Wipe hard drive to increase performance?

[thedangercometh]

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I apologize as I suspect this post would be better placed in a Mac os x forum instead. When I had a PC, I would periodically (once a year) wipe the hard drive and reinstall everything. I found this helped to have the computer run quicker, I assumed by cleaning the registry out.

Obviously my Mac runs a number of maintenance protocols that help to mitigate this. Regardless, is there any benefit to a wipe and a reinstall from time capsule, or would the results be effectively the same?

My ultimate concern is migration to a new MBP via time capsule, and I'm specifically concerned with wearing it down unnecessarily through this way, as opposed to manually reinstalling and transferring files.

 

[mulo]

drive performance will be the same.
all it does is get rid of crap, crap that you are going to put right back if you restore from time capsule.

 

[NickZac]

With OS X, it isn't really necessary. I was a Windows guy too and thought it was worth it until some people here showed me figures. As far as the 'junk' goes, it isn't very much and even if you are going to a SSD, it has so many read/write cycles that whether you do a clean install or a CCC, the difference is nominal.

 

[jenzjen]

I do a clean install on my Macs about once a year just like I did on Windows for the reason posted above - to get rid of crap. I then copy back only the things I need from my backup as opposed to doing a restore from TC, as the latter just negates the entire purpose of the clean install.

 

[alt]

With OS X, it isn't really necessary. I was a Windows guy too and thought it was worth it until some people here showed me figures. As far as the 'junk' goes, it isn't very much and even if you are going to a SSD, it has so many read/write cycles that whether you do a clean install or a CCC, the difference is nominal.

Not true. Ive seen peoples macs just as bent out of shape as windows machines. Primary cause: stupid people that just download everything they see. Ive seen the finder bar with like 30 icons on it just BOGGED down. So yes, depending on your situation..wiping the hard drive CAN be beneficial as well as just CLEANING the thing up as much as possible.

Dumb people can screw up OSX just like they can windows...just slightly harder to do.

 

[NickZac]

Not true. Ive seen peoples macs just as bent out of shape as windows machines. Primary cause: stupid people that just download everything they see. Ive seen the finder bar with like 30 icons on it just BOGGED down. So yes, depending on your situation..wiping the hard drive CAN be beneficial as well as just CLEANING the thing up as much as possible.

Dumb people can screw up OSX just like they can windows...just slightly harder to do.

As you said, that is user error and not the system. Windows 7 may also be as efficient as it is a great OS, but the current OS X does not compile a bunch of 'junk' provided users are educated (ex: clean your downloads).

 

[smallnshort247]

My MacBook Pro has been experiencing kernel panics at least once a week for the past 3-4 months. I took it to the Apple store and they ran some tests but couldn't find anything wrong. I also upgraded the RAM and HDD but the kernel panics were occurring before me opening up my MBP. They also tested the hardware but still couldn't find anything wrong. After doing some research on my own, I found that the main cause of kernel panics are either because of hardware related issues or a screw up w/ the system files. In my case, I hoped it was a system file issue and not a hardware issue.

I finally got off my lazy bum and did a total clean install. I backed up my stuff but manually had to drag over music files and stuff. I often think of doing clean installs the same as moving into a new house.

Its been about 4-5 days with the clean install and so far no kernel panics. I haven't really pushed my mac hard since doing the clean install though, so time will tell. As for people saying that it doesn't increase your speed when doing a clean install, thats not really true..depending on the case. Programs open up a lot faster. On top of it all, it feels nice to get rid of all the junk that I had.

I'm not 100% sure if I'll do the clean install again once lion comes out. However, I will try to do at least 1 clean install per year.