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What do you think of Clean Installs

smallnshort247

smallnshort247

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 23, 2010
531
8
Hey all,

I have a 15 inch 2010 MBP. When I got it, I migrated all my info from my previous MB. About 4-5 months into using it I started having issues w/ Kernel Panics. I did upgrade the HDD and RAM but the Kernel Panics happened before all of that. I took it to the Apple store and they ran some test on the hardware and software and said they couldn't find anything. Their advice was to just do a clean install. I wanted to avoid doing a clean install on all costs. I think of clean installs kind of like moving out of your old house and moving into a new one. The big thing about that is that you usually can't bring everything from your old house w/ you to your new one. Anywho, I said what the who last night and backed up important files and did the clean install,

I have to say that the computer feels much more stable now. I was having a lot of little issues w/ Snow Leopard prior to the clean install. Most of that probably comes w/ me playing around w/ settings a bit too much. Also, I'll admit, I do torrent some software. In my opinion, thats what caused the kernel panics. Only time will tell if I continue to get kernel panics even after a clean install, but I think I'm good to go.

So, do you guys prefer doing clean installs or just migrating your data? When Lion comes out, will you clean install or migrate to it?
 
Intell

Intell

macrumors P6
Jan 24, 2010
18,955
509
Inside
I do a clean install then manually move over my data and settings. It makes for a stable and clean system.
 
0007776

0007776

Suspended
Jul 11, 2006
6,473
8,170
Somewhere
I usually do not do a clean install. It seems like too much work for me and I haven't had any problems with upgrades.
 
panzer06

panzer06

macrumors 68040
Sep 23, 2006
3,282
229
Kilrath
No clean installs for me.

If it works I just move the hd from old to new machine. I've even cloned iMac to MBP and back. Just change the network name and keep working. I've no time for clean installs an reinstalling all that software.

Some software can tell and requires reinstall but most just work.

Cheers,
 
stridemat

stridemat

Moderator
Staff member
Apr 2, 2008
11,364
863
UK
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7E18 Safari/528.16)

I would always use migration assistant. If, after doing this I had problems I would then try a clean install.
 
S

skiltrip

macrumors 68030
May 6, 2010
2,894
268
New York
panzer06 said:
No clean installs for me.

If it works I just move the hd from old to new machine. I've even cloned iMac to MBP and back. Just change the network name and keep working. I've no time for clean installs an reinstalling all that software.

Some software can tell and requires reinstall but most just work.

Cheers,
Click to expand...

Would you say just putting the hard drive in he new mac is a better alternative than making a time machine backup, then setting up your new mac from that?
 
Last edited:
D

DiScO197

macrumors regular
Jul 27, 2008
162
1
Maybe you could try installing the 10.6.6 combo update? Not sure if that would help you but it seemed to cure some ills for me a while ago when applying the combo updater. Just a thought, perhaps someone more knowledgeable on the subject could confirm if this is worth a try?

Cheers.
 
E

Eddyisgreat

macrumors 601
Oct 24, 2007
4,851
2
Clean install for me. Deactivate big ticket apps, manual remove smaller apps (allows me to export preferences and make a list of what I had installed and to make sure I still want it), export bookmarks, export mailbox, remove extra user profiles, and copy my user data (\user\desktop,documents,downloads,movies,music,pictures).

Then on the new install I simply download the latest packages of everything I need, reinstall/activate big ticket items, and import data.

Once I get OS X server figured out, I should be able to skip that last step in the future since all my data will be stored on the server anyway.
 
Z

zodqyv

macrumors regular
Mar 28, 2010
222
0
I do a clean install on all of my machines with every major MacOS release. I backup my data both locally and with Carbonite so its a pretty easy process to reload everything after the OS install.
 
J

jenzjen

macrumors 68000
Aug 20, 2010
1,734
6
Your house moving analogy is exactly why I do a clean install probably annually. I want to move out and not take everything with me from before, only copy back what I need and leave the other stuff behind. Makes from a relatively fresh and stable machine. I avoid migration, because I don't want all those random OS files, libraries, etc from things I don't really need coming with me.
 
rychencop

rychencop

macrumors 65816
Aug 17, 2007
1,107
10
Georgia
i do a clean install about once per year just to remove crap. i have never had any issues that required a clean install. just remember to back up all your data.
 
panzer06

panzer06

macrumors 68040
Sep 23, 2006
3,282
229
Kilrath
benhollberg said:
So do you all not recommend setting up a new Mac from a Time Machine backup?
Click to expand...

I've personally never used Time Machine. If the machine is not compatible with just moving the drive, I use the load that came with the new machine and use the migration assistant to move the data and applications.

Cheers,
 
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