Doing a clean install of Mac OS X

[mgpg89]

I'd like to perform a clean install of Leopard on my Mac and 'start over' again. (due to some junk I got installed, error messages, slower overall system etc ... it's easier & quicker to do a clean install than to find out what the problems are and solve them)

How do I do this? Insert the OS X installation disc and boot from the disc? (start up holding C right?) ...

I'm gonna put some important documents / apps on an external drive.

Any pointers on how to succesfully move applications or just about the process in general?

 

[IJ Reilly]

What kind of "junk?"

Reinstalls are almost never necessary, and often a bad idea.

 

[i.shaun]

Reinstalls are sometimes necessary, though not often, and not for the reasons Windows must be.


I re did mine recently, and it runs much faster now. Over time, while screwing with things, trying new apps, learning about the mac in general (i was on a windows box for a while) I ended up slowing this thing down, and causing some problems.


I backed up everything I wanted to, and I'll make a quick list to see if there may be anything you missed.


-Music (back up iTunes library, not just the songs. Click link in my signature for more info)

-Photos (if you use iPhoto, copy the library file)

-mail (i just trashed it all, up to you. I have backups on the mobileme server anyway)

-Bookmarks

-Macros from keyboard maestro

-Calendar events

-NetNewsWire feeds

-incomplete torrents

-Documents

-movies/media

That's it for me.



I popped in my OS X Install disc, and ran it. I believe i rebooted the computer and the disc started it's own Disk Utility which I used to format the Internal HDD. I then installed Tiger all over again.

I ran updates, edited settings, installed programs, re-imported bookmarks, rss feeds, macros, calendars, documents, photos, and replaced my iTunes library with the saved one on the external HDD.

Everything was back to normal.

 

[dukebound85]

What kind of "junk?"

Reinstalls are almost never necessary, and often a bad idea.

bad idea how?

i agree with it being unnecessary but i dont know about being a bad idea other than wasting ones time

 

[IJ Reilly]

bad idea how?

i agree with it being unnecessary but i dont know about being a bad idea other than wasting ones time

First of all, any measure so drastic that isn't necessary is a bad idea, by definition. Second, if you're not extremely careful, you'll lose things you didn't want to lose. Third, if the problems you are experiencing are hardware-related, then you could end up making the problem worse. Fourth, if you don't know what software is causing your problems in the first place, you'll probably end up reinstalling the same junk and be right back to square one -- that is, if you're lucky.