Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Amorino

macrumors newbie
Jul 27, 2010
14
0
This might sound like a dumb question, but how do I go about getting iLife again after doing a clean install? My MBPR came with iLife/Lion preinstalled, so if I do a clean install of ML, I would have to format first. And I'm pretty sure ML from app store won't have iLife preinstalled (or will it?) since the gold master I'm using right now doesn't have it.

I have the same question.
 

Bear

macrumors G3
Jul 23, 2002
8,088
5
Sol III - Terra
This might sound like a dumb question, but how do I go about getting iLife again after doing a clean install? My MBPR came with iLife/Lion preinstalled, so if I do a clean install of ML, I would have to format first. And I'm pretty sure ML from app store won't have iLife preinstalled (or will it?) since the gold master I'm using right now doesn't have it.
Go into the App Store and check to see what you have purchased. iLife should register itself the first time you use the App Store application on any Mac that came with Lion and iLife preinstalled. Just make sure you do this before you wipe the disk.
 

Nozuka

macrumors 68040
Jul 3, 2012
3,527
5,996
thats how it was on my retina. i had to manually download it from the appstore, but it was for free.
 

qCzar

macrumors regular
Feb 27, 2011
218
54
SFBA, CA
I'll be doing an install ontop of Lion. I have my Time Machine backups but I have too much info to selectively decide what to bring over after a clean install.

It looks like Apple may be taking a similar approach to OSX as it has with the iPhone. Every 2 versions are a big release. Leopard and iPhone 3Gs, Snow Leopard and iPhone 4, Lion and iPhone 4s, Mountain Lion and ???? -- we'll see.

Fixed that for you. :) It doesn't exactly correlate anymore, though.
 

iHateMacs

macrumors 6502a
Aug 13, 2008
654
24
Coventry, UK
The only clean install I have done was Leopard on my 2008 MBP.

Leopard to SL to Lion and now to ML have all been upgrades.

Both my machines have been done like this and I don't notice any problems.

When I used Windows I always did clean installs and the speed increase was always noticeable.
 

DeuceDeuce

macrumors 6502a
Aug 8, 2007
821
1
San Dimas, CA
Quick question, I did a clean install of ML on a extra drive I had just to make sure nothing went wacky with my normal OS drive. The install went great and once I got everything working I made cloned the extra drive to my normal OS drive but the recovery partition didn't clone with it. Can I install just the recovery partition or not. I know I can just keep the .dmg ML around on a flash drive incase anything happens but is there any other benefit to having the recovery partition?
 

mackid1993

macrumors member
Aug 16, 2009
84
0
I plan on upgrading my friends's late 2008 Unibody Macbook (5,1 2.0 gHz C2D 8GB RAM) to the Gold Master tomorrow. I did a clean install of Lion, wiping the copy of Leopard that was on there, back in late January. For the record, I cloned the drive and used migration assistant to put everything back on. I also reinstalled all of the applications that she uses.

Is a clean install really worth the effort, or should everything be stable with a Lion to ML upgrade?
 

danb77

macrumors 6502
Sep 4, 2007
442
3
Upgrade worked wonderfully for me. Depends how crudded up with old software your system is. For 90% of users upgrade will be the way to go.
 

eddiexhart

macrumors regular
Dec 13, 2008
214
19
North Hollywood CA
I'm curious to do a clean install. Can anybody advise me how to do so if I have a 2nd HD installed in the optical bay? I use that one strictly for my music.
How do I got about keeping my iTunes the same (ex. Keep the playlists, iPhone back ups, etc.)
 

slynger

macrumors regular
Mar 1, 2010
153
12
okay, one final question as I've never done a clean install nor had to migrate anything via Time Machine.

Once I create the ML installer on a USB and install, how difficult is it or what is the process to manually migrate things over from time machine?

Thanks for all the help so far.
 

danb77

macrumors 6502
Sep 4, 2007
442
3
Once I create the ML installer on a USB and install, how difficult is it or what is the process to manually migrate things over from time machine?

If you use Migration Assistant, this is easy. But remember to select carefully what you want Migration Assistant to copy over. If you leave the default it will copy everything and you'll have the same scenario as just doing a non-Clean-Install upgrade.

I'd recommend against trying to copy files from Time Machine manually. It will be slow, fiddly and you may have permissions issues.
 

pexel

macrumors member
Jun 2, 2008
67
16
But remember to select carefully what you want Migration Assistant to copy over.

So, essentially only select Desktop, Documents, Movies, Music, Pictures. This won't transfer any of the preference files in ~/Library, right?
 

danb77

macrumors 6502
Sep 4, 2007
442
3
So, essentially only select Desktop, Documents, Movies, Music, Pictures. This won't transfer any of the preference files in ~/Library, right?

If you don't check the option to transfer settings and preferences it won't transfer them.
 

oMc

macrumors 6502a
Oct 17, 2010
636
611
Finland & France
Update for me. I have performed a clean install of Lion one year ago, and my Mac is running fast, without any bug. So I have no need to perform a clean install.

Also, I tried both the clean install and the update using the ML GM, and both gave me satisfaction.
 

markrox7

macrumors 6502
Apr 17, 2011
252
0
This might sound like a dumb question, but if I do a clean install, and let's say my iLife apps are wiped, can I just restore those apps from my Time Machine backup? (same goes for all my other apps that would get wiped.) 
 
Last edited:

MacHiavelli

macrumors 65816
May 17, 2007
1,253
913
new york
For me, *manually* copying files and reinstalling programs over after a clean install is a major hassle, especially having to re-setup user settings.

I really don't want to spend hours resetting up my 14 email accounts and the 103 signatures I've got attached to those different accounts, let alone spending ages with different programs to reconfig the user menus/ribbons to be the way I like them.

I will wipe the hard drive and do a clean install of ML, but I'll then use a TM backup to bring over my files and settings.

This has worked better (for me) in the past than doing in place upgrades. I have done upgrades in the past, but found them to be buggy/slow. Clean installs and then copying TM files has worked well, resulted in a faster Mac, and saved a few gigs of space.

May not be as good as a clean install and a manual move of files and reinstallation of programs, but an improvement over a simple in place upgrade in my experience.
 

duncyboy

macrumors 6502a
Feb 5, 2008
724
1
Screen Shot 2012-07-31 at 09.14.15.png

Love it
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.