technology, but many monitors have adapters for both connection and include two cables: one VGA and one DVI. Likewise, check your MacBook to see if it has a DVI or Mini DisplayPort jack. Locate the appropriate adapter if required.
Confirm that both the MacBook and the external Dell monitor are powered down. Attach the video cable to the Dell monitor. The other end must be attached to the MacBook, either directly or using the adapter.
Confirm that the adapter and cable are seated properly. Make sure that the connection area is out of the way of anything that might knock it out of place or possibly damage the adapter and/or computer by bending the pins.
Turn on the Dell monitor first and the MacBook second. When the computer is finished booting up, you will see the desktop on both displays.
Launch the System Preferences (found inside the Applications folder) and click on 'Displays.' A 'Display' pane will appear on both the MacBook screen and on the Dell monitor screen. Note that you can configure the resolution of each of these displays separately.
Select a suitable resolution for each of the displays. Then click on the 'Arrangement' tab on the pane on the Mac screen. This is when you decide how you want to configure the arrangement of your displays. You can drag the Dell display to either side of the Mac display to extend the desktop, or you can select “Mirror Displays,” which is usually enabled when you plan on using the external monitor as the main display.
Drag the menu bar from the Mac display to the Dell display in the 'Arrangement' pane if you want to use the Dell as your primary display and have the Mac menus on the external monitor. You can also configure the color on both displays by clicking on the “Color” tab.
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How to Use Two Monitors on a Mac

Plug one end of your mini DisplayPort cable into the mini DisplayPort of the external monitor.
Insert the other end into your Mac's mini DisplayPort slot. The ports are small and rectangular.
Turn on your Mac computer.
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How to Connect MacBook Pro to a Power Mac G4 (6 Steps)

Verify that your MacBook Pro is completely turned off and disconnect any other FireWire devices that may be attached to it. Disconnect all FireWire devices from your Power Mac G4 as well. If you have an external FireWire hard drive connected to either computer, then that computer must be shut down or you must click and drag the hard drive's icon to the trashcan icon before you disconnect it.
Connect the FireWire cable from your MacBook Pro to your Power Mac G4.
Turn on your MacBook Pro and hold down the 'T' key on your keyboard until a yellow FireWire hard drive icon appears on your Power Mac G4's desktop.
Transfer all the files you need to between the two computers.
Click and drag the FireWire drive icon for your MacBook Pro to your PowerMac G4's trashcan icon when you're finished. Click the Apple menu and select 'Shut Down' on your MacBook Pro to turn it off.
Make sure that your MacBook Pro is completely turned off and then disconnect the FireWire cable.
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How to Restore My Macbook to Factory Setting

Deauthorize your iTunes Store account if you're getting rid of your computer. Since only five computers can share the same iTunes account, you should always deauthorize a computer you no longer plan to use. Open iTunes, click “Store” and select “Deauthorize This Computer.” Enter your Apple ID and password when prompted and click “Deauthorize.”
Deauthorize any other software that limits your license to a certain number of computers, such as Photoshop or Lightroom. Refer to your owner's manual or the application's Help menu for the steps to deauthorize your account.
Back up your current installation to an external hard drive. This step is optional, and if your system isn't working properly, you should back up only the files you want to transfer to your new system. To clone your hard drive, connect an external drive to a USB port and open Disk Utility. Select “Restore,” then drag the internal partition to the Source field and the external partition to the Destination field. Select “Erase Destination” and click “Restore.” This process destroys all the data on the external partition, so use an empty disk or partition to store your backup.
Reboot your system into OS X Recovery. Click the “Apple” menu and select “Restart.” While your computer is restarting, hold down “Command-R” to boot into OS X Recovery. If you need to connect to a Wi-Fi network after booting into Recovery, click the “Wi-Fi” menu, select your network and enter your password when prompted. If you're connected to a wired network, Recovery automatically detects your Ethernet connection.
Select “Reinstall OS X” and click “Continue.” The recovery process requires an Internet connection to download the necessary files for restoring your Macbook. If you're restoring your computer to an upgraded version of OS X, Recovery prompts you to enter your Apple ID and password before downloading the installation files. Since the download copies about 4GB of files to your computer, it can take over 30 minutes with a high-speed connection.
Click “Restart” when the installation finishes. Your Macbook reboots into a fresh installation of OS X, and all your settings are restored to factory defaults.
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