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Fresh install or Upgrade?

Snow Leopard Install

  • Fresh install

    Votes: 122 55.2%

  • Just do the upgrade process

    Votes: 99 44.8%
  • Total voters
    221
T

TheKnifeFight

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 29, 2008
67
0
Socal
The inevitable question. Which do you guys/gals recommend most? Fresh install or upgrade from Leopard > Snow Leopard?

I have time machine active on an external HD at the moment.

Just need a simple answer on which is best.
 
fresh install - haven't done it on my machine since i got it (March '08)

although there is some stalk the 29 disc only does upgrades?? but i think that would be a stupid move for apple if it is true.
 
MKCLLNS said:
although there is some stalk the 29 disc only does upgrades?? but i think that would be a stupid move for apple if it is true.
Click to expand...

No, the upgrade disc should just check for Leopard before allowing SL to install. After the check, you should be able to choose Upgrade, Archive and Install, or Erase and Install.
 
r.j.s said:
No, the upgrade disc should just check for Leopard before allowing SL to install. After the check, you should be able to choose Upgrade, Archive and Install, or Erase and Install.
Click to expand...

I thought so - seeing people talk about it though.

Thought it would be incredibly stupid not to have this option....because at some point people will have to do a clean install with the disc
 
go with a fresh. not everything is going to be compatible right away so you might have apps that just won't work after the upgrade. your better off reinstalling them all and seeing what works.
 
I did an upgrade on my 20" iMac from Tiger to Leopard, and had absolutely no issues whatsoever. This time around I plan on doing the same thing on both my 20" and 24" iMacs, and a clean install on my MBP. I think just upgrading would work fine for most people if they tried it, but some like the knowledge that they are installing the OS cleanly on a freshly formatted disk.
 
Originally I was just going to do an upgrade. Now that I have thought about it more, I have a Time Machine backup, so I may just do a clean install and then restore what I need from Time Machine, assuming this route will work of course.
 
Fresh Install. I have made backups from all my photos, music and apps, and am going to wipe it all.

I did the upgrade deal when upgrading to Leopard, and had nothing but problems. Just going to skip all that trouble this time. Also hear SL installation will be faster so I want to see that for myself. Shouldn't be that bad.
 
doing the same as MacManiac .(originally was gonna upgrade) Thursday evening i hope to do a time machine back up. clean install snow leopard on friday, and browse the "time machine backups" folder in finder, and drag over what i need into their locations (movies, music,photos,documents) ect. Then manually install my applications again. I think thats the best way to have a fresh install, without having any of the left over pref files or anything.
 
r.j.s said:
No, the upgrade disc should just check for Leopard before allowing SL to install. After the check, you should be able to choose Upgrade, Archive and Install, or Erase and Install.
Click to expand...

So what happens if you have to re-install SL? Will we have to re-install Leopard first just so the SL disk can find it before it installs itself? That seems weird.

Also, if you do a clean install, is there a checklist of all the things you'll need first? Server info? Subnet masks? Software passwords, etc. etc.

mt
 
mysterytramp said:
So what happens if you have to re-install SL? Will we have to re-install Leopard first just so the SL disk can find it before it installs itself? That seems weird.
Click to expand...

Not sure yet ... maybe.

Also, if you do a clean install, is there a checklist of all the things you'll need first? Server info? Subnet masks? Software passwords, etc. etc.

mt
Click to expand...

I don't have a checklist ... and it's something I don't want to deal with - hence the upgrade.
 
You should add "Archive and Install" to the options which is what I will do. That's pretty much a fresh install with all your files automatically copied back to where they were on the old system.

S-
 
i don't really mind, even though i chose freshly install
either way work for me, as long as it's problem-free:)
 
ONLY DO A CLEAN INSTALL!!!

Check back to October/07 to see what happened when Leopard was released. Those who did upgrades got the blue screen! The clean install is the best way to go for OS upgrades.
 
I was unsure. But I have TM on a TC. I have an external superduper backup plus my digital assets are all on a drobo. And all my document files are stored on iDisk.

I think I have backup covered. So I will erase and install.

Plus I am having an issue with disk permissions that I can't seem to solve. I hope this might just fix things starting from scratch.
 
Time for the stupid question of the thread:

I usually do an upgrade, but with Archive and Install, does this leave all your apps and preferences intact and functional, or do you need to reinstall everything from scratch?

I'd like a fresh new system, but I have a lot of big apps which will take a long time to reinstall and then re-update (Adobe CS3, World of Warcraft, etc etc), which I don't really have time for, and half of the original discs are in a box in the loft...
 
Maybe a little to obvious, but if I do a fresh install on my MBP, will Snow Leopard read my time machine backup from 10.5.8 easily? Thus allowing me to put back all my files, music etc...
 
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