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Snow Leopard Installation: Format/Clean Install or Upgrade?

palebluedot

palebluedot

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 29, 2008
738
161
What are you all planning to do once you get a copy of Snow Leopard in your hands? Will you upgrade from 10.5 and continue using your Mac as usual or will you do a format / clean install of Snow Leopard.

I have been debating which is best. While I know you can easily install Snow Leopard on top of 10.5 and use your computer it seems to be inviting too many opportunities for wasted space and incompatibility. (i.e. think of the library and prefs files that wont work with 10.6. Wasted space, ugh). I still haven't sold myself on it being worth a format, re-backing up to Time Capsule, etc. What are you all planning to do?? :confused:
 
I'm going to do a clean install with a restore from Time Machine. If I understand TM correctly, it doesn't backup base system files, so this should be a good way.
 
I will perform a clean install. I've got my first Mac, I've installed a lot of crappy applications for testing purposes, which I now want to get rid of, and I've always wanted to perform a reinstallation of my OS. I'll wait until Snow Leopard comes out.
 
I'll be getting a new hard drive (WD 500GB Blue or Intel 160GB SSD) and doing a fresh install.
 
I'd say a moderator has to transform this into a poll. Perhaps even get posted on MacPolls.com ? It's definitely worth keeping a percentual eye on.
 
Anybody who is using the Apple Up-To-Date program wont be able to do a clean install, since you will only receive an upgrade disc; Leopard would have to be installed.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe thats the case
 
kryptonianjorel said:
Anybody who is using the Apple Up-To-Date program wont be able to do a clean install, since you will only receive an upgrade disc; Leopard would have to be installed.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe thats the case
Click to expand...

You're wrong. Actually, to be fair, no one knows yet, but it's wrong to assert anything at this point. In previous cases, the CPU Drop-In DVD's worked as you described, but still allowed an Archive and Install or Erase and Install. The Up-To-Date disks were not designed that way, I don't believe.

jW
 
Mal said:
You're wrong. Actually, to be fair, no one knows yet, but it's wrong to assert anything at this point. In previous cases, the CPU Drop-In DVD's worked as you described, but still allowed an Archive and Install or Erase and Install. The Up-To-Date disks were not designed that way, I don't believe.

jW
Click to expand...

Even if thats the case a clean Leopard + clean SL install is probably the same thign as an upgrade. You still want have junky prefs files and edited configs everywhere.
 
Fresh install. I always do that for new OS releases. I use them as a chance to wipe the slate clean and reinstall everything. Even if I'm ever forced to do a real upgrade, as opposed to a fresh install, I will do a fresh install of the base OS.
 
Will I lose everything when I do a fresh install?
(I mean documents and settings etc...)
 
So after reading a few pages of this, I'm unsure what I should do. I want to have a good installation of 10.6, but I'm not sure I want to do a fresh install or upgrade it. I think it would probably take awhile for me to backup my computer because I don't have Time Machine set up, and I think it would take even longer to get all my settings the way I like them.

Is there anything wrong with just upgrading 10.6 from 10.5? I mean it's still going to be a new OS right? Or am I mistaken on this? I'm not trying to argue, just understand what's best for me.
 
A few more questions:

-My computer is only about two months old, so is it even that big of a deal to just upgrade as opposed to a fresh install? I'm just trying to figure out if anything will work better or smoother with a fresh install, as opposed to an upgrade from 10.5

-Does 10.6 install over 10.5, or does it remove 10.5 after the install, because otherwise that's a bunch of useless space that's not being used from 10.5

-Will my 3rd party applications be compatible with 10.6 or does it go without saying that I will have to wait until they make new versions for Snow Leopard?
 
my cents...

i always do clean install in the past as its a good chance to start fresh and snappy and junk apps and utils i don't use any more etc etc ie basically an excuse to spring clean my machine

BUT in this case i am very tempted to just upgrade because reports are upgrade works pretty safely... and its true moving everything to a new install takes time... i do it manually coz i dont trust assistants and all your stuff adds up - mail, itunes, webpage stuff, security apps and os utils of various kinds... all the tweaky nonstandard stuff i run

sigh

dunno

also reinstalling major app suites is tedious

maybe as a holiday project lol

anyone who has had problems with their 10.5-10.6 in-place install?

Oh I forgot to mention: my clean install process is to carboncopycloner clone the old OS install to a bootable external drive, then clean install the new OS to my internal

Then i use the new install and just move over/reinstall apps from the old install as I need them. After about 6 months I generally trash the old backup. That works pretty well for me. The good thing about a bootable backup of the old install is if I suddenly need to use some old app I havent reinstalled yet and there is time pressure or whatever I can easily and quickly boot into the old OS install and have everything like it used to be.
 
So is it ok to do a fresh install, and then move all your old stuff back over via Time Machine?? I plan on doing this in a few minutes...
 
Hi guys, im a newbie here, but i thought i'd drop an update on this topic. Jus finished a fresh install from the Snow Leopard Upgrade DVD that apple sent me. Worked a treat. So i can confirm that it is possible to fresh install, to a brand new hard drive, from the upgrade DVD. Looks like apple did us all a favour
 
Poll on this

Hey!

Is it possible to add a poll to this ?

F.ex.

When upgrading from Leopard to Snow Leopard, WHAT DID YOU DO with the old system ?

1 Clean install and speedier
2 Clean install and the same speed
3 Clean install and slower

4 Archive and install and speedier
5 Archive and install and same speed
6 Archive and install and slower
 
well fyi i did an in place or upgrade install from 10.5 the other day and i can report

it worked

no nightmares (the worst so far is the xbox 360 driver is broken but a fix is coming and anyway that has nothing to do with the upgrade vs clean install)

it is definitely faster as in noticably in every day use. i didnt really notice faster startup but apps and things definitely

for me mr laporte just the speed is worth $30

eventually i will do a clean install but if anyone is thinking about an upgrade well it worked very smooth here
 
andyprice1990 said:
Hi guys, im a newbie here, but i thought i'd drop an update on this topic. Jus finished a fresh install from the Snow Leopard Upgrade DVD that apple sent me. Worked a treat. So i can confirm that it is possible to fresh install, to a brand new hard drive, from the upgrade DVD. Looks like apple did us all a favour
Click to expand...

What's the procedure for doing a clean install with the upgrade disk?

Thanks in advance for your help.
 
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