Leopard Clean Install - Please Help

[ginsterspasty]

Hi Everyone!

My macbook has a 250gb drive in and i'm close to running out of space. Over the last 3 years I have accumulated loads and loads of software (freeware, etc)
Also, the system just seems to be untidy, sluggish etc

My idea is to wipe the drive clean, and do a clean install of leopard and then just recover the bits I need, and lose the rest.

Can anyone tell me how to do this. Searching the net I can only find ways of recovering the entire system using super duper/time machine.
I don't want to do this, I only want to recover the applications/settings I need.
I was going to delete the apps I don't want, do a backup then a full recover, but I'm worried that i'm just going to recover all the crappy hidden system files that i'm trying to get rid of !

Any help would be appreciated.

Cheers

 

[elppa]

I was going to delete the apps I don't want, do a backup then a full recover

This seems a little counter-productive, because it would leave your system in the same state after the “recovery” as it was in before. You might as well just delete the apps and be done.

I would:
[1] Rummage through ~/Library/Preferences/, /Library/Preferences, ~/Library/Application Support/ & /Library/Application Support/ and do a bit of housekeeping.

[2] Run Disk Inventory X (free) to see what is using up the space. Archive / remove where appropriate.

Based on [2] decide whether or not to buy a bigger HD.

If you really want to do a re-install then:
[1] Backup everything, don't delete anything yet. Just in case.
[2] Check the backup has worked and you can restore stuff.
[3] Reinstall Leopard
[3] Put your documents back that you need to use immediately (your photo library, music you enjoy etc.)
[4] Scan through the backup of /Applications/ and reinstall the latest versions of apps you know you need to use
[5] Add applications as and when you need them

 

[MisterMe]

Hi Everyone!

My macbook has a 250gb drive in and i'm close to running out of space. Over the last 3 years I have accumulated loads and loads of software (freeware, etc)
Also, the system just seems to be untidy, sluggish etc

...

From the looks of it, there is no need for you to reinstall anything. MacOS X prefers to have 10% of its hard drive space free so that the virtual memory system can do its job. It appears that you have accumulated a lot of stuff that you don't want. My guess is that you have a lot of videos that are gobbling-up your available space. Remove enough files to free-up at least 25 GB hard drive space and you should be fine.

 

[Gray-Wolf]

Get you an external drive and transfer a lot of it to it, if you can't bear to part with it.

 

[ginsterspasty]

Hi

Thanks for all your advice. I think i'm going to go down the new hard drive route. I see you can pick up 500gb drives for around 90 quid now.
The thing is, i'm an ex windows man, and with windows, if you didn't do a fresh install every now and again, the system would just get slower and slower and slower.
Macs obviously work in a different way (better way!)
So I think i'll just remove the applications/videos/etc I no longer need, do a backup, swap the drive, then restore.

Would it be easier to do a clone of my current drive, or fresh leopard install onto the new drive followed by a system restore from time machine?

Cheers