Benefits of a clean install on my iMac?

[danistyping]

Hey guys,

I have owned three iMacs. The old one had Leopard, backed it up, then ended up buying a 24". Restored from time machine, backed that up regularly, upgraded to Snow Leopard somewhere in there. Just sold the 24", got a 27" core i5. Restored from Time Machine, backed up regularly.

So...3 computers, two operating systems and not one clean install. I don't necessarily notice that my computer lags, but it seems as though people are always recommending clean installs and I want to get the most out of my core i5.

Should i do it and migrate all settings and files after installing applications?

 

[donga]

"if it ain't broke, don't fix it". that said, do it if you'd like to if you think it'll help out in some way. I personally do clean installs then manually move stuff, but it takes time.

 

[HLdan]

You're gonna get the usual response from the geeks here to ignore the reformatting option as it won't make any difference. Don't believe a word of that, it will. I always reformat every new Mac I buy to get rid of the useless languages and some programs such as iWeb that I don't use. You'll also have useless files that trail behind these programs that using special slimming tools won't remove. Also it's ridiculous to install a slimming tools program to remove the unwanted languages. That program will need to be removed and files in the preferences and hidden files will be left behind. They won't cause any issues but it's just extra hard drive space being used for nothing.

 

[Hellhammer]

Actually, a clean install has been done for your new iMac as there was nothing in that HD when OS X was installed. If you want to do a real clean install, you should wipe the HD and start from that because if you migrate from TM backup, everything will be the same.

I recommend trying OnyX as it erases all "hash" files and speeds up your Mac

 

[Michaelgtrusa]

You have to be carful with the slimming tools as they will cause some apps to fail like, Speeddownload, Frameline 47 and Lightroom 3 beta.