I chose to upgrade my 13" MBP, which is about 2 mos old, and was originally set up with a migrate from my previous mac (also Leopard). Took 35 min, went smoothly. The only "problem" that I've discovered so far was that initially the display brightness dropped to lowest level during the install process and had to manually be readjusted after boot, and I had a weird issue with two-finger gestures not working properly. Two-finger tap wouldn't bring up the secondary menu; I had to uncheck the two-finger zoom selection, close prefs, re-open prefs and check zoom again, and it fixed the two-finger tap issue. Weird. All else seems just fine. Geekbench score increased by nearly 200 points.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Upgrade VS Clean Install - My Findings
- Thread starter IceflowStudios
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I did an upgrade (accidentally actually, I wanted to do Archive and Install!), and it seems to be ok so far. Performance is really good, so I'm not planning to bother with the Archive and Install.
Put in Snow Leopard disk, boot from it. Don't just "install." Instead go to the "Utilities." Then go to Disk Utility. Select the "Erase" option.
Back out of the Disk Utility and the other utilities. Return to main installer page. Click install. (If you have multiple hard drives, select the drive you just wiped.) Then install.
Full clean install took around 25 mins, though I'm running a WD 10K Velociraptor as boot drive in a Mac Pro, which I notice makes a huge difference, other Macs are taking 40+ mins for clean install (iMac and Macbook).
Just remember you won't have the iLife suite if you use the $29 upgrade disk for a clean install.
My upgrades went quite well actually. I may try to do an erase and install later but honestly I've not experienced any notable problems at all. No laggy-ness, no hiccups or glitches. This has been the only time I've done an OS upgrade and not regretted it. Every other OS I've gone through I've had to wind up doing an erase and install. (Panther - Tiger - Leopard) They all required erase and installs.
Honestly though, straight away my old Macbook Pro felt quicker and more responsive, it's like giving a car a tune up. Everything responds and handles better.
Color me surprised!
Honestly though, straight away my old Macbook Pro felt quicker and more responsive, it's like giving a car a tune up. Everything responds and handles better.
Color me surprised!
I did a clean install right off the bat on my Core Duo (2ghz, 2gb of ram) Macbook Pro. So far everything seems super snappy!
Did you happen to correlate the lag and choppy graphics after the upgrade of SL with Spotlight re-indexing your hard drive? I've seen performance hits with previous versions of OS X while Spotlight is doing a re-index that disappear once this process is complete.
I'd postulate that after doing the erase/install there was much less data on your hard drive for Spotlight to re-index, which is why the performance improved immediately.
However, not knowing how long you were running the upgrade installation of SL (continuously, since Spotlight will pick up re-indexing where it left off if you shut down or sleep) is why I'm asking.
I'd postulate that after doing the erase/install there was much less data on your hard drive for Spotlight to re-index, which is why the performance improved immediately.
However, not knowing how long you were running the upgrade installation of SL (continuously, since Spotlight will pick up re-indexing where it left off if you shut down or sleep) is why I'm asking.
But it's possible to reinstall the Ilife programs with
the original "Applications Install DVD" after the Snow Leopard installation, right?
I upgraded my four month old iMac from 10.5.8 to SL and it went smoothly, no issues to report.
I will be upgrading my wife's two month old 17" MBP later today.
So far I haven't seen any compelling reason to do an erase -> install, the upgrade seems to work smoothly.
I will be upgrading my wife's two month old 17" MBP later today.
So far I haven't seen any compelling reason to do an erase -> install, the upgrade seems to work smoothly.
i just upgraded my early '08 MBP. it was initially laggy while spotlight was indexing, but its lean and mean now.
well except the internet does seem a bit laggy.. not sure whats up w/ that.
Question: if i clean install and then recover from a TM backup, won't it bring all the junk back over with it and clutter up my clean install? Can i just drag over apps app by app from TM to reinstall things? I do have TONS of apps on here... it'll be a pain to reinstall them all.
well except the internet does seem a bit laggy.. not sure whats up w/ that.
Question: if i clean install and then recover from a TM backup, won't it bring all the junk back over with it and clutter up my clean install? Can i just drag over apps app by app from TM to reinstall things? I do have TONS of apps on here... it'll be a pain to reinstall them all.
My iMac was running slow with Leopard 10.5 (probably some crapware responsible).
First I did an upgrade to Snow Leopard but the issues remained - really slow startup and 90 seconds to shutdown!
So I did a clean install hold c and startup with SL disc, using Disk Utility repartitioned the HDD as fat with MBR to make sure the EFI partition is deleted then partitioned as GUID with HFS. Clean installed SL and used migration assistant to get user accounts back, now everything is running fast, shutdown takes about a second or two.
First I did an upgrade to Snow Leopard but the issues remained - really slow startup and 90 seconds to shutdown!
So I did a clean install hold c and startup with SL disc, using Disk Utility repartitioned the HDD as fat with MBR to make sure the EFI partition is deleted then partitioned as GUID with HFS. Clean installed SL and used migration assistant to get user accounts back, now everything is running fast, shutdown takes about a second or two.
I have a great experience with both my iMac and Macbook. Mind you I am not an active user on the Mac since I still use my Windows machine for all the other stuff like downloading and gaming. But in terms of upgrade, both my system upgraded flawlessly. No lag on anything.
Only complaint was MSN Messenger which was screwed up and how some of my lovely plugins wouldn't work anymore.
dL
Just so everyone knows, the $30 SL disc is capable of installing on a totally blank HDD. I found this out after I wiped the disk and quit the installer and then installed again.
I'll do you one better. I pulled out the drive that came with my gf's macbook, dropped in a brand new OCZ Vertex Turbo 120GB, no problem with the install at all. And it is quick with the SSD
So with an erase and install, what is the best way to restore third-party applications and all user data? Just trying to copy bits and pieces seems a recipe for failure. Or would you do a full TM backup and exclude system files, then a full restore?
I'm so lost right now on deciding whether to do a fresh installation or upgrade. This is my first imac only 2 months old and I'm trying to research stuff here buts its confusing.
Also will the UTD disc perform the EXACT same way as the $29 disc will? My question is are both discs the EXACT same thing, because i am reading mixed things.
Also will the UTD disc perform the EXACT same way as the $29 disc will? My question is are both discs the EXACT same thing, because i am reading mixed things.
I think the "bits and pieces" method is the best. I have run into fewer failures that way. Although, I don't copy apps straight to a new machine. I usually do fresh installs, at least when I don't have a standard image pre-made.
It is tough to say because I don't know how you handle your files. I have every app I have ever installed on my server (organized nearly of course), so I typically just do fresh installs. I do however bring over supporting files, for example I the MacGourmet database. I usually bring over some plists. Things from Application Support, etc.
If you have your applications zips and DMGs elsewhere, I would simply back up your home folder and do a wipe.
I did an upgrade to my 7-month old MBP unibody (it took about 30 minutes).
After the install, I have appr. 8 GB more free disk space, the machine boots up and shuts down noticeably faster, applications are opening faster, my maximum Geekbench score increase 108 points, all my major applications are working faster.
A couple of utilities (Cocktail & Onyx) are not compatible with 10.6 - I guess developers will provide updated versions shortly. DiskWarrior provided an update (now ver 4.2) that is noticeably faster on SL than the previous version was on Leopard.
Overall, I'm very pleased with the upgrade!!!
After the install, I have appr. 8 GB more free disk space, the machine boots up and shuts down noticeably faster, applications are opening faster, my maximum Geekbench score increase 108 points, all my major applications are working faster.
A couple of utilities (Cocktail & Onyx) are not compatible with 10.6 - I guess developers will provide updated versions shortly. DiskWarrior provided an update (now ver 4.2) that is noticeably faster on SL than the previous version was on Leopard.
Overall, I'm very pleased with the upgrade!!!
I upgraded my 2 year old iMac (2.4GHz, 4GB RAM, 320G HDD) which had been running Leopard since January 2008 and the upgrade was super smooth. The end result is approx 20GB more disk space and a machine which is noticeably faster and smoother.
As far as I am aware the upgrade is essentially replacing the entire "system" anyway so I think if your machine is running well before the upgrade then it will run equally well afterwards (missing drivers or SL compatibility issues aside). I'm certainly of the opinion that a clean installation should not be necessary and I have confidence that Apple's upgrade process is sound.
Craig.
As far as I am aware the upgrade is essentially replacing the entire "system" anyway so I think if your machine is running well before the upgrade then it will run equally well afterwards (missing drivers or SL compatibility issues aside). I'm certainly of the opinion that a clean installation should not be necessary and I have confidence that Apple's upgrade process is sound.
Craig.
I upgraded yesterday when I first bought the disk, but did a full erase & install today. I was impressed with the performance after the upgrade, but now I'm just blown away; everything is working flawlessly, and running even faster and smoother than before.