Migration Assistant also migrated the mess; should I do a clean install?

[johnvr]

I got a new MacBook Air and used the migration assistant to migrate my apps, files and settings from my 2008 MacBook Pro.

Problem is that I also inherited the messy user account (one is the main account, but the documents are listed under another); some fault messages refering to folders I can't find; and a heap of orphans from partly uninstalled apps.

I'm a little wary of doing a clean install of Lion on the MBA now and having to manually migrate the good stuff from the MBP.

The MBA works fine, but I fear I've started out on the wrong foot and could run into trouble later.

What should I do? Is a clean install and manual migration easy to do for a non-techie?

 

[robgendreau]

A clean install might help remove some junk, but at some point you still have to decide yourself what to move and what not to.

As an alternative, you could delete the "messy" user account and migrate or restore one that's in better shape. Or even create a new user with administrative privileges and start anew.

Rob

 

[Michaelgtrusa]

A new account is what I may need here. It's so much faster.

 

[johnvr]

I did the clean install...

With some trepidation, I did a clean install and then manually installed the programs.

It helped that some programs were in the App Store and that I use MobileMe to sync my stuff. So, a lot was painless.

The most amazing thing after that time-consuming exercise is that I now have basically the same setup as I had yesterday, but my HD indicates 16GB of 'other' files. Yesterday, it indicated 55GB of 'other' files.

I now plan to also clean up my MBP, as it obviously needs it.

 

[Biolizard]

I did a clean install when I went from SL to Lion and used Time Machine to selectively bring over what I wanted.

Lots of crap accumulates over time; hidden . (dot) files created by applications in ~/, junk in Application Support that might not get detected when you remove an application etc. so it's nice to just wipe it and start again, though it's a little annoying at first when you realise all the 'good' config is gone too, but meh.