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How often do you do a clean install of OS X?

I did a clean install once of twice because of some major third party conflicts. Only after trying everything else. When I upgraded to Panther, it was done at my local Apple Store. The Mac Genius didn't recommend a clean install. Just did the straight forward install. Panther has been running great.
 
I did it when the evil 10.2.8 came out and messed some things up on my MDD. Apart from that, I only do it when a new OS comes out.

My wife has had her Sawtooth since 2000 and never reformatted it. It came with OS 9 and she's had every version of OS X on it--just upgrading every time. No major problems. I finally did a fresh 10.3 install when she got a new drive, otherwise she would have hit Tiger with upgrades.
 
Still running with the original installation on my ibook-G3900. I do regular system maintenance with Onyx, and things are running fine (on 10.2.8 currently)
 
i reinstall whenever there is a 10.x update

my 9600 uses xpostfacto to run OS X, and usually requires some trickery to get it going stable
 
Whenever I install a new OS I do an erase and then install. Between that I use Cronnix, System Optimizer X, DiskWarrior, Drive 10, and TechTool Pro to maintenance my system.
 
Is there some special way to do all of this?

I usually do a clean install of windows when all hell breaks loose (every 6 months or so) what do you do in Mac os X?

A clean install for me is total reformat and start from scratch, I have a spare HD for that so I never lose anything, is it the same for OSX though? Format and start brand new or do you just rerun the install and it's all good?
 
I hardly ever reinstall. I did recently, but only because Sherlock stopped working (turned out to be a problem with Apple's servers). I reinstalled with 10.3.0 because I needed to get rid of a partition I wasn't using. I reinstalled a lot in 10.2, because mainly I was new to the Mac platform and I had the "if I delete this, what would happen?" attitude.
 
King Cobra said:
I don't do clean installs. I do erase and installs.

...about every 6 months.
Click to expand...

What is the difference between a "Clean install" and an "Erase and install"? How many different types of installs are there?
 
every 3-4 months.. just for fun.
if i dont feel like selectively deleting stuff
i just backup what i need and start over.

I love a fresh system.

i try out lots of experimental programs and stuff
and sometimes it screws things up
 
I do an erase and install anytime I feel like repartitioning my HD, when a major Mac OS X update is released (such as 10.2->10.3), or when I have accumulated various programs that I want to remove but don't know how (usually command-line programs).
 
only once

I am a fairly new OS X user. After about two months on my IBook 700 G3 that I bought refurb the harddrive began makeing wired noises. So I sent it into Apple and they installed a new harddrive. I had backed up my system before sending it to my Ipod. I install new and then transfered all of my files and stuff from my Ipod. This was about a year ago. :)
 
Duff-Man says...like a lot of people that have replied I only do the clean-install (archive and install) when the major upgrades come out. I have had no reason to do otherwise on either the desktop or 2 powerbooks....oh yeah!
 
tech4all said:
What is the difference between a "Clean install" and an "Erase and install"? How many different types of installs are there?
Click to expand...

Erase and Install completely removes everything from the hard drive, then installs OS X.

Clean Install (aka Archive and Install) makes a backup of the System, Library and Users folders and then installs a fresh copy of OS X without deleting anything.

On my first Mac, I did a few Erase and Installs, because I didn't know any better after using Windows since 1993. On my current (second) Mac, I've Archive and Installed once to fix the Panther disk image bug, but have never done it since.
 
wow bryanc you must be one of very few people not to have done a clean install. it's a testament to the awesomeness of OS X. :cool:

i've had to do quite a few, mostly because of my own fiddling. :p the next time i'm planning to have one will be when Tiger comes out, if i still have my PB and not a PB G5... ;) :D
 
Nermal said:
Erase and Install completely removes everything from the hard drive, then installs OS X.

Clean Install (aka Archive and Install) makes a backup of the System, Library and Users folders and then installs a fresh copy of OS X without deleting anything.
Click to expand...

i always thought that a 'clean' install was the same as an erase and install? (cleaning the HD through a format?) and that a Archive and Install was referred to as a 'Backup & Install'?

well whatever it is, whenever i've said 'clean' install i've meant erase and install. i've never done a archive & install.
 
Well, back in the System 7 days, a Clean Install did the same thing as today's Archive and Install, so I'm assuming that the Clean Install we're talking about here is also an Archive and Install.
 
I do it when a major update for OS X comes out, such as 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, etc. Beyond that, I just make sure the disk is aintained with some combination of Disk Utility and Norton(no jokes, please).
 
adamfilip said:
every 3-4 months.. just for fun.
if i dont feel like selectively deleting stuff
i just backup what i need and start over.

I love a fresh system.

i try out lots of experimental programs and stuff
and sometimes it screws things up
Click to expand...

Haha! Same here! :D
 
i seriously recomend just doing it in between major os..i will when i get tiger...i just use macjanitor to clean things up.... keeps my system sweet...i have one question though,

why do people delete all the language packs??? is it just for hardrive space or is it of speed benifit??
 
AL-FAMOUS said:
i seriously recomend just doing it in between major os..i will when i get tiger...i just use macjanitor to clean things up.... keeps my system sweet...i have one question though,

why do people delete all the language packs??? is it just for hardrive space or is it of speed benifit??
Click to expand...
If you don't speak any of those languages, what's the point of keeping them when you have absolutely no use for them? Besides, even if you need an international character, you can access it from the Unicode palette, regardless of what language packs are installed. As far as I know, deleting the language packs just frees up HD space - it doesn't speed anything up.
 
wrldwzrd89 said:
If you don't speak any of those languages, what's the point of keeping them when you have absolutely no use for them? Besides, even if you need an international character, you can access it from the Unicode palette, regardless of what language packs are installed. As far as I know, deleting the language packs just frees up HD space - it doesn't speed anything up.
Click to expand...

thanks for clearing that up... i know that there is not any point having them...but i still have 50gig left...so unless it speeds it up(doubt it) then i wont bother...
 
funny though

You know whats funny though, I remember a lot of people erases their ipods and re-incoding all their music into apples aac format when it came out. Why, i ask. hehe :eek:
 
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