Do u clean install your mac?

[Rave]

How often do u clean install your production machine? It’s been over 18 months for me this time.

Am doing a clean install (back to snow leopard from lion due to audio conflicts) but am also looking forward to getting shut of some deadwood.
Back to basics for me. Too much choice can hinder u.

[Serra]

I did once, thinking it could solve a problem I have with a plugin which worked before, but it hasn't. So is not always a solution/advantage

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-M98Xeh ... ure=colike

[STRATEGY_510]

Is it necessary with Macs the way it is with PC?

I used to reinstall XP every couple of years and always seemed to get a performance boost when I did. I'm on a iMac now and would rather never do it if not necessary.

Thanks,
STRATEGY

[Goddard]

Is it necessary with Macs the way it is with PC?

If you're a moron that download every piece of crap from torrents or other freeware "keep your Mac tidy" kind of shit then even MacOS will perform as Vista on weed...
No matter what they say about how secure it is nowadays to keep your Mac online 24/7, don't forget that internet is nothing but a sewer...
Some of this forum members keep that level all the time...

[Rave]

I normally clean install when I install a new OS but this time Lion fooked up.

[Press Enter]

I create a backup before updating OSX, both 10.X.* and 10.*.* updates

I'm awesome.

[Machinesworking]

I never clean instal.

I might when I buy a new laptop, but upgrading my hard drive, I balked, the hassle of reinstalling all my plug ins and other software from scratch far outweighed any cleanliness benefit. A "dirty" hard drive isn't going to make one bit of difference as far as performance is concerned with OSX, Apple even state this, the main thing is to keep at least 20% empty space on your main hard drive. I go for more like 30%, and never have access issues.

[Tarekith]

I tend to clean install about once a year or so, or when I get a new laptop or HD. I don't have a lot of plug ins to authorize, so it only takes me 2-3 hours from start to finish. I test a lot of beta software for companies too, so it's nice once in awhile to make sure everything is clean and none of the beta stuff is still kicking around.

[Machinesworking]

^^^^Freaking Komplete takes two to three hours, the whole process is a two day affair for me, unless I have the day off.
I love my set up though, just pointing out that it's an OSX myth that a clean instal will make your computer run faster.
This is definitely the true advantage to OSX.

[Rave]

^^^^Freaking Komplete takes two to three hours, the whole process is a two day affair for me, unless I have the day off.
I love my set up though, just pointing out that it's an OSX myth that a clean instal will make your computer run faster.
This is definitely the true advantage to OSX.

Komplete takes an age fo me too unless I save the library. Tbh I just wanted a uber tidy system and less clutter (aka komplete 5). My install isdone now and my axon works well with snow leopard. I will clone the drive tomorrow and if I decide to experiment with lion again it will be easier to roll back. I have two others macs with lion installed so I am not missing out.

[Machinesworking]

Komplete takes an age fo me too unless I save the library. Tbh I just wanted a uber tidy system and less clutter (aka komplete 5).

Yep, and the idea of a less cluttered with miscellaneous installed crap is a great reason to do a clean instal!

[Khazul]

How often do u clean install your production machine? It’s been over 18 months for me this time.

Am doing a clean install (back to snow leopard from lion due to audio conflicts) but am also looking forward to getting shut of some deadwood.
Back to basics for me. Too much choice can hinder u.

Used the factory install snow leopard when I got it rather than clean installing. When I upgraded that to lion and some thing just weren't quite right, so ended up formatting and reinstalling everything just to get some of the big things better distributed around available internal and external storage - in particular had just upgraded from Komplete 7 or Komplete 8 ultimate as well and so tidy that lot up also by now knew what to expect from all the installers for all the apps I use etc - i.e. which ones you get good control over and which you don't and how to move some other stuff post-insall to avoid issues etc, so seemed worth doing a much cleaner build.

I think the answer probably ends up related to how clean your install is - in particular how much breathing room you have and how much you have that ended up installed to non-ideal locations, so not like windows where I feel you almost have to install every 9-12 months or even every 6 months for a lot of churn.

Gut feel with lion so far - its a fair bit heavier than snow leopard and starting to feel a bit more windows like - much longer shutdown time, more beach balls and generally a little less responsive etc (even on my 2011 MBP 17 with a large fast internal HD) so that may be a sign of a system that tending towards windows like sensitivity to non-fixable clutter and so more need to reinstall as a way to keep it all working perfectly rather than as something you do rarely (compared to a windows system with a similar level of install and update churn) when you need to do a major re-organisation.

Other reason to avoid re-installs on mac - friggin super drives are slow which gets really painful for some of the really big things like komplete, logic+, cubase, dvd install of live 8 suite etc. Compared to my PC (which otherwise has similar CPU performance to my mac) - install time for big stuff is several times longer on the mac as the PC has a good fast DVD drive in it, so downtime for the mac re-install I just did for Lion (about 600 gig split over two drives once all is installed) was 3 full days and would have been 4+ if I was having to manual stuff in komplete 7 dvds and other big NI instruments, but install for komplete 8 ultimate hard disc is way way faster.

[steko]

+1 no need for a "clean install" on OS X (since Snow Leopard install on top of old system is actually even better for most users: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3258)

good info: http://www.macworld.com/article/161203/ ... _lion.html

http://web.me.com/pondini/AppleTips/Index.html

http://www.macworld.com/article/161064/ ... guide.html

http://roaringapps.com/apps:table

[Tarekith]

good info: http://www.macworld.com/article/161203/ ... _lion.html

"The other is if you've been using your Mac for a while, installing and deleting lots of apps and OS add-ons, and your hard drive has become littered with lots of unnecessary gunk and cruft: orphaned application-support and preference files, abandoned preference panes, and the like. A new major version of OS X is a great opportunity to do some spring cleaning, so to speak. Of course, if you perform a clean install for this purpose, you don't want to use Setup or Migration Assistant to bring over everything from your backup. Instead, you should manually copy your personal data and then reinstall just those apps and add-ons you actually use."

[beats me]

I have two others macs with lion installed so I am not missing out.

What audio problems are you having with Lion? I installed Lion on my main machine a couple weeks ago but haven't really farted around with music much since.

I've cloned my drive since 2 Macs ago for my main computer and it probably is a clusterfuck of unneeded space consuming files, but I'm too scared to start from scratch.