Does Reinstalling Snow Leopard...

[w00t951]

Does reinstalling Snow Leopard delete your personal files or documents? My Mac won't boot, Target Disk Mode doesn't work, and I have tried repairing the disk. None of these work. My files are still on my HDD, so would reinstalling fix the corrupted system files and leave my personal files intact? Thanks.

 

[spinnerlys]

Does reinstalling Snow Leopard delete your personal files or documents? My Mac won't boot, Target Disk Mode doesn't work, and I have tried repairing the disk. None of these work. My files are still on my HDD, so would reinstalling fix the corrupted system files and leave my personal files intact? Thanks.

Yes.

 

[MrCheeto]

If you are able to boot to the Snow Leopard disc, you can Archive and Install, which will save all of your information and replace the system files.

If you're unable to do this, I could migrate your data off, install Snow Leopard, and then migrate it back automatically, meaning your applications, data and settings would be saved. Just pay to ship it back and forth and consider it a favor.

What happens if you try to repair the disk using the Snow Leopard install disc?

 

[MrFlynn]

Does reinstalling Snow Leopard delete your personal files or documents? My Mac won't boot, Target Disk Mode doesn't work, and I have tried repairing the disk. None of these work. My files are still on my HDD, so would reinstalling fix the corrupted system files and leave my personal files intact? Thanks.

You might try fixing permissions as well. This is also located in the Disk Utilities app when you boot from the CD. It only works on permissions of Apple system/application files, but it sounds like something in the system/libraries/core services might have gotten hammered.

You can try fixing permissions, if that doesnt work I would recommend an archive/install. Just reinstalling OSX will only effect the OS files, not your data. Your data will be there unless you choose to erase the disk during the reinstallation setup menus under "Customize."

 

[csmoot]

Snow Leopard automatically does an archive & install, there are no options for you to choose like in previous OS's. There's a more powerful disk utility software called Disk Warrior that may salvage your files and folders if all else fails. I've used it successfully to recover files on what I thought was a damaged hard drive.

 

[w00t951]

Thanks for the great replies. I was away from Internet for a while... Anyway, I'll first try reinstalling. Are there any "junk" files left over from the reinstall, similar to the XP to Vista upgrade left .dlls scattered all over the place? If so, how can I get rid of them?

 

[MrCheeto]

Are there any "junk" files left over from the reinstall, similar to the XP to Vista upgrade left .dlls scattered all over the place?

No.

Welcome to Apple. Forget all that Microsoft did to you in the past.