can someone walk me thru on how to do a clean instal of lion?

[maf2k8]

Ok so i upgraded my 27" iMac to lion a few weeks ago thru the app store.

I am looking to do a clean instal ( wipe the machine, start for fresh ) but i do not want to lose all my music, photos and movies.

I do have a time machine backup.

How do i do a clean instal of lion? I dont have the downladed file nor do i have the USB drive, i just downloaded it from app store last week.

Once i do the clean instal, do i just drag and drop the videos, music and pics from my time machine from a previous date? to get them back on my imac?

I am a bit new, so any help would be great, thanks!

 

[simsaladimbamba]

When you installed Lion, the installer should have created a Recovery partition, maybe you can see it via Disk Utility.

If it is still there, you can start from that Recovery partition and do a clean install, and after that copy back the contents you want from the TM backup.

While the guides below is for 10.6, the same principles apply for Lion, except the medium (Recovery partition vs. external medium like DVD or USB flash memory thumb drive):

To create a Clean Install (formerly known as Erase & Install) of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard (the 29 USD Upgrade DVD is a fully working retail version of Mac OS X and does not need a prior installation of Mac OS X on the Mac), follow one of the following guides:
Short version: Clean Install of OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard
Long version: Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard: How to Erase and Install​

Make An OS X Lion Boot Disc

 

[maf2k8]

Ok, so i CAN do a clean instal and not worry about any of my documents, movies, pics, etc as i can just drag and drop them from my TM once i have performed the clean install?

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Ok, so i CAN do a clean instal and not worry about any of my documents, movies, pics, etc as i can just drag and drop them from my TM once i have performed the clean install?

Yes, if the recovery partition is there.
OS X Lion: About Lion Recovery

 

[niksimpsons]

... clean instal ( wipe the machine, start for fresh ) but i do not want to lose all my music, photos and movies.

If you want to wipe the machine you must have to take backup your data in any external drive because wiped data is hard to recover. The one and only one way to preserve data loss while wiping is take backup of the data (you can go for clone also) in the drive other than you going to wipe.

How do i do a clean instal of lion? I dont have the downladed file nor do i have the USB drive, i just downloaded it from app store last week.

For clean install you need to have boot DVD of the Mac os x lion and for which you need not to worry you can create boot DVD by following simple procedure here: http://www.macintosh-software.net/b...reating-bootable-disk-for-your-mac-os-x-lion/

.....to get them back on my imac?

To get back you data just restore from external drive.

 

[maf2k8]

Ok i am confused..

If i go into my timemachine , i can view all my movies, files, folders, pictures, etc..

So with that said, Can i do a clean instal ( format my iMac ) and once the clean install is finished, Can i simply go into my Time Machine and just drag and drop all my movies and pics, etc etc? Or when doing a clean instal, does it wipe my Time Machine to? or no?

 

[logana]

Ok i am confused..

If i go into my timemachine , i can view all my movies, files, folders, pictures, etc..

So with that said, Can i do a clean instal ( format my iMac ) and once the clean install is finished, Can i simply go into my Time Machine and just drag and drop all my movies and pics, etc etc? Or when doing a clean instal, does it wipe my Time Machine to? or no?

Please do not "drag and drop" anything from Time Machine......

When you have done a clean install of Lion you will see a dialogue box that asks whether you want to transfer information from a Time Machine disc (Migration Manager it used to be called)

Use that option - just make sure that you have a backup of everything you want before you clean instal Lion....

Why are you doing a clean install anyway ?

Your Time Machine backup is on an external drive isn't it ?

 

[maf2k8]

i would like to do a clean install because at times my machine seems to lag, i get the beach ball and it just doesnt act right at times.

My time machine IS on a external.

i have had my imac for about a year and a 1/2 now and with all the installing uninstalling programs and what not i think maybe it could use a fresh format and install.

So then as long as all my files are on the time machine i will be ok do a format and clean install?

 

[Sc00tr]

i would like to do a clean install because at times my machine seems to lag, i get the beach ball and it just doesnt act right at times.

My time machine IS on a external.

i have had my imac for about a year and a 1/2 now and with all the installing uninstalling programs and what not i think maybe it could use a fresh format and install.

So then as long as all my files are on the time machine i will be ok do a format and clean install?

If it were me I would also make a bootable clone and test it out before I start any thing. Sometimes TM's can have a corrupt backup and when you reinstall that it not the time to find out.

 

[HnZ]

I did a reinstall too, 3 days ago... ported everything with my TM-Backup, but I think it is a better solution to install every app new! In my eyes, my machine is lagging around, like before the clean install... Later today I will do another clean install (installing every app new, only copy my music, pictures and documents...)...

I will let you know how it works then! Will be a lot of work, but until I always used my TM-Backup from my MacBook 2008 to every new machine, I think it's time to do a real-real clean install...

Anyone has a idea how to export all of my keys for websites, wlan ecc? would like to skip some steps... (I think everyone knows how much work it is to configure a mac (all new... =/ )

edit: clean install without importing the backup worked very well... mbp seems to be work better! =)