Would reinstalling os x benefit me?

[FearoftheNight]

Hey guys just wondering about something. I have SL on my macboo pro and I haven't reinstalled the os ever in the 3 years or so I've owned it. Sometimes I get a random freeze or lag for a few seconds here and there but overall it's pretty smooth. Would I see any benefit in reinstalling the os?

 

[Kmax82]

In general, I only recommend reinstalling OS X if you have a lot of cruft that you want to get rid of.

If you've consolidated all your files and are happy with the footprint being used on your system, then I would just use a tool like Onyx, and then just clean up what you have running and evaluate if you really need everything that you have installed. I think there's more performance gained from that, than from a reinstall.

 

[timswim78]

I upgraded to 10.6 from 10.5 when it originally came out. Things were fine for a few weeks. Then, I started experiencing bugs like freezing applications, OS freezes, constant dropping of internet connection, etc. I did a clean install of 10.6 in July 2010 and have not had any recurrences of these problems.

 

[Kmax82]

Yea, when a full point update comes out.. I still swear by a clean install. I hear people say it's not necessary, but I do it more for peace of mind.

 

[secretanchitman]

Yea, when a full point update comes out.. I still swear by a clean install. I hear people say it's not necessary, but I do it more for peace of mind.

same here! takes me around an hour or two to reinstall and put back everything from time machine.

 

[FearoftheNight]

it is noticeably more responsive and whatnot afterwards?

 

[Kmax82]

it is noticeably more responsive and whatnot afterwards?

See what typically happens for me is this...

I'll do a full system reinstall. It feels snappy, fast, and nimble. Then I reinstall all my apps/system utilities/files.. and it ends up feeling the same as before I reinstalled, so unless it's a major release, I typically don't bother reinstalling.

Now, I would probably still reinstall if you're getting errors and creating a new user account, cleaning up the system files, and repairing the hard drive doesn't fix it...

 

[Nothinman]

Yea, when a full point update comes out.. I still swear by a clean install. I hear people say it's not necessary, but I do it more for peace of mind.

That's odd, I thought one of the things Mac people liked to tout as a step above Windows was the ability to constantly upgrade in-place without issue, unlike Windows.

 

[Eug]

I do a full wipe and reinstall with full point updates. eg. 10.5 --> 10.6. The times I haven't, I've had problems.

Updating from say 10.6.1 to 10.6.2 is usually OK with an incremental update, but rarely it isn't. Thus every second or third 10.x.x type update I do a full combo update, albeit not with a wipe. This is especially helpful if you've run flaky 3rd party hacks or whatever in the interim.

The incremental update for 10.6 is 144 MB. The full combo update is 1.06 GB. I like having these combo updates around anyway. You can update straight from 10.6.0 --> 10.6.6 with the combo update.

 

[Kmax82]

That's odd, I thought one of the things Mac people liked to tout as a step above Windows was the ability to constantly upgrade in-place without issue, unlike Windows.

Yea.. not sure. I've had them go through just fine but I think it's just an old trend in my head.. I used to always reinstall for OS updates. I never had any major issues going from 10.5 to 10.6, but it was just something I always do. :shrug:

 

[Nothinman]

Yea.. not sure. I've had them go through just fine but I think it's just an old trend in my head.. I used to always reinstall for OS updates. I never had any major issues going from 10.5 to 10.6, but it was just something I always do. :shrug:

With Windows that's obviously the case, I've never trusted an upgraded machine. But with Linux I've always just upgraded in place, my home installation is like 6 years old or something and I've never had an itch to reload it. Quite the opposite in fact because of how long it would take to get it back the way I like it.

 

[Eug]

Also depends on what you do with it. I used to install all sorts of crap on my main Mac desktop. This is the machine where an upgrade-in-place may cause problems.

On my other machines like the G4s for guests, upgrades-in-place work fine. Those just have basic software on it since they're just used for surfing.

 

[TheStu]

I am sort of the same way, when I was in school I was clean installing more often since I was constantly installing and uninstalling different software, a bunch of different VMs, SDKs, browsers, and all kinds of stuff. But after school, in place upgrades were never a problem. I think I had to clean install Leopard, but that was because I had been running the beta, and I didn't want any conflicts.

 

[Kmax82]

With Windows that's obviously the case, I've never trusted an upgraded machine. But with Linux I've always just upgraded in place, my home installation is like 6 years old or something and I've never had an itch to reload it. Quite the opposite in fact because of how long it would take to get it back the way I like it.

Yea.. I'm gonna give Lion an upgrade install (when it comes out) and see how it goes. I didn't have any issues with 10.5 -> 10.6 but it just felt dirty, like it shouldn't be working. 😀

 

[Nothinman]

Also depends on what you do with it. I used to install all sorts of crap on my main Mac desktop. This is the machine where an upgrade-in-place may cause problems.

On my other machines like the G4s for guests, upgrades-in-place work fine. Those just have basic software on it since they're just used for surfing.

But I thought OS X didn't get the same "bit rot" that Windows does over time?

 

[Eug]

Well, OS hacks are the worst. Not only do they break with every update, sometimes they leave behind crap that causes issue with other stuff in the OS, even when you think you've uninstalled them. I never install Unsanity hacks anymore.

Also, one problem is a lot of hacks don't actually come with proper uninstallers.

 

[Nothinman]

Well, OS hacks are the worst. Not only do they break with every update, sometimes they leave behind crap that causes issue with other stuff in the OS, even when you think you've uninstalled them. I never install Unsanity hacks anymore.

Also, one problem is a lot of hacks don't actually come with proper uninstallers.

So stop hacking things? If you're not happy with the lack of options that Apple gives you why are you using their stuff?

 

[Kmax82]

So stop hacking things? If you're not happy with the lack of options that Apple gives you why are you using their stuff?

Well arguably that's the same thing with Windows/Linux. People hack the heck out of Windows and that used to be what broke my installs of Windows the most. I have to hack "less" of OS X to fit my needs. And most of what I hack is just aesthetic. I usually install themes to get rid of Aqua.. although, I even do that less than I used to.

 

[Eug]

So stop hacking things? If you're not happy with the lack of options that Apple gives you why are you using their stuff?

I don't understand the angst...

Anyways, I generally don't hack these things anymore. It wasn't as if those options were that interesting anyway. I installed them more out of curiosity than anything.

 

[Nothinman]

I don't understand the angst...

Anyways, I generally don't hack these things anymore. It wasn't as if those options were that interesting anyway. I installed them more out of curiosity than anything.

It's not angst, it's just that virtually all Mac users love expounding on the reasons why OS X is so much easier and better than Windows while most of the those reason are pure BS. And it seems odd that one would recommend a reload of OS X instead of an upgrade because I wouldn't think upgrades would be problematic.

 

[JSt0rm]

What I do is have my system drive in 2 partitions and I leap frog os installs.

A Tiger> B leopard> delete tiger on A > A Snow Leopard

This allows me to always be able to work without worrying about upgrade pains.

 

[JSt0rm]

It's not angst, it's just that virtually all Mac users love expounding on the reasons why OS X is so much easier and better than Windows while most of the those reason are pure BS. And it seems odd that one would recommend a reload of OS X instead of an upgrade because I wouldn't think upgrades would be problematic.

Do you motherfuckers really need to show up in a help thread in the apple form? The dude has ALREADY bought the machine and he is just asking for advice. Why must everything be osx vs windows or pc vs mac. jeezus christ you people are fucking annoying.

 

[Nothinman]

Do you motherfuckers really need to show up in a help thread in the apple form? The dude has ALREADY bought the machine and he is just asking for advice. Why must everything be osx vs windows or pc vs mac. jeezus christ you people are fucking annoying.

I was just asking a question. I really thought most Mac users just popped in the new version disc and let it do it's thing without worrying about backing up, restoring and reconfiguring with every new release. If it bothers you that much just ignore me...

 

[Kmax82]

I was just asking a question. I really thought most Mac users just popped in the new version disc and let it do it's thing without worrying about backing up, restoring and reconfiguring with every new release. If it bothers you that much just ignore me...

A lot of Mac users are converts from old days of Windows, and that creates a paradigm that makes habits form. Habits are hard to break, and for me it's more of a mental game. I used to do reinstalls so I still do. I don't think it's that OS X can't, it's the user more than the software.

 

[Emulex]

sounds like you have a bad hard drive. i'd try this:

1. google on how to erase all blank sectors.
or
2. time machine backup
disk utility erase full drive

in my case #2 yielded a failure on erase which was not noted on smart. it was a bad drive. kept failing at random points. slapped in a G2 microcenter ssd and its been hella fast and 100% stable. there's something wierd in the fact the machine didn't register a disk error but wouldn't complete a full erase.

thankfully laptop drives are cheap these days.