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Will you upgrade to Lion or do a clean install?

Upgrade or clean install?

  • I want that clean fresh feeling

    Votes: 159 47.6%

  • I'm just gonna upgrade over SL

    Votes: 162 48.5%

  • I won't be installing Lion at all

    Votes: 13 3.9%
  • Total voters
    334
I did a clean install on a different partition than I already had SL. I did this because I didn't want to risk messing up my main boot drive that I have spent weeks getting everything setup just right.

Steps I took:

1. Intall SL on other partition and update everything
2. Restored original SL account via Time Machine
3. Ran the Lion installer
4. Enjoyed all the same apps, settings and preferences working perfectly in Lion

A couple observations after less than a full day using it..

1. Mission Control is great
2. Safari 5.1 in Lion is very very fast
3. I am impressed with how seamless everything went. Much better than the 10.5-10.6 upgrade.

I'm impressed so far!
 
maclaptop said:
Very well said.

As a matter of routine maintenance, I do a clean install about every 10 months no matter what version I'm running. Once it's back to it's factory fresh state, I install my applications one by one while doing some work on my other MBP during the wait periods. Once all apps are loaded, I methodically reinstall my data which I keep clean via a well organized backup routine.

Yes, it's a bit tedious & takes time, but I'm happy to use this method, because it produces a rock solid, fast & fresh computer going forward. It's also a lot faster & easier that letting it go until a real problem either slows the system down or worse.
Click to expand...

This is my reasoning and practice as well though I do it about every 6 months.
 
Ding a clean install. I figured it's a good time to do a hard drive upgrade on my MBP so I'm going from a 320 GB 5400 to a 500 GB 7200. I'll put in the drive and do a Lion clean install on or around launch day.
 
TomRadfahrer said:
Clean install is a myth. The install is clean just for a very short moment until you begin to restore your data including your library.

I am pretty sure that an upgrade to Lion will remove almost all mess you can imagine in your system folder. The problem is the user's library folder.

And if you begin to re-install SW like Elgatos eyteTV or other SW, which comes with System extensions, unclean, unclean, unclean ....

If you compare total disc space after an upgrade and after a "clean install" you will see some difference, of course. Typical examples are fonts, which came with non-Apple SW and are lost after a "clean install". But the few kBytes you can save cannot justify the pain when you open a document 5 month later and you learn that some fonts are lost due to a "clean install".

Stay dirty !! Its much more fun. :D
Click to expand...

Not a myth bud...especially for Windows machines. It's best to do a Clean install.
 
Okay, if i'm going to do a clean install, how does that work with Lion?

Do I have to do a clean install of SL first, then install Lion? Or will the Lion installer offer to do a clean install?
 
Cougarcat said:
Actually, he's right if you do a full TM restore after the clean install.
Click to expand...

But doesn't doing a full TM restore also restore all the crap and junk that's accumulated over the past few years? I mean, just looking through the /Library/Application Support folder I see junk files in there for stuff I haven't even seen in a year. Plus, who knows what other junk is just taking up space in some other hidden backwater of my HD. Every "demo" program of something that I've tried leaves stuff behind too. Simply dragging an application to the trash to uninstall it doesn't remove all the left-over junk.
 
ksgant said:
But doesn't doing a full TM restore also restore all the crap and junk that's accumulated over the past few years? I mean, just looking through the /Library/Application Support folder I see junk files in there for stuff I haven't even seen in a year. Plus, who knows what other junk is just taking up space in some other hidden backwater of my HD. Every "demo" program of something that I've tried leaves stuff behind too. Simply dragging an application to the trash to uninstall it doesn't remove all the left-over junk.
Click to expand...

Yes, that's what I was referring to--no difference between an upgrade and a clean install w/ full TM restore. You end up with the same result.

If you have the time/patience to do a clean install with a minimal TM restore (just docs and settings) and then install your apps one by one manually, that would be best. But personally I wouldn't bother unless I was experiencing issues.
 
ksgant said:
Okay, if i'm going to do a clean install, how does that work with Lion?

Do I have to do a clean install of SL first, then install Lion? Or will the Lion installer offer to do a clean install?
Click to expand...

I think a few of us were wondering this as well.....
 
I think I'll be doing an upgrade. I know it's probably "better" for your computer to do a fresh install but it's quicker to upgrade and I generally keep my Mac pretty clean so there shouldn't be much background clutter :)
 
I'll be upgrading.

One thing i can say though, i regardless of how people install it, i hope the launch of Lion will put an end to the ****** "Lion is going to ROAR" "Apple is going to uncage Lion" "Apple is going to unleash the Lion" jokes we've been seeing around here. They're just offensive to good humour...
 
I upgraded, but things seem pretty sluggish on my iMac so I'm thinking of nuking and doing a clean install.
 
I originally voted for a clean install but I think what I will do is download the installer and create a bootable disk of it (for future restores if needed), upgrade and then if I encounter problems, do a clean install from the disk. I have already done two full time machine backups on separate disks just in case of problems. No harm in being prepared, I value my data. :)
 
nick123222 said:
I originally voted for a clean install but I think what I will do is download the installer and create a bootable disk of it (for future restores if needed), upgrade and then if I encounter problems, do a clean install from the disk. I have already done two full time machine backups on separate disks just in case of problems. No harm in being prepared, I value my data. :)
Click to expand...

I will probably do the same.
 
nizmoz said:
Not a myth bud...especially for Windows machines. It's best to do a Clean install.
Click to expand...

Whatever makes you feel better. Clean installations became a way of the Do-Do many moons ago. Unless you have a totally hosed system, the OS installer is more than capable of doing the job right. I've not performed a clean installation since OS X was introduced, and I'm running just as clean and as fast as I was back then.
 
Coming from the Windows world and not having had the experience of an upgrade from the Apple side of the fence; I'll likely try the upgrade process and use the new OS for a few days; however, there's nothing better than a fresh start with a new OS... Maybe it's a feeling of entitlement coming from Windows after more than 15 years...

Also, I just pickup up a brand new Apple OEM (Toshiba) 256 SSD hard drive that I am anxious to install; first SSD hard drive and getting all excited just thinking about it...
 
Upgrade...a few years ago I would have done clean in stall, but my time and patience has worn thin for reconfiguring every little setting and transferring files back over.
 
I've done an upgrade on my MBA late 2010 without probs, However I've bought a July 2011 13" with the i7/256gb SSD and am musing about whether to do a clean install on it or restore from TM.

Opinions seem to be about even so maybe I'll use it out of the box and set up apps all over again while using the "old" MBA until the setup is as I want it.

My family will just have to wait a few days for the hand-me-down!

Comments appreciated.
 
Last edited:
i did install it over SL, but it was slow as hell and didnt feel as fast. since done a clean install and without any apps seems just as it did with SL........so we'll see later how it work out once i start putting apps back on it.
 
I'm going to clean install and then I'll clean the screen and keyboard. I wonder what I can spray it with to give it a clean fresh smell. While I'm in the mood I might even do some housework, get the suit dry cleaned and see the doctor about that infection I caught a while back.
 
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