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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
xUKHCx said:
iLife should be on the grey install disks that came with your computer. Pop the first disk in and then select "Install Bundled Software Only" and from there you can install the version of iLife that came with your computer. I believe it is actually stored on the second disc so it is worth checking that both the discs are in good nick before doing so.
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Thanks. :)
 
I'm going for clean install but should I choose Archive and Install or Erase and Install? I of course have a backup but is there any benefits if I go for Erase and Install because I have to copy everything back to HD?
 
I am doing an upgrade. It's just easy as that. Apple will not be giving it as an option if it will degrade the quality, speed, etc. of Snow Leopard.

I come from a PC background and have been using Macs for 4 years now. Yes, a clean install of Windows can sometimes be better but then I also opted to upgrade to Vista from Windows XP with no problems at all.

I upgraded from Tiger to Leopard and had no problems, compatibilitywise and speedwise.

I can understand if some people here have been installing crap in their Leopard for the past few months and have been getting sloppy Leopard performance. But if you're not experiencing any problems now, why do a clean install?

Listen people, make it an easy and painless decission. Upgrade! If you have problems later on then clean install...which I doubt you will.

Let the upgrade speak for itself and let it run it's course and judge it later.
 
donster28 said:
I am doing an upgrade. It's just easy as that. Apple will not be giving it as an option if it will degrade the quality, speed, etc. of Snow Leopard.

I come from a PC background and have been using Macs for 4 years now. Yes, a clean install of Windows can sometimes be better but then I also opted to upgrade to Vista from Windows XP with no problems at all.

I upgraded from Tiger to Leopard and had no problems, compatibilitywise and speedwise.

I can understand if some people here have been installing crap in their Leopard for the past few months and have been getting sloppy Leopard performance. But if you're not experiencing any problems now, why do a clean install?

Listen people, make it an easy and painless decission. Upgrade! If you have problems later on then clean install...which I doubt you will.

Let the upgrade speak for itself and let it run it's course and judge it later.
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Good advice, I will be doing just this. :)
 
I will do an upgrade. I've never done a clean install in over 6 years of using Macs and don't intend to start now.
 
Clean install.

I have backed up all my data to an external drive in preparation for a clean install.
Over this past week, I've been trying out a bunch of apps just to see if I like any, and its slowly filling up my drive. So, a clean install will force me to just keep the apps I like without all the junk plists lying around.
 
dangermou5e said:
I bought my first Mac in June this year and I've not installed much apart from MSN, the Office 08 suite and Firefox. Do I need to do a fresh install guys? Bare in mind this is the first time I've ever upgraded an OS on a mac, so go light on the technical stuff :D
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Same as me...I think we'll be fine with just the upgrade.
 
i pre-ordered my SL back in July but have been running it for months.

wanted to give my recent findings here.

with the first beta i started using i did a fresh install. i cant remember which one it was but i believe i upgraded 3 times. anyway when the last GM (now known to be retail) version was released i inserted the DVD and let it do its thing not knowing if it was going to upgrade or fresh install but after it was done it was an upgrade because all my stuff was still there :)

i ran this was until yesterday when i decided to reformat my drive and start with a fresh install and OOH MY is it much better. it boots so much quicker and everything is a little snappier. upgrade works but i saw a noticeable increase in performance when i did a fresh install.

this was on my 13" Macbook Pro

i will definitely be fresh installing all of my machines which is what i had always preferred anyway.

it would be great if someone else would do this as well because i am certain they will find a fresh outperforms an upgrade every time. it only makes sense that although an upgrade will work fine a clean slate is going to eliminate even the smallest of things that might be missed in an upgrade.
 
once we are all upgraded to SL, what if something should happen were we need to wipe out the drive and do a fresh install or down the road i decide to do a fresh install and wipe the entire drive, how will i be able to install SL if there is no Leopard on the computer for the fresh install, because i never got a disc for leopard when i bought my imac, and people are saying that SL wont install unless it verifies leopard is already on there.
 
STC1709 said:
once we are all upgraded to SL, what if something should happen were we need to wipe out the drive and do a fresh install or down the road i decide to do a fresh install and wipe the entire drive, how will i be able to install SL if there is no Leopard on the computer for the fresh install, because i never got a disc for leopard when i bought my imac, and people are saying that SL wont install unless it verifies leopard is already on there.
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all i did was but in the disk and it installed without any evidence of me having Leopard. i have a feeling that if you have a machine that was originally shipped with Leopard it will install a fresh install without anything but if your machine is older it will require either installing Leopard first or some kind of proof of Leopard ownership by inserting the disc or something.

this is only my guess but it would seem easy enough for SL to perform a quick hardware check and know the Mac was pre or post Leopard. again just a guess.
 
FWIW the "Archive & Install" option is now the default install, though it's not called "Archive & Install" anymore. What is truly gone is install in place, where the installer just deleted obsolete files, installed new files, and left everything else alone -- at least in theory.

At any rate, I'm going to do a regular install on my newish 13" MBP since I don't have a whole lot of crap on it yet. My older 15" MBP has two years worth of junk on it and needs a good cleaning anyway, so it will get the clean install treatment when I get the chance.
 
I read in a few places that an fresh install wasn't possible, hopefully that's untrue.
 
Andy-V said:
I read in a few places that an fresh install wasn't possible, hopefully that's untrue.
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if my disc of SL is 10A432 and it is now confirmed that the release version is 10A432 and i mentioned a few posts above that i just did a fresh install then i have to say that a fresh install is possible since i just performed one last night on a freshly formatted drive.

unless there is going to be something in the upgrade version that differ from the full version other than a check system of some kind.
 
If I'm using Time Machine and choose Erase and Install, will it ask me if I want to restore from a Time Machine backup after Snow Leopard is installed? If it does, will it restore just my documents/music/pictures or installed programs too? I would rather just reinstall programs myself since I only have iWork, Handbrake, and VLC installed lol.
 
fletch33 said:
all i did was but in the disk and it installed without any evidence of me having Leopard. i have a feeling that if you have a machine that was originally shipped with Leopard it will install a fresh install without anything but if your machine is older it will require either installing Leopard first or some kind of proof of Leopard ownership by inserting the disc or something.

this is only my guess but it would seem easy enough for SL to perform a quick hardware check and know the Mac was pre or post Leopard. again just a guess.
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ahh alright thanks man
 
I'm doing an upgrade for the first time, I've always done a fresh install before...but I installed Leopard on my machine fresh like 5 months ago, and haven't installed any haxies.

If I have beachball/speed issues I'll go do a clean install, but until those things happen I'll just stick with the upgrade.
 
assuming my iMac can run the full 64bit Snow Leopard, will an upgrade make sure that it is as 64bit as it can be!?!?
 
DarkRyan323i said:
If I'm using Time Machine and choose Erase and Install, will it ask me if I want to restore from a Time Machine backup after Snow Leopard is installed? If it does, will it restore just my documents/music/pictures or installed programs too? I would rather just reinstall programs myself since I only have iWork, Handbrake, and VLC installed lol.
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I would like to know this also since I have everything going to TM. I am hoping to do a clean install and then bring my apps and files back via TM. Is this going to work? Or am I going to have to reinstall all my apps? Thanks!

Bill.....:apple:
 
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