Mac Application HDD Transfer

[Killervolt]

I bought a MacBook Pro in Early 2011 and throughout the years there has been more random junk going into the hard drive, so I figured that it was time to format it. I read this on the apple website: http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201376 but that only tells me how to erase everything on the drive and reinstall OSX.

 

I have programs like Microsoft Word and Adobe Photoshop and also several games that I can't stick onto an external hard drive and put back onto my system after erasing the drive. I don't want to go into Time Machine and back EVERYTHING up becuase I don't want the junk and it will take too long. So I was wondering whether there is a way to clone specific apps and then put them back onto my mac afterwards without Time Machine? I have tried copying the applications from my apps folder in the dock right to my external hard drive, can they still be used after I drag them back into the applications folder?

[Enderman]

if you are doing a clean install you will need to reinstall apps and programs

as long as you have the activation code or key or whatever you can just redownload them easily

[Guilty Baby]

I bought a MacBook Pro in Early 2011 and throughout the years there has been more random junk going into the hard drive, so I figured that it was time to format it. I read this on the apple website: http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201376 but that only tells me how to erase everything on the drive and reinstall OSX.

 

I have programs like Microsoft Word and Adobe Photoshop and also several games that I can't stick onto an external hard drive and put back onto my system after erasing the drive. I don't want to go into Time Machine and back EVERYTHING up becuase I don't want the junk and it will take too long. So I was wondering whether there is a way to clone specific apps and then put them back onto my mac afterwards without Time Machine? I have tried copying the applications from my apps folder in the dock right to my external hard drive, can they still be used after I drag them back into the applications folder?

Can't you just copy the apps and the related application support files to a USB or external hard drive and then put it back when you reinstall. It should work since it's mac. You probably would just have to reactive them but it would save you download time. I mean most apps on mac don't even need an installation process, just drag and drop. Oh and if you just want to clean out junk you can just use Disk Inventory X to help you; it's like a mac version of WinDirStat. Hope I'm not too late.