Does restoring from Time Machine still count as "clean" install?

[kylera]

When Lion came out, I made a USB with its image, booted my iMac with it and formatted the hard drive clean before installing Lion. I then followed up by manually installing the various apps I use.

With ML on the horizon, I was thinking of doing another clean install, only this time, instead of manually installing the apps, restoring from a Time Machine backup. However, would that still count as a "clean" install?

 

[Macman45]

Not really, your TM backups contain all the legacy your current setup is running...If you want a true clean installation, your original method is sell the way to go.

I'm not keen on the idea of installing Lion again on 3 Macs, only to have ML come down the pipe in a matter of days now, so am going to try the upgrade method this time. First on my MBP to see how it works out. If I have to start with a fresh installation, It'll be ML. on all three.

 

[kylera]

Would using Migration Assistant for Mountain Lion (or whatever it will be called), supposing something like this is included, minimize the clunk and just copy over the essentials? (Keychain, other settings, whatnot.) Or would that still be counted as all the legacy?

 

[Macman45]

Would using Migration Assistant for Mountain Lion (or whatever it will be called), supposing something like this is included, minimize the clunk and just copy over the essentials? (Keychain, other settings, whatnot.) Or would that still be counted as all the legacy?

Like I said in my first post, I'd leave things as is for now...It's only days away, and you can simply choose to upgrade to ML on release day. I'm sure Apple will release the same USB stick install App, but it probably won't be available on day one. Like I said, I'm going to try the upgrade on my MBP first...If I find it's issue free, then I'll do the same on my iMac and MBA...Have you got specific issues at the moment? If you have then a clean install using the uSB stick is the only true way to get a "fresh" copy of Lion installed...After that you can simply download your Apps again and restore your documents etc. from the TM backups....But if your Mac is running well, I'd wait...why install 2 OS's in the space of a few days...?

 

[kylera]

Like I said in my first post, I'd leave things as is for now...It's only days away, and you can simply choose to upgrade to ML on release day. I'm sure Apple will release the same USB stick install App, but it probably won't be available on day one. Like I said, I'm going to try the upgrade on my MBP first...If I find it's issue free, then I'll do the same on my iMac and MBA...Have you got specific issues at the moment? If you have then a clean install using the uSB stick is the only true way to get a "fresh" copy of Lion installed...After that you can simply download your Apps again and restore your documents etc. from the TM backups....But if your Mac is running well, I'd wait...why install 2 OS's in the space of a few days...?

I think we got a little sidetracked here - why would I want to install 2 OSes over a span of days indeed. I guess I should've said I installed Lion on day one.

But funnily enough, despite the sidetracks, you answered my question in the end