Erase and reinstall procedure?

Question

Erase and reinstall procedure?

I noticed that apple phone support generally falls into a standard pattern.

If normal troubleshooting procedures fail, they suggest that you re-download and reinstall the OS. This is obviously a pain unless you have the fastest connection, since Mac OS is around 7 GB.

If this fails to solve the problem, the next suggestion is to do an erase and reinstall, but NOT to use the migration assistant, since this can reinstall the corrupt file the caused your problem in the first place. (This happens so much that it has caused me to question the usefulness of the migration assistant.)

Unfortunately, manually transferring your files from a back up is also tricky, since, if you do it wrong, it can cause permissions issues.

My question is if there is a document that details the erase and reinstall procedure with El Capitan? Thanks.

Mac mini, OS X El Capitan (10.11.4)

Posted on Jun 30, 2016 7:25 PM

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Answer 1

John Galt

Level 10

156,236 points

Jun 30, 2016 7:41 PM in response to Timothy Arends1

Yes: How to reinstall OS X on your Mac - Apple Support.

If something is not clear, write back. It would also be beneficial to describe the reason you need to do that. It might not be necessary.

Migration Assistant, should you elect to use it, will not result in improper permissions.

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Answer 2

coolio88

Level 1

69 points

Jun 30, 2016 7:46 PM in response to Timothy Arends1

A big part of the reasoning for choosing a reinstall over trying to figure out what happened is because of the vast amount of little things that might be tripping things up, if something is starting to become unstable then the best way to stack it back up using a reinstall. You would be surprised by how a simple issue can become a much bigger problem once you really dig into it. But by all means if you dont want to do the reinstall go ahead and do the research needed and remove files that might just lead you back to the reinstall

As for the reinstall you can follow this

How to reinstall OS X on your Mac - Apple Support

Once you have finished the install you can use migration assistant to restore files.

Move your content to a new Mac - Apple Support

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