Going from SL to Mavericks

[tkimages]

My 2010 iMac (i7, 12Gb, 27") seems to be a lot slower than it used to be. In fact when I switch off completely then switch back on, it can take up to 5 mins before the HDD stops spinning and I can use Safari. So I'm going to wipe the HDD and reinstall OS X and upgrade to Mavericks at the same time.

The question is do I re-install all my stuff from Time Machine and thus stand a chance of installing all the mess that's slowing it down or do I re-install all my stuff from their original sources?

I realise that if I do the latter, I will have to backup my favourites, e-mails etc, for a clean re-install if I can find where they are stored on the HDD.

So full clean re-install or use Time Machine?

Cheers

Tillman

 

[cradom]

Why do things the hard way?
How much free space is left on the drive?
How many things are starting up?

 

[pigoo3]

Why do two things at once…if the main goal is to figure out what the problem is? If you make two changes…you won't know which one solved things…and with that knowledge (what really caused the problem)…you may be able to solve a similar problem in the future. What I mean by making two changes is:

1. Wiping the HD.
2. Installing Mavericks.

What I would do is (if this is the route you feel you need to go)…wipe the HD…but then reinstall Snow Leopard. Snow Leopard is what you are used to…Mavericks is something you are not used to. If after wiping & reinstalling Snow Leopard everything seems better…THEN upgrade to Mavericks.

Also…what happens if some apps you have installed currently (which work fine with Snow Leopard) aren't compatible with Mavericks?? Now you've caused a 2nd problem.

Bottom line. What if the problem really is a bad hard drive…and nothing to do with the OS? Of course either way (10.6 or 10.9) you will still find this out.

- Nick

 

[tkimages]

Thanks for the replies so far, much appreciated.

My HDD is about half full, and I've done the permissions thing. Another reason for Mavericks is that evry so often I get a message from a web site that states that Safari is out of date, and another one won't even run the program as the browser is out of date. I've checked for updates and I've got the best that SL will support - apparently.

I understand the point in doing it in stages, and I will have to do it that way anyway, re-install SL then update to Mavericks, so I'm led to believe. So I could run with SL and see how it goes after the re-install.

However, my main concern is do I re-install all my apps and stuff using Time Machine, or re-install them manually from source to ensure no 'problems' are re-installed?

 

[pigoo3]

Another reason for Mavericks is that evry so often I get a message from a web site that states that Safari is out of date, and another one won't even run the program as the browser is out of date.

Recently this was a problem with MSN.com (I experienced it as well). But MSN.com seems to have fixed it (at least with Safari for OS 10.7 and 10.8). Not sure about Safari for 10.6.

I was focusing on the long loading problems (5 min was mentioned). This should be independent of anything internet related.

- Nick

 

[pigoo3]

By the way…how full is the hard drive? Gigs used & gigs free?

- Nick

 

[tkimages]

It's a 1TB drive, info shows about 506GB free.

I realise that the slowness of the machine is not internet related, it was just another reason why I had considered the move to Mavericks.