Does formatting a mac help?

[ajo]

I decided to get myself a MacBook Pro to replace my 2007 iMac. I did this for different reasons but one of them was that the iMac was running slow.

This has left me wondering as I have now formatted etc the iMac for the next user, if formatting has a good effect on macs? If I was to now replace everything that I had backed up (time machine) on the newly formatted Mac would it run the same as before which was slow, or would the format help?

I just had a try with the machine which has now gone back to Leopard, and has no files on it but internet browsing seems much much better... is this cus the drive is empty, is it Leopard... was Mavericks too much for a 2007 iMac...

 

[Tumbleweed666]

I wiped my old imac clean before sale and it was running so fast afterwards I wondered why I even bought a new one ! Seriously, it made a dramatic difference.

So at some point when my current mac starts to slow down I'll do a reformat and new install first.