Maintenance

[Fred123]

When do you do a fresh install on your Mac, only when something does not work as it should, if you feel your computer does not perform as it should, or do you sometimes just do a clean install even if your computer performs as it should just to keep in a good state ?

Thanks

 

[GreGorGy]

When do you do a fresh install on your Mac, only when something does not work as it should, if you feel your computer does not perform as it should, or do you sometimes just do a clean install even if your computer performs as it should just to keep in a good state ?

Thanks

Hi Fred

I do a lot of development on my macs and that can really fragment a drive and leave things (artefacts) all over the show. While fragmentation is not that big of a deal, the artefacts are. One also gets lazy and backups parts of projects but then leaves milestones on the HD for "just in case" and not wanting to go find CDs. This means that my macs can get quite full at times so what I do is when the HD gets to over 80% full, I start making plans to clean install. Currently, one of my two is critically low on disk space but I cannot do a clean install just yet because I cannot take that much time away from one of my current projects.

When I do make the clean install, I have gotten into the practise of making an image file of the HD on an external. If anything goes wrong, I just restore the image file and start over.

NOTE: If you do engage in clean installs, remember to transfer or backup software activations like CS, Quark, MTR, et al.

 

[Fred123]

Thanks for the information

 

[Shardie]

Windows : Once every month or at at least 2 months
Mac : Never (Unless new OS comes out)

 

[adsl3g]

i have done one fresh install since 2007 Dec and that was due to me switching the iMac off without doing a shutdown and something was buggered up on the HD and would not boot up - disk utility would also not repair it. Otherwise - don't worry about it - it always seems to be fine -

 

[Fred123]

Thanks for all the information

 

[Shardie]

Yep just run it, no or little maintenance needed. Dont even bother about 3rd party defrag software - not needed. Use DISK UTILITY to repair permissions once in a while - like every 6 months. Other than that ENJOY

 

[PeterCH]

I upgraded Leopard over my 2006 Tiger. Still running well. You don't have to clean install.

 

[Sputnik]

I reload when OSX starts doing a lot of this;

[video=youtube;7sMRxRj4TlY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sMRxRj4TlY&feature=related[/video]

 

[StbA]

I test software for clients on a regular basis, so I redo my mac every 6 months or so. Some software does affect the Mac's speed. Be particularly careful of 3G software, they write to the kernel because it's a network device that's added and the wrong version can cause kernel panics.