OS X Recovery

Hi everyone,

This 2010 MacBook Pro came with Snow Leopard (10.6) pre-installed and I upgraded to Mountain Lion (10.8) since then.

My question is: If I use the OS X Recovery (cmd + R on boot), format the disk and reinstall the OS, will it go back to Snow Leopard or will it install my current Mountain Lion?

Thank you so much!

It won't do anything automatically. You can either use your original Snow Leopard DVD to reinstall Snow Leopard if you choose, or you can re-download and reinstall Mountain Lion from the App store.

Why do you feel you need to do this? Very seldom does OS X have to be reinstalled.

chscag, thank you so much!

Well, this may be a bit naive, but I definitely feel it getting more and more sluggish, suspecting it is a result of the bunch of things that I've installed, etc...
Recovering (and formatting) would be a way of getting rid of all the clutter that I'm actually not using, while making a fresh setup of the OS.
Since I upgraded it from 10.6 to 10.8 via App Store, it is not really a fresh install, right?

Thanks once more

You might try some maintenance with Onyx before the radical fresh install. The default maintenance routines will clear out most of what causes slowdown.

Before doing anything drastic like reinstalling either Snow Leopard or Mountain Lion, let's try doing some cleanup maintenance on your machine first. We recommend downloading and installing the free cleanup and optimization tool "OnyX". You can download it from this website: LINK

Read through its help file and follow directions. It can be run in automatic mode which is what we recommend for new users of the tool. Also, be sure to make backups. Buy an external hard drive and use the built in Time Machine application to make frequent backups.

And not using MacKeeper, CleanMyMac, MacTuneUp, download manager or antivirus by chance and how much free space on the hard drive?

sorry, harryb2448, do you mean i should not use those tools?
I've just finished the Onyx automatic maintenance.
I have 275GB free out of 500GB.

Most of all, my question is: if I want a 10.8 fresh install, must I use the USB flash disk (or DVD) technique?
Or does this new OS X Recovery thing enough to get the same result? (I should remind you that the factory bundle of this Mac was 10.6 Snow Leopard)

Thank you all, so much!

Have a read of this for Recovery and do not install items listed. You can if you wish format the drive using the OS X.6 DVD, and download ML again from the App Store. Hold Option whilst clicking on Purchases and download again f.o.c.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718

This is Windows thinking.

You have not downloaded anything to make your Mac more sluggish. That's Windows.

Almost every single time someone has told me their Mac feels more sluggish, it turned out to ACTUALLY be one of the following causes:

1. Running out of HD space (this is not the problem in your case)

2. Lack of maintenance (you've taken care of this now)

3. Leaving tons of programs open because you're not properly quitting them (UNBELIEVABLY COMMON)

4. Tons of crap all over the desktop (again COMMON)

5. Downloaded a "anti-virus" or "torrenting" or some other dodgy program that's tying up your resources.

chas_m,

Well, I admit it may be Windows thinking, since I used it for a long time...

Anyway, I've been relying in OS X famous RAM memory management and yes, I leave a lot of applications running with their windows closed. As for CPU usage, there's no problem but it seems that for RAM memory, it is quite different... So maybe I should start quitting apps more often.

Also, tons of crap all over the desktop... yes, I have a few things all over there (including pics and videos). Better make a good cleanup and stop this lazy habit of saving files there.

As for the rest of the causes you listed, it's fine.

Anyway, I definitely feel it lighter after Onyx maintenance!

I thank you all for your precious support!

Best,

Francisco

Excellent!