Mac OSX fresh install

Hi all,

I'm considering doing a fresh install of OSX 10.6 - I figure there must be loads of junk that I don't use lying around. I have a Time Machine backup drive, but don't want to necessarily reinstate everything.

Any advice on best way to do this fresh install? Are there any big pitfalls? I've done this many times on Windows XP in the past but never on a Mac!

Cheers,

Make sure you have all essentials backed up on an external via Time Machine. Highly recommend a separate backup using SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner to make a bootable clone of your entire HDD for good measure.

1. Insert your SL install DVD
2. Restart your Mac
3. Press and hold the "C" button when you hear the chime, letting go when you see the  logo
4. Once you get the menu bar at the top, go into Utilities and select Disk Utility
5. Click "Erase"
6. Follow prompts to reinstall SL

You can either use the installer Migration Assistant to choose what you want to restore from your Time Machine backup or wait until you go into your freshly installed system, open Time Machine and select which files to bring back.

Cool thanks, will have a think about it over the weekend!

The Physicist said:

Hi all,

I'm considering doing a fresh install of OSX 10.6 - I figure there must be loads of junk that I don't use lying around.

Click to expand...

Really? How do you figure?

If you have "junk" laying around, the best way to deal with it is to identify it and delete it. If you can't tell what the junk is, it's probably not junk. Either way, re-installing your OS is a drastic step.

If you are having problems with your Mac, follow the troubleshooting steps on the sticky before re-installing.

Agreed with tech.

Constantly reinstalling the OS to "clear the cobwebs", so to speak, is a bad habit many of us bring from Windows, where it really is necessary. OS X does not suffer from the same kind of "rot" that Windows does. In most cases, simply creating a new account and deleting the old will accomplish the same thing as an OS-reinstall would in Windows.