What are the steps to Reinstalling Mountain Lion without losing all your files?

[macuser1232]

Hi, lately I've been a little bit paranoid about my Mac because it has been doing some strange things and I figured that if I reinstall OS X 10.8 my worries would be over. All I know is that I am going to need an external hard drive to store all my files(I think) and that when Mountain Lion reinstalls it will replace the Library and System/Library folders.

 

[Mal]

You should always have a backup, but a standard reinstall won't delete any of your files. Nothing of yours is stored in /System or /Library, btw, with the exception of system-wide extensions and preference panes, etc, but those will also be preserved normally.

jW

 

[macuser1232]

You should always have a backup, but a standard reinstall won't delete any of your files. Nothing of yours is stored in /System or /Library, btw, with the exception of system-wide extensions and preference panes, etc, but those will also be preserved normally.

jW

So, you telling me there will be an option to reinstall the OS without deleting files? Could you maybe walk me through a little?

 

[MisterMe]

Hi, lately I've been a little bit paranoid about my Mac because it has been doing some strange things and I figured that if I reinstall OS X 10.8 my worries would be over. ....

Doing "some strange things" is not a reason to wipe your system. Describe the problems that you have having. If your problems are real, then there may be members of this forum who can help you solve them.

 

[Mal]

So, you telling me there will be an option to reinstall the OS without deleting files? Could you maybe walk me through a little?

I'm telling you that you'd have to go way out of your way to actually delete your files. If you simply boot into your Recovery Partition and tell it to "Reinstall OS X", it will do so, and not touch your files. The only way you lose files is if you specifically open Disk Utility, Erase your drive, and then proceed with the install. If you don't seek it out, you won't delete your files.

jW

 

[macuser1232]

Doing "some strange things" is not a reason to wipe your system. Describe the problems that you have having. If your problems are real, then there may be members of this forum who can help you solve them.

Well they're all one time things.

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I'm telling you that you'd have to go way out of your way to actually delete your files. If you simply boot into your Recovery Partition and tell it to "Reinstall OS X", it will do so, and not touch your files. The only way you lose files is if you specifically open Disk Utility, Erase your drive, and then proceed with the install. If you don't seek it out, you won't delete your files.

jW

You sure about that?? I want to see a picture of where it says that it will not delete your files.

 

[The Economist]

You sure about that?? I want to see a picture of where it says that it will not delete your files.

I have a better idea. I want you to inform yourself about all of these things you are asking. There is plenty of documentation available on the internet, manuals, guides, walkthroughs, you name it.

If after informing yourself you are still unsure of what will happen when you press that button, maybe you shouldn't even be doing it in the first place.

 

[macuser1232]

I have a better idea. I want you to inform yourself about all of these things you are asking. There is plenty of documentation available on the internet, manuals, guides, walkthroughs, you name it.

If after informing yourself you are still unsure of what will happen when you press that button, maybe you shouldn't even be doing it in the first place.

Why don't you answer my question? That's why I posted this topic on the forum. Maybe I couldn't find an answer on the internet.

 

[Mal]

Well they're all one time things.

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You sure about that?? I want to see a picture of where it says that it will not delete your files.

I already answered you. I was a certified tech at 15 yrs old. Get a life. If you want photographic evidence, take a picture yourself. We're not here to hold your hand and baby you through every step.

jW

 

[Zerozal]

You sure about that?? I want to see a picture of where it says that it will not delete your files.

Jeez dude--you should have a backup of your files anyway. If something bad happens when you upgrade, just restore your files from the backup.

 

[Krazy Bill]

i want to see a picture of where it says that it will not delete your files.

 

[Puevlo]

http://support.apple.com/kb/PH10763 says it won't delete your files but your files might be what is causing your perceived issue. Best to wipe everything without backing up.

 

[Julien]

Backup, backup, backup, backup. Only a fool keeps no backup of their data because sooner of later you WILL have data lost by hardware/HD failure or software mistake. To top it off Apple makes it so easy and intuitive with TM that even the most non tekkie person can do it.

 

[macuser1232]

What I am going to do is purchase an external hard drive and backup all my User files including a download of OS X Mountain Lion in my downloads folder. Then reinstall the OS.

 

[Krazy Bill]

What I am going to do is purchase an external hard drive and backup all my User files including a download of OS X Mountain Lion in my downloads folder. Then reinstall the OS.

Ok. I'm sure Mal will be standing by.

 

[waynep]

First step = Make sure you have a backup of your data.

If you have no backup, you WILL lose files someday. It's not a question of IF . . . it's a question of WHEN.

 

[Mal]

Ok. I'm sure Mal will be standing by.

I'm waiting with baited breath…

Actually, I probably won't even bother checking back in on this thread.

jW

 

[RadicalxEdward]

Jeez, talk about thread drama. I can understand the OP's position. In my case I have 3/4 of my internal and external drives filled with media and no money to buy another external drive (or pay a service) to back up all this data. My mac is also DEAD SLOW most of the time. It takes about 15-30 minutes to boot from power off to able to control desktop. Sometimes even more. I've had as little as half the drive filled after deleting stuff trying to see if a fullish hard drive was what was slowing me down but it made no difference. I have a 2.2Ghz i7 with 8GB of ram so it shouldn't be bogging down with almost every action I take with only 1 app open at a time and no background apps (ie stuff thats only running in the task bar type stuff)

So now I'm thinking of reinstalling the OS since none of the generic fixes are helping (repairing permissions, cleaning caches, etc) but I don't have space to back up all my stuff. So I would need to feel confident that reinstalling won't erase my stuff. When I have the money to afford backup space i'll backup my data but until then I just have to be extra careful with it.

 

[palmharbor]

Caution

If you erase and re-install 10.8...everything will be lost! You must use time machine to back up your folders and applications. You must also back up your favorites of Firefox or they will be lost when a "new user" is created.
You apple mail may be lost too. after U create a new user, your third party apps must be dragged to the doc as you will not see them.
Be carefull

Having an external HD of at least 500 Gigs is A MUST HAVE.

 

[talmy]

Nobody's suggesting an "erase and re-install". If you just do a re-install the user files will not be lost. Unlike much older OS X Installers, Mountain Lion won't even suggest an erase. You have to go out of your way to do it.

HOWEVER it probably won't solve the OP's problems. It could be a corruption in the user files. Best to first create a second user account (always a good idea to have one anyway) and see if the problems still exist from the fresh account. Or it could be a hardware problem that no amount of reinstalls will fix.

 

[cooky560]

1. Make a time machine backup
2. If you want to do, feel free to erase and install
3. If you did an erase and install, in the installer select "restore my files from a disk"
4. Insert the disk containing your time machine backup.
5. Wait

 

[RadicalxEdward]

Nobody's suggesting an "erase and re-install". If you just do a re-install the user files will not be lost. Unlike much older OS X Installers, Mountain Lion won't even suggest an erase. You have to go out of your way to do it.

HOWEVER it probably won't solve the OP's problems. It could be a corruption in the user files. Best to first create a second user account (always a good idea to have one anyway) and see if the problems still exist from the fresh account. Or it could be a hardware problem that no amount of reinstalls will fix.

First, thank you all for your responses.

Second, I didn't think to try a different user on the same drive considering a duplicate drive had no speed issues with the same user account (it was an exact duplicate)

I am currently using the 500GB drive that came with my macbook pro and have transferred over what I can fit from the old drive (apps, user account, etc) and am loving OS X's ease of migration. Definitely another reason to never go back to windows.

I downloaded Tech Tools Pro and will do some diagnostics on the drive as well as take Talmy's suggestion of trying another user account on the problem drive.