Clean install from Big Sur to Sonoma?

[CooperBox]

Hi, On previous Intel Macs I've always performed clean installs when upgrading. Now on a 2020 Intel iMac I wish to upgrade from my current 11.7.10 Big Sur to Sonoma. Is it recommended to wipe the internal drive for a clean install, or just go ahead with a normal install from the downloaded Sonoma installer?
Incidently I've just made a clone of my current Big Sur on an external SSD just in case all goes pear-shape.

 

[Nermal]

Do a normal install, and if you don't like the result then do an Erase All Content and Settings. Much less hassle that way

 

[Yebubbleman]

Hi, On previous Intel Macs I've always performed clean installs when upgrading. Now on a 2020 Intel iMac I wish to upgrade from my current 11.7.10 Big Sur to Sonoma. Is it recommended to wipe the internal drive for a clean install, or just go ahead with a normal install from the downloaded Sonoma installer?
Incidently I've just made a clone of my current Big Sur on an external SSD just in case all goes pear-shape.

I generally like wiping my machine before doing massive jumps. However, one option you have is to do an Erase and Upgrade installation using the startosinstall command that lives inside of your Sonoma installer. This will wipe your drive and install your new OS in one shot. Basically, download whatever version of the "Install macOS Sonoma" app that you get, then do the following:

- Open Terminal

- Start typing a command that starts with "sudo", follow that with a space

- In Finder, navigate to your Applications folder, find "Install macOS Sonoma", control/right click it and select "Show Package Contents

- Go into "Contents", then "Resources", then locate a file called "startosinstall"

- Drag "startosinstall" to the Terminal window; it should fill in the full path to itself in your command

- add "--eraseinstall" and, optionally "agreetolicense" (if you don't want to be bothered with agreeing to the end user license agreement manually)

- Press return and then enter your password when prompted

Works pretty well!

 

[CooperBox]

Many thanks for your replies!