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Snow Leopard - Clean Install Not Upgrade

linux2mac

linux2mac

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Aug 29, 2009
1,330
0
"City of Lakes", MN
Hello,

I am getting ready to purchase my first Mac (Mac Pro). I would prefer to buy from Amazon for the savings including free shipping ( Amazon Prime) and no sales tax. However, I am a little hesitant because the Power Macs that ship from Amazon do not have Snow Leopard pre-installed where as the Apple store has Power Macs with Snow Leopard pre-installed. I have found some posts on the web where people have successfully performed a clean install of Snow Leopard from the $29 updgrade to Snow Leopard DVD.

However, this comment from this link concerned me
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r22915851-2900-Snow-Leopard-Can-I-do-a-clean-install
its a full install disk but upgrade is recommended to keep your iLife and other programs installed, otherwise if you do the "erase and reinstall" option from Apple you will end up with just the operating system and all your programs will be gone including iLife & such
Click to expand...

I would prefer to go the clean install route. I have done numerous clean installs of linux desktops and servers but never MAC. I just want to make sure I am not losing out on anything special by not getting a Power Mac with Snow Leopard pre-installed.

Is iLife the only factory pre-installed program that would be missing?
I want to make sure I am not missing out on any usefull pre-installed Snow Leopard programs that would accompany a Power Mac purchased at Apple with SL pre-installed.

Also, has anyone else performed a clean install of Snow Leopard from a formatted disk that previously had Leopard that they can offer some feed back?

Thanks.

-Mike
 
I did a clean install, and I had Leopard previously. It is very simple. Just boot from the Snow Leopard DVD, then run DiskUtility from the menu. Format your drive, then proceed with the installation. Yes, iLife is the only thing that would be missing.
 
linux2mac said:
Thanks. How do you get a Snow Leopard version of iLife? Do you use iLife?
Click to expand...

Yes, I use iLife '09 and have a separate disc for it (purchased before SL came out). There is not a Snow Leopard version of iLife - it is just iLife '09. You can install iLife from the Leopard OS disc that ships with the mac you purchase from Amazon.
 
Thanks for your input. It seems there is really no need to spend the extra money at the Apple Store just to have Snow Leopard pre-installed.

-Mike
 
I did upgrade

I just did the Snow Leopard upgrade, and it was very easy. Just put in the disk, answer a question or two, agree to the license, and select upgrade. It happens smooth and automatic. It took about an hour on my 13" aluminum MacBook. And all my applications and documents were still there.

When it was finished I did have to reinstall a couple of third party software applications, and I had to go to Preferences/Sharing/Options and select SMB file sharing in the box to allow my Windows desktop to see my Mac again.

Things are running just like before the upgrade. In fact, as soon as the install was finished and I selected Time Machine it did a lengthy backup of all the new files, taking almost as long as my original backup in Leopard. Now it just backups every hour like it is supposed to do. I also upgraded to 10.6.1 today.
 
Power Mac is a name used for NON-intel macs.
Non-intel Macs cannot run Snow Leopard.

They have not sold Power Macs for years. Did you meant Mac Pro?
 
Surely said:
From what I have been reading, it seems unnecessary to perform a clean install on a brand new machine that has never been used.
Click to expand...

From what I've read, it is RARELY "NECESSARY" to perform a clean install on a Mac, period. But if one desires to do one for whatever reason, even on a brand new machine that has never been used...
 
sputacus said:
From what I've read, it is RARELY "NECESSARY" to perform a clean install on a Mac, period. But if one desires to do one for whatever reason, even on a brand new machine that has never been used...
Click to expand...

Yes, I agree, that's what I've been reading as well. I wasn't sure which way to go, but it's looking like I'm going the upgrade way. I haven't read a compelling reason to clean install yet.

It seems that the main reason for doing a clean install is just because you feel doing one.

Why are people treating their Macs as if they were PCs?
 
It seems that the main reason for doing a clean install is just because you feel doing one.

Why are people treating their Macs as if they were PCs?
Click to expand...

Yep you are right. That's exactly my reason for doing a clean install. This is going to be my first Mac (a Mac Pro) and I don't know any better. I come from a world where clean installs is the only way to get things working right.

-Mike
 
If you were having system issues with Leopard (i.e. before 10.6), then a clean install can be a very valuable tool in getting your mac in proper order. However, if you aren't/weren't having any issues with Leopard, I see no reason for a clean install; the results will be the same.

Happy installing. :)
 
Leopard worked perfectly on my new 13" MBP so i did the upgrade to SL and was getting lots of beachballs a high amount of memory usage and higher temps.

I decided to do a clean install of SL the other day and everything is now back to normal, so for the people who have upgraded and are experiencing issues i would suggest a clean install.
 
I have a Leopard DVD already and some of my Macs are running Leopard. Can you do a clean install with the Snow Leopard Upgrade DVD? Whenever I change the OS from the previous version to the next one, I always do a clean install as I don't want any legacy files left over by simply "upgrading" the OS.

The regular Snow Leopard DVD is priced much higher than the Upgrade DVD in retail. So, I would rather get a Upgrade DVD if I can do a clean install.

Also, is a Snow Leopard DVD the same worldwide? Even though I am in Tokyo now, I use English and a US keyboard only.
 
Did an upgrade with no problems whatsoever. SL is running very speedily on my Mac Pro. I too have been told by Apple techs that a clean install is unnecessary....
 
LED said:
I did a clean install, and I had Leopard previously. It is very simple. Just boot from the Snow Leopard DVD, then run DiskUtility from the menu. Format your drive, then proceed with the installation. Yes, iLife is the only thing that would be missing.
Click to expand...

Exactly. Did that- worked perfectly.
 
So I decided to go the upgrade route. I figured that I could always do a clean install if things go bad.

So far, everything seems to work fine, and I don't see the need for me to do a clean install.

I have a one glitch (when selecting a Top Site, a strange striped screen appears for a second before the site loads), but others who did a clean install have that issue as well. No big deal- it works, it just doesn't look pretty.

Also, Safari AdBlock doesn't work anymore (again, not an issue due to upgrading).

The only thing I'm wondering about...... I find that my MB runs hotter than before when I'm watching video. The fans seem to kick on earlier, more often, and at a higher rpm. Are other SL users finding this?
 
Hmmm... I didn't do a Snow Leopard clean install on my 15" MacBook Pro and now I'm having problems getting my laptop to run wirelessly with my Airport Express. My iMac is still running on Leopard and I'm hesitant to upgrade to Snow Leopard. :(
 
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