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Is it worth it to clean install the new OS?

Traverse

Traverse

macrumors 604
Original poster
Mar 11, 2013
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Hey everyone,

I have a 2011 MacBook Pro that came with Snow Lepard. 10 days after the purchase I upgraded to Lion. I also upgraded to Mountain Lion when it was released. My Mac is my only machine and I use it daily, but I've noticed that it has somewhat slowed down. Not to say "slow" but I get the beach ball more than I remember and cold app launches have never been longer. It is still a pleasant experience, but not what it seemed 2 years ago.

Mavericks is coming soon and I was wondering if a clean install is worth it. Part of my slowness my be due to the fact that I have filled up about 55% of my HDD. I know SSDs are faster, but that isn't an option right now. Would you do a fresh install?

I have a time machine backup, but I wouldn't restore from it because I fell like that would simply be putting the same system state back on. I would copy over my iPhoto library, documents and CD music from an external drive amd would redownload my iTunes content and apps. The only hassle would be reinstalling VMWARE and MS office.

So, do you think I should do a fresh install?
Is my above drag and drop method the best way to restore my content?
Any advice on reinstalling VMWARE amd MS office to avoid activation issues?

Thank you all so much.
 
I would definitely do a clean install. I do it for each major release.

You can selectively restore from a TM backup, so that should cover anything you forgot about.

Vmware does not require activation as far a I know, so that will not be an issue.
 
I was going to say no, but given the facts you describe I would. It makes sense as a trouble-shooting measure, and you might as well do it now.
 
Practically speaking, I think its worth doing a clean install every now and then. I think maybe around once a year to 1.5 years is a good timeframe just to refresh the computer. I just finished doing an upgrade (for the first time, always did fresh installs) and mavericks seems very responsive and fluid. If you have been doing upgrades since Snow Leopard, then a fresh install would do no harm. I guess you could upgrade to see if you get any performance back, and if not you can always do a fresh install then. A full upgrade took around 45-50 minutes for me on a iMac so you would not be loosing a lot of time.
 
A clean install is not needed with OSX, this isn't Windows, but with many people, old habits die hard.
 
Thanks everyone for your input.

I think I may do a fresh install, I'm bound to get some corrupt files or preferences after two years. I wouldn't mind starting new.
 
We have the GM installed on a spare partition on our MP. So far all apps run fine. Sound is good, and all Cloud settings and account information was transferred correctly too.

I don't like the dock's lack of translucence, but I do think the new Tag's will be useful.

Logic X, Aperture OSX games all running fine. I'm going to wait until the final release before pulling the trigger on my Imac and rMBP, but I can't see Apple making any emergency changes now.
 
Traverse said:
I'm bound to get some corrupt files or preferences after two years.
Click to expand...
No, you aren't. But if you prefer to do a clean install because that's the paradigm you're used to then go ahead. you won't harm anything except your time, your settings, and negligible wear&tear on your SSD. placebos certainly seem to do *something* for people and that's not nothing :)
 
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