Clean install or clone current drive?

[waltervt]

Hi everybody!

I'm getting a new hard drive for my MacBook Pro 5,5 (13,3", 2.53GHz C2D, 4GB RAM, 250GB HD) and I'm wondering if I should do a clean install of OS X Lion and manually copy my data or using migration assistant; OR clone my current drive to the new one and leave everything as it is. I believe that doing a fresh install will make my Mac a bit faster and improve it's performance.

Well, I hope you can help me!

Thank you for reading

Cheers.

Walter

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MacBook Pro 5,5 (13,3") Mid 2009; 2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor; 4GB (2x2GB) RAM; Factory 250GB 5400RPM HD; OS X Lion 1.7.2
iPod Touch 3rd Generation 32GB; iOS 5

 

[rossip]

Clean install, aways clean install.

 

[Weaselboy]

Unless you are having some sort of specific problem that you think a fresh install will fix, it is a big waste of time. Just do a clone.

 

[robgendreau]

Clean installs are usually a waste of time. But when you are installing onto a new drive you end up doing them by default. I'd install the system software and migrate (I usually put the drive I yank from the machine into an enclosure and then migrate from that). A clone would work, but it's slower. Copying data manually is also unnecessary and a time waster, unless you have a bare minimum of stuff. If for some reason you have hassles with the migration you can always just reformat the drive and proceed with one of the slower methods.

 

[jblagden]

Migrate - Migration Assistant?

Clean installs are usually a waste of time. But when you are installing onto a new drive you end up doing them by default. I'd install the system software and migrate (I usually put the drive I yank from the machine into an enclosure and then migrate from that). A clone would work, but it's slower. Copying data manually is also unnecessary and a time waster, unless you have a bare minimum of stuff. If for some reason you have hassles with the migration you can always just reformat the drive and proceed with one of the slower methods.

By "migrate", do you mean install the OS and then use Migration assistant to migrate everything over?

I would just be concerned because I'll be using a Solid State Drive that's smaller than my hard drive, so I'd end up having to temporarily relocate files to another drive ahead of time and the copy them back over, which could take a couple days. I think I'd just go with a clone.

 

[SuperKerem]

Clean install and copy over any essentials.

 

[Rachel Faith]

I have never done a clean install since the intel macs came out. I upgrade 6 different macs and always clone for speed. OSX is not dirty like XP. Cloning is fine: Unless you ARE having problems. If all is well, clone.