Mac newbie needs help with where to start with old MacBook Pro
My wife and I bought our daughter a MacBook Pro 15", model A1286 in 2010, when she graduated high school. It started acting flaky a couple of years ago and wouldn't charge and she bought a new one and put the old one in her garage. She, her husband and our grandson have just moved in with us while they build a new home and the old MacBook fell into my lap. Our daughter knows I've always been a retro guy. While I've never been a Mac guy, and I really don't consider a laptop from 2010 as retro, it is pretty old in terms of laptops. I figured I could get it going again, help her backup some data off it, then reformat/refresh it and keep it on my workbench for when I want to do a quick Google search or something. It would also be neat to play around with and learn a little about Macs. The battery had swollen and its case had broken open, though nothing had ruptured or leaked out fortunately. I was finally able to remove the battery and I plan to order a new one soon. I've already ordered a power adapter/charger. Other than that, and being really dirty inside and needing a good cleaning and some TLC, it looks pretty good inside.
Here's where my lack of knowledge comes in. My only Apple experience is with various iPods over the past fifteen years, iPhones for the past eight years, and iPads for the past two. I don't know the first thing about Macs of any model. I have no idea how to go about performing a full refresh/reformat/reinstall once we get her stuff backed up.
Would anyone be able to offer some advice, or some links to help steer me in the right direction?
Thank you.
