How do I Reinstall OS????

[Planner Dude]

My mid 2007 macbook pro has given me problems with airport, freezing and incomplete shutdowns & restarts. I was thinking that the archive & install os (from tiger to leopard may be the culprit). I am looking to do a clean install of OSX Leopard.

What's the easiest way to do a reinstall, but be able to import my user profiles, applications, and files?

Can I just do a clean install (insert disc) then bring over my users, apps, & files with time machine?

Is there anything I should watch out for?


I have a good size iphoto collection...so I am worried...

any help would be great...thanks

 

[Tallest Skil]

If you have your user files backed up with Time Machine, you can just reinstall and re-put-in your stuff without much worry.

 

[IJ Reilly]

The best advice is don't reinstall. Find out what's wrong first. If you have a hardware issue, which is certainly possible if you're having frequent problems, then you could make your situation worse by attempting to reinstall.

Are you getting kernel panics (the "restart this computer" window)? If so, how often?

 

[Planner Dude]

not many kernal panics...

The screen could freeze up or more often, when I try to restart, shut down, or do an update, the computer will partially shut down, meaning the screen will be black, but they keyboard will still be back lit or I can hit the "num lock" & get a green light. If I try to power down, I will have to keep the on/off button held for several seconds with no window prompting me for options.

My airport issue involves the computer's inability to keep a connection to my lynksys wrt54g wifi. Sometimes it will stay for week and then die. Other times it will only last for hours. Using AP grapher, it sees the signal so it is there.


I have issues with USB connectivity too. When I import pix from my card reader to iphoto, i will get a message that the device was removed improperly, when I have not touched the card or the reader and the card is still mounted. This also can happen with USB flash/pen/micro drives.


Sometimes my programs seem clunky too.

I have yet to keep access to my PC desktop/ shared external hd/ printer since my upgrade to leopard, around a year ago.


Since all this is happening, and I have installed /removed various freeware over the year, I might benefit from a fresh install.

What do you think?

 

[IJ Reilly]

I think you have too many problems with this Mac to attribute it to an OS problem. I suspect you've got something else going on, probably hardware related. You could try an Archive & Install, which just reinstalls the system, but I don't think it will do much good.