Clean Install of Snow Leopard - what to keep, what to toss, how to go about it?

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Clean Install of Snow Leopard - what to keep, what to toss, how to go about it?

I am having difficulty with my 1st gen Intel iMac and want to do a clean install. This is an effort to see if I can get good performance out of this machine or should I buy a new one. I am thinking about buying an external drive to move everything to, erase the internal drive, install Snow Leopard, move everything back and then use the external drive for iTunes and iPhoto. Currently they reside on the Time Capsule, but this does not work very well.

My question is, how exactly do I move everything to the new external and what stuff exactly do I put back on the internal? Do I just drag my old user folder and applications folder (which I keep in the main directory, not in the user's App folder) back? back to the internal or will this recreate any problems? What about passwords for applications, will they need o be reentered for all my apps? And Libraries, App Support and such things? I have never done a clean install before. Your thoughts and advice are appreciated.

PS: I have a MM account, so I know I can set up Mail Address Book & iCal to sync automatically.

Charles

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.7)

Posted on May 30, 2011 9:42 AM

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thomas_r.

Level 7

31,989 points

May 30, 2011 9:51 AM in response to Charles Link

To do a truly clean install, the only thing you should move to the new install is your personal documents. Everything else should be reinstalled from scratch. Don't import any preference files, keychains, applications, etc unless you have no other choice.

However, note that this is an extreme solution that is not usually necessary. If your problem is performance issues, then it's possible that it's just that your hardware is inadequate for the software you're trying to use on it, since you have older hardware. It's also possible that there are some issues you can solve in another way that's easier than reinstalling everything. Try looking at the Mac OS X speed FAQ.

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