Fresh Install of El Capitan

[aksoy80]

Hello,
I am fairly new OS X user so I did a lot of install, uninstalls and changed many things on the Yosemite. So I would like to to do a fresh install of El Capitan once it's released. What will be my best option to do it?
Regards.

 

[chabig]

You'll lose all of your tweaks if you clean install. But if that's what you want, just back up your disk to an external. Then reboot to the recovery partition, use disk utility to erase the internal drive, and install El Cap. On your first boot, you'll be asked during setup if you want to migrate from another machine. Choose yes, and take the applications and data from the external disk.

 

[aksoy80]

You'll lose all of your tweaks if you clean install. But if that's what you want, just back up your disk to an external. Then reboot to the recovery partition, use disk utility to erase the internal drive, and install El Cap. On your first boot, you'll be asked during setup if you want to migrate from another machine. Choose yes, and take the applications and data from the external disk.

thanks for the reply. Is this method called internet recovery?

 

[chabig]

thanks for the reply. Is this method called internet recovery?

Not exactly. There is a hidden partition on your hard drive with enough of an OS to boot the machine. Internet recovery is when that partition doesn't exist and the machine actually boots over the internet. You could take the hard drive out and it would still boot.

 

[definitive]

This is how I do a clean install of a new OSX:

-Backup my documents
-Download it through the App Store
-Use DiskMaker X to create an installer USB drive
-Boot off of the USB, erase the old OSX partition, install new OSX, and configure it
-Install the applications
-Test to make sure they all launch, save, and close correctly
-Restore documents from backup

On a SSD, this usually takes up to two hours. I usually don't bother backing up apps/app and system settings (unless it's something very specific), because sometimes things can go wrong, and then I'll be scratching my head, wondering why things are crashing or working slow.

 

[aksoy80]

thank you for the answers.

 

[mattburley7]

how long does it typically take to do a fresh install of el capitan? for those who ran the GM version

 

[skiabox]

How can I download it somewhere (for doing a clean install) since there is only an install button at the app store?

 

[The.316]

This is how I do a clean install of a new OSX:

-Backup my documents
-Download it through the App Store
-Use DiskMaker X to create an installer USB drive
-Boot off of the USB, erase the old OSX partition, install new OSX, and configure it
-Install the applications
-Test to make sure they all launch, save, and close correctly
-Restore documents from backup

On a SSD, this usually takes up to two hours. I usually don't bother backing up apps/app and system settings (unless it's something very specific), because sometimes things can go wrong, and then I'll be scratching my head, wondering why things are crashing or working slow.

This is what I pretty much do. I back up all my documents, pics, and music. Ill clean install, then reinstall apps, and then my stuff, after everything seems to be ready to go.

Does anyone know if we need to run any 3rd party software for SSDs again, for TRIM? I remember reading that the new OS will support TRIM on 3rd party SSDs.

 

[deany]

can someone add a poll to this thread please

upgrade...or

fresh install

would really appreciate it, cheers

 

[KALLT]

How can I download it somewhere (for doing a clean install) since there is only an install button at the app store?

It will not actually install it, it will download an installer that opens after the download is complete. There are instructions for creating a boot image from this from previous years, just do a web search.

Honestly though, just back up your data, let the installer create/update the recovery partition, reboot into Recovery and wipe your main partition and install Capitan again from the recovery partition. There is no particular reason why you would need to do this from a USB in this case (just a bit quicker), as the complete installer is already on your recovery partition.

 

[SymptomFinger]

This is how I do a clean install of a new OSX:

-Backup my documents
-Download it through the App Store
-Use DiskMaker X to create an installer USB drive
-Boot off of the USB, erase the old OSX partition, install new OSX, and configure it
-Install the applications
-Test to make sure they all launch, save, and close correctly
-Restore documents from backup

On a SSD, this usually takes up to two hours. I usually don't bother backing up apps/app and system settings (unless it's something very specific), because sometimes things can go wrong, and then I'll be scratching my head, wondering why things are crashing or working slow.

Is there an advantage to using the USB method over the recovery method?

 

[skiabox]

It will not actually install it, it will download an installer that opens after the download is complete. There are instructions for creating a boot image from this from previous years, just do a web search.

Honestly though, just back up your data, let the installer create/update the recovery partition, reboot into Recovery and wipe your main partition and install Capitan again from the recovery partition. There is no particular reason why you would need to do this from a USB in this case (just a bit quicker), as the complete installer is already on your recovery partition.

Thank you so much for the information.
But I am a little confused.
Can I do a clean install without a usb drive?
Is it possible?
I don't want to keep previous applications or settings.
I am asking because all my web searching about clean install returned the usb drive method.

 

[definitive]

Is there an advantage to using the USB method over the recovery method?

It's just quicker in my opinion (if you have a spare USB drive). In case something goes wrong during installation, and you have to reinstall, then you don't have to wait to redownload it.

 

[KALLT]

Thank you so much for the information.
But I am a little confused.
Can I do a clean install without a usb drive?
Is it possible?
I don't want to keep previous applications or settings.
I am asking because all my web searching about clean install returned the usb drive method.

There is a hidden partition on your hard drive, called Recovery. When you reboot your Mac and press the command + R keys before and until the Apple logo appears, your Mac will boot into that partition. From there you can wipe the main partition on which OS X is installed and install OS X directly from this recovery system. It is still a clean install, because your system needs to be installed from scratch. When you do this from a USB drive then the installer will still create the same recovery partition for you in addition to a clean install of the system. When you launch the El Capitan installer after downloading, it will first update the Recovery partition with the installer files for El Capitan. After that it will automatically reboot into the recovery partition and kickstart the installation. Instead you can just boot into Recovery yourself.

 

[jphjph]

If I do a fresh USB install can I restore my photos and music from a previous Time Machine backup, they are all backed up to iCloud but would save me having to download 60GB of data.

 

[skiabox]

There is a hidden partition on your hard drive, called Recovery. When you reboot your Mac and press the command + R keys before and until the Apple logo appears, your Mac will boot into that partition. From there you can wipe the main partition on which OS X is installed and install OS X directly from this recovery system. It is still a clean install, because your system needs to be installed from scratch. When you do this from a USB drive then the installer will still create the same recovery partition for you in addition to a clean install of the system. When you launch the El Capitan installer after downloading, it will first update the Recovery partition with the installer files for El Capitan. After that it will automatically reboot into the recovery partition and kickstart the installation. Instead you can just boot into Recovery yourself.

So I should let the installer start the installation and only interfere after the first restart by pressing command + R ?