Clean install Maverick when it comes out, how?

[Nutzer]

All,

I currently have Mountain Lion on my MBP Retina. When Maverick comes out in about a month, I would like to do a clean install since I'm still new to Macs and would like the experience of doing a clean install and restore from Time Machine.
I'm also using Time Machine for backing up my current MBP Retina.

So what are the steps in doing so? I know Mountain Lion is already there to be installed in a boot partition on the HD. But what happens when Maverick comes out? Do I need to clean install Mountain Lion then download and update to Maverick? What about restoring some of my settings and apps I backed up to Time Machine? How do I go about restoring those?

Thanks for any help and input!

 

[Weaselboy]

To get a true "clean install" with Mavericks you will need to DL the installer DMG from the App Store, but not install it so you still have the DMG. Then use that DMG to make a USB installer. If you search the forums you will find a couple users have posted how to make the USB installer with Mavericks.

Then option key boot to your Mavericks USB installer. Once it starts, use Disk Utility to erase the entire drive (not just Macintosh HD but the entire drive). Then click to install the OS.

When that is done you will have a clean install of nothing but Mavericks on the machine.

Thing is, if you use the TM backup to "restore" from, you have completely defeated the purpose of a clean install by just importing everything from the ML install right back into Mavericks. You can also use Migration Assistant at the end of the Mavs install to pull in your TM data, but same issue... you are just pulling in everything from before.

The true clean install involves manually reentering all your settings and manually dragging all your data files from the backup into the new Mavs install. You would need to do this for example with the Documents, Music, and Pictures folders, plus any other folders where you have data files.

It is not for the feint of heart and if you do not know what you are doing you can really mess things up.

I guess what I am getting at it, unless there is something really borked on your current system that is driving this clean install mission, I would not do it. Just install Mavs over top of ML.

 

[sjinsjca]

+1 for the advice not to do this.

Apple's update mechanism is very smooth and works brilliantly for the vast majority of users.

You can always do a clean install later.

Incidentally, I hope you are backing up to more than one hard disk, especially if you are considering doing something so radical to your system. Backups aren't infallible. Back in my PC days I had a backup hard disk fail within hours of a total system restore! Usually it's the other way around... Time Machine handles alternating backups very well, either via directly connected backup drives or wirelessly/continuously via Time Capsule (which is flippin' marvelous, BTW). Not to jinx things, but I've never had a problem with Time Machine.

 

[Nutzer]

Thanks for your input! There is really nothing borked on my current setup, but more for my experience and understanding. I know how to set up PC's like the back of my hand, just not very familiar with Macs. I will have to have some soul searching and see if I want to go through all those steps.

What I don't understand with Time Machine is, I can't just pick and choose what apps I want reinstalled? Its either reinstall/recover all or nothing? There are some specific apps I don't want to reinstall again, ie Parallels, MS Office 11 etc..

Thanks again.

 

[Weaselboy]

Thanks for your input! There is really nothing borked on my current setup, but more for my experience and understanding. I know how to set up PC's like the back of my hand, just not very familiar with Macs. I will have to have some soul searching and see if I want to go through all those steps.

If you just want to do this to see how it works (and I totally get that and have done it myself ), here is an idea.

Before you start make sure you have a current TM backup and set it aside. Then make a second TM backup on a second disk and use that to monkey around with for your Mavs clean install experiment.

This way if you get yourself completely sideways with Mavs, you can just option key boot to the ML TM backup you set aside. Start Disk Util and erase the entire disk, then click restore. That would put ML and all your data and apps back and get you where you were before.

What I don't understand with Time Machine is, I can't just pick and choose what apps I want reinstalled? Its either reinstall/recover all or nothing? There are some specific apps I don't want to reinstall again, ie Parallels, MS Office 11 etc..

There are three ways you can use TM in this context.

1. You can just option key boot from the TM disk and click restore. That completely restores the machine back to how it was as of the last backup. Everything is put back just like it was. You cannot pick and choose what you want... it is all or nothing.

2. You have a machine with just the OS on it, and you can run the Migration Assistant with the TM backup as the source for the data. This leaves the existing OS install iin place and just imports your user account and data and optionally your apps. There is some granularity in what data you want to import. You can for example elect to only bring in certain user folder and not others (like bring in Documents but not Music), but for apps it is all or nothing. Migration Assistant is most commonly used to bring data in to a new machine you purchased.

3. Option three is to actually open the Time Machine backup set in either the Finder or the star field TM interface and manually select what you want to restore from the backup. This works well for say a Documents folder, but not as well for most apps since you don't usually know all the files you need to bring in for the app to work. There are often app support files in system library folders that need to be brought in. You can see how if you are not careful you can mess things up with this third process.

 

[rocknblogger]

This is something I'm considering too. I do have some very annoying problems that tech support has not been able to help me with. The worst is that my rMBP will not sleep if its plugged in. As well as some other more minor issues.

When restoring after a clean install I want to selectively choose the apps that I want to restore. If someone can point me in the right direction I'd appreciate it.

 

[Weaselboy]

This is something I'm considering too. I do have some very annoying problems that tech support has not been able to help me with. The worst is that my rMBP will not sleep if its plugged in. As well as some other more minor issues.

When restoring after a clean install I want to selectively choose the apps that I want to restore. If someone can point me in the right direction I'd appreciate it.

There is no automated way to only restore certain apps. If you want a real "clean install", you will need to manually reinstall every app and manually reset every setting on your machine, then copy your data files (like documents and music MP3s etc) over from a backup.

 

[rocknblogger]

There is no automated way to only restore certain apps. If you want a real "clean install", you will need to manually reinstall every app and manually reset every setting on your machine, then copy your data files (like documents and music MP3s etc) over from a backup.

As much as it pains me I think I'm going to have to treat this as a new rMBP and start from scratch with the exception of photos and docs. Thanks anyway.

----------

If you just want to do this to see how it works (and I totally get that and have done it myself ), here is an idea.

Before you start make sure you have a current TM backup and set it aside. Then make a second TM backup on a second disk and use that to monkey around with for your Mavs clean install experiment.

This way if you get yourself completely sideways with Mavs, you can just option key boot to the ML TM backup you set aside. Start Disk Util and erase the entire disk, then click restore. That would put ML and all your data and apps back and get you where you were before.



There are three ways you can use TM in this context.

1. You can just option key boot from the TM disk and click restore. That completely restores the machine back to how it was as of the last backup. Everything is put back just like it was. You cannot pick and choose what you want... it is all or nothing.

2. You have a machine with just the OS on it, and you can run the Migration Assistant with the TM backup as the source for the data. This leaves the existing OS install iin place and just imports your user account and data and optionally your apps. There is some granularity in what data you want to import. You can for example elect to only bring in certain user folder and not others (like bring in Documents but not Music), but for apps it is all or nothing. Migration Assistant is most commonly used to bring data in to a new machine you purchased.

3. Option three is to actually open the Time Machine backup set in either the Finder or the star field TM interface and manually select what you want to restore from the backup. This works well for say a Documents folder, but not as well for most apps since you don't usually know all the files you need to bring in for the app to work. There are often app support files in system library folders that need to be brought in. You can see how if you are not careful you can mess things up with this third process.

Does option 2 restore settings/preferences? My goal is to have the cleanest OS possible. I don't really mind restoring all my apps as long as there are no remnants of Mountain Lion restored.

 

[Weaselboy]

Does option 2 restore settings/preferences? My goal is to have the cleanest OS possible. I don't really mind restoring all my apps as long as there are no remnants of Mountain Lion restored.

Yes it does. In the MA settings you can toggle that on or off if you like.

 

[rocknblogger]

Yes it does. In the MA settings you can toggle that on or off if you like.

Okay just so I'm clear on this. In Mavricks I can specify that I only want docs and apps and not settings/prefs. Is this correct?

 

[Weaselboy]

Okay just so I'm clear on this. In Mavricks I can specify that I only want docs and apps and not settings/prefs. Is this correct?

Just to be clear, this only indirectly involves Mavericks. If you do a clean install of the OS (Mavericks or otherwise) all you have is the OS on there. Then you would use the Migration Assistant (MA) utility to import data/settings. When you run Migration Assistant you have a list of checkboxes for what you want to import. You can UNcheck the settings box if you do not want settings imported.

 

[N-Y]

a friend of mine has snow leopard... will she need mountain lion to do clean install? or can we just do clean install from snow leopard.

also her specs are 2.4 GHz intel core 2 duo and 4GB 1067 mhz memory, will that be enough to run maverick smoothly?

 

[rocknblogger]

Just to be clear, this only indirectly involves Mavericks. If you do a clean install of the OS (Mavericks or otherwise) all you have is the OS on there. Then you would use the Migration Assistant (MA) utility to import data/settings. When you run Migration Assistant you have a list of checkboxes for what you want to import. You can UNcheck the settings box if you do not want settings imported.

Thanks this is perfect. Any idea what "other files" is? I'm guessing I'll see that also when I do this.

 

[Weaselboy]

Thanks this is perfect. Any idea what "other files" is? I'm guessing I'll see that also when I do this.

Those would be non-system files stored outside the normal user area. Most installation don't have any.

 

[rocknblogger]

Those would be non-system files stored outside the normal user area. Most installation don't have any.

Awesome, thanks for your help.

 

[msalman]

I was few weeks old mac user when SL came out and I did a clean install instead of updating leopard - it is not difficult to do if you are bit of tech savy. Updating instead of clean install is good too but I have read handful of people having some sort of issues after an update. It is a software, you never know what could happen due to your existing settings/apps etc. Hence, I have always done clean install and never had any issue. It gives me a peace of mind and it also helps to remove hidden/temporary junk on the system.

Best wishes for you and welcome to mac's world

 

[VidProQuo]

To get a true "clean install" with Mavericks you will need to DL the installer DMG from the App Store, but not install it so you still have the DMG. Then use that DMG to make a USB installer. If you search the forums you will find a couple users have posted how to make the USB installer with Mavericks.

Then option key boot to your Mavericks USB installer. Once it starts, use Disk Utility to erase the entire drive (not just Macintosh HD but the entire drive). Then click to install the OS.

When that is done you will have a clean install of nothing but Mavericks on the machine.

So let me just see if I understand this correctly, because I always back up and prefer clean installs. More minimal, the better.

- you need at least 10.6.8 (my sys) just to download Mavericks.
- once downloaded you make a USB installer from the DMG, which you can boot from.
- you don't need to install any prior OS (like 10.6.8) and can just install 10.9 from the USB after erasing your drive via Disk Utility.
- do Software Update.
- you manually install all apps from 10.9 compatible installers.
- you manually transfer any docs from your backup.

Sound right?

 

[benwiggy]

So let me just see if I understand this correctly, because I always back up and prefer clean installs. More minimal, the better.

- you need at least 10.6.8 (my sys) just to download Mavericks.
- once downloaded you make a USB installer from the DMG, which you can boot from.
- you don't need to install any prior OS (like 10.6.8) and can just install 10.9 from the USB after erasing your drive via Disk Utility.
- do Software Update.
- you manually install all apps from 10.9 compatible installers.
- you manually transfer any docs from your backup.

Sound right?

Yes. But just to hammer the point home, all that effort is unnecessary. OS X is DESIGNED to install itself in place of an existing OS version, with all your files and settings in place.
There is nothing particularly "more minimal" about removing everything, and then putting everything except a tiny bit back. There are very few advantages or benefits in doing this.

This is not Another OS™, where you need to do a clean install to fix any problem you have. Most problems in OS X can be fixed without recourse to a clean install.

In 11 years, I've reinstalled the same version (or earlier) of OS X maybe 3 times. Not all of those were necessary.

 

[Serban]

you can erase the both partitions? on my macbook air 2012 i can't erase the entire sad. only the mackintosh HDD...

 

[emseven]

There are compelling reasons to write zeroes to the drive and do a fresh install.

I understand where the gentleman is coming from when he says Apple is good at updating without issues but nothing beats clean install.

 

[BR3W]

There are compelling reasons to write zeroes to the drive and do a fresh install.

I understand where the gentleman is coming from when he says Apple is good at updating without issues but nothing beats clean install.

if being bored and reducing the lifespan of one's SSD are compelling reasons then I agree...otherwise no

 

[Weaselboy]

you can erase the both partitions? on my macbook air 2012 i can't erase the entire sad. only the mackintosh HDD...

That is because you are booted to the recovery partition and you can't erase it when you are running off it. You would need to either boot to Internet recovery (command-option-r) or a USB key then select the drive and it can be erased.

Really no need to do this though as a Mavs or ML/Lion OS Install will create a new recovery partition for you anyway.

 

[bleedblue12345]

One option would be to upgrade through the App Store as you would any other OS upgrade. Then, you can make a bootable install disk on a USB flash drive and erase your entire main drive (you cannot do this if you don't make a bootable disk as your hard drive cannot be accessed when it is wiped). Then you can just install through the recovery partition on the USB drive. It's fairly straightforward, but again you lose all settings etc.

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1433