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Clean install on new SSD?

E

endlightend

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 5, 2013
43
0
Hey guys, just today I received the new 250GB SSD that I want to swap for the 500GB HDD in my late 2011 MBP. I wasn't even considering this until I upgraded to Mavericks and experienced severe slowdown on the whole computer. (the only thing that got quicker for me was Safari) Since I was running Lion before, I didn't want to downgrade back and lose all the Mountain Lion features. I heard from some users that a possible reason for slowing down instead of having a speed increase on Mavericks was installing it on top of an existing OS instead of a clean install. I don't know if that has been debunked, but I figured it wouldn't be a bad time to upgrade to an SSD either.
So I have a few questions- what are the first steps to getting a clean install of Mavericks on my new SSD? (Should I clone my old drive onto the SSD first?)
With a clean install, should I backup my data on an external and then manually transfer over, or can I use my existing Time Machine backup?
Thanks!
 
endlightend said:
Hey guys, just today I received the new 250GB SSD that I want to swap for the 500GB HDD in my late 2011 MBP. I wasn't even considering this until I upgraded to Mavericks and experienced severe slowdown on the whole computer. (the only thing that got quicker for me was Safari) Since I was running Lion before, I didn't want to downgrade back and lose all the Mountain Lion features. I heard from some users that a possible reason for slowing down instead of having a speed increase on Mavericks was installing it on top of an existing OS instead of a clean install. I don't know if that has been debunked, but I figured it wouldn't be a bad time to upgrade to an SSD either.
So I have a few questions- what are the first steps to getting a clean install of Mavericks on my new SSD? (Should I clone my old drive onto the SSD first?)
With a clean install, should I backup my data on an external and then manually transfer over, or can I use my existing Time Machine backup?
Thanks!
Click to expand...

Personally, I would manually transfer files over.
 
endlightend said:
Hey guys, just today I received the new 250GB SSD that I want to swap for the 500GB HDD in my late 2011 MBP. I wasn't even considering this until I upgraded to Mavericks and experienced severe slowdown on the whole computer. (the only thing that got quicker for me was Safari) Since I was running Lion before, I didn't want to downgrade back and lose all the Mountain Lion features. I heard from some users that a possible reason for slowing down instead of having a speed increase on Mavericks was installing it on top of an existing OS instead of a clean install. I don't know if that has been debunked, but I figured it wouldn't be a bad time to upgrade to an SSD either.
So I have a few questions- what are the first steps to getting a clean install of Mavericks on my new SSD? (Should I clone my old drive onto the SSD first?)
With a clean install, should I backup my data on an external and then manually transfer over, or can I use my existing Time Machine backup?
Thanks!
Click to expand...

Ok, you are going to need an external HDD enclosure.

Plug the new drive in the enclosure and plug it in, format the new drive with "Disk utility" - Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
Run OSX install - must be 10.6 Snow Leopard or up and install on the new drive.
Update to OSX Mavericks.
Once the all that is done, use the "Migration Assistant" to move programs, users and files to new drive.

When that is done, shut down your machine properly and swap drives.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Are there specific advantages to doing the clean install vs. copying your existing HDD via CCC or similar apps?

I'm looking to upgrade my late 2011 MBP 13 to a Samsung 512GB SSD and was thinking of copying the HDD and then installing the SSD. Just curious if one way is preferred or has any adavatntabes over the other.
Thanks!
 
Thanks for the tips all. I'm tempted to grit my teeth and just transfer manually because I've never used migration assistant before- anyone ever had problems with it?

Pat Park,
If you're not experiencing any issues with your current setup a clone of your drive should be just fine. I've heard that when updating to a new OS it's recommended to do a clean install so there are no leftover permissions/library files that will take up space on your hard drive on the new OS. I'm experiencing that issue now after updating to Mavericks, and I haven't done a format of my HD since buying my MBP in 2011 so I figured it wouldn't hurt to see if I could squeeze some extra performance after swapping for the SSD.
 
endlightend said:
Thanks for the tips all. I'm tempted to grit my teeth and just transfer manually because I've never used migration assistant before- anyone ever had problems with it?

Pat Park,
If you're not experiencing any issues with your current setup a clone of your drive should be just fine. I've heard that when updating to a new OS it's recommended to do a clean install so there are no leftover permissions/library files that will take up space on your hard drive on the new OS. I'm experiencing that issue now after updating to Mavericks, and I haven't done a format of my HD since buying my MBP in 2011 so I figured it wouldn't hurt to see if I could squeeze some extra performance after swapping for the SSD.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info!
I too have a late 2011 MBP running Mavericks and have no issues at all right now, just lusting after the quick loading that an SSD gives you. I think I'm going to pull the trigger and get the 1TB samsung 840 EVO and do the Cloning method.

Good luck on the migration and thanks again for the info.
 
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