How to Properly Migrate With a Clean Install to OS X Mountain Lion (From Lion/SL)

[KingArthurVI]

Sorry, but you're wrong. If you restore the 'Install OS X Mountain Lion' app to your media, it doesn't boot. If you restore the InstallESD.dmg, it works perfectly fine, and boots.

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Sorry, but you cannot transfer individual files.

I should mention that if you clean install ML, and transfer your data, it's still a clean install.

HOWEVER, BE SURE TO UNCHECK SYSTEM SETTINGS IN THE MIGRATION ASSISTANT WINDOW. Then it would be a 'clean' install because system values would be at default.

So the only thing not mentioned in your PDF is the bolded part (uncheck system settings) if I want a clean install of ML? Thank you so much for your guide.

EDIT: Also, I'm going to let my dad install ML on his iMac using the same flash drive I made off the ML installer downloaded from MAS on my Apple ID, what would happen if he installed it on his iMac? Does it count as a "license count" like "you have used 2 out of 5 available devices for this installer" or something like that? Would it clash with his iMac since his Apple ID is not the same as mine.

 

[supermati]

I have a question:

I am currently running Lion on a late 2011 MBP and I will Clean Install ML during this weekend. I have an external Hard Drive (Not Time Machine) which is going to be used to back up all my personal files (music, documents, photos, etc.)

What I'm not completely sure of is how does iPhoto work. When I purchased my Mac, I wanted control over my photo files. So I DESELECTED "COPY PHOTOS TO THE IPHOTO LIBRARY"

In the "Pictures" folder, I now have a bunch of self-made folders with pictures that are also in iPhoto but not "Copied". There's also a "iPhoto Library" file (about 1gb whilst the whole folder is about 12gb).

What would be the best way for me to transfer my pictures to the External HD and then back to the clean state SSD with ML. I want to keep my Faces, Locations, Events, etc.


Thanks!!!

 

[Weaselboy]

EDIT: Also, I'm going to let my dad install ML on his iMac using the same flash drive I made off the ML installer downloaded from MAS on my Apple ID, what would happen if he installed it on his iMac? Does it count as a "license count" like "you have used 2 out of 5 available devices for this installer" or something like that? Would it clash with his iMac since his Apple ID is not the same as mine.

If you install from the USB key you made, no AppleID is entered anywhere or tracked, so there would be no practical impact on your license.

 

[KingArthurVI]

If you install from the USB key you made, no AppleID is entered anywhere or tracked, so there would be no practical impact on your license.

Thanks a bunch!

 

[macuser1232]

How do I install Mountain Lion if I don't have a Time Machine or external hard drive?

 

[AppleDApp]

How do I install Mountain Lion if I don't have a Time Machine or external hard drive?

You can't do a clean install if you have no way of backing up your data.

 

[macuser1232]

You can't do a clean install if you have no way of backing up your data.

Really? So I can't replace Snow Leopard with Mountain Lion without using an external hard drive. That's retarded. Now I have to go out and buy a freaking expensive hard drive or time machine.

 

[Weaselboy]

How do I install Mountain Lion if I don't have a Time Machine or external hard drive?

You can't do a clean install if you have no way of backing up your data.

You can just install Mountain Lion over top of Snow Leopard and still have your data. Just don't erase the drive with Disk Util when you do the install.

You can do a fresh install of Mountain Lion without an external drive, but your data will be gone. Just download and install Mountain Lion and that will create a Mountain Lion Recovery HD partition. Now do a command-r boot and you will be taken to the Mountain Lion Recovery HD that was just created. From there start Disk Util and erase the partition Mountain Lion is installed on then proceed with the install. This will redownload Mountain Lion and do a fresh install. But as mentioned, you will not have your data.

Another idea... how large is your existing drive and how much free space is there? If there is enough free space you could shrink the current Snow Leopard partition then copy (clone) your data to the new partition. Then do a clean install and migrate your data from the new partition you made into the Mountain Lion install.

 

[macuser1232]

You can just install Mountain Lion over top of Snow Leopard and still have your data. Just don't erase the drive with Disk Util when you do the install.

You can do a fresh install of Mountain Lion without an external drive, but your data will be gone. Just download and install Mountain Lion and that will create a Mountain Lion Recovery HD partition. Now do a command-r boot and you will be taken to the Mountain Lion Recovery HD that was just created. From there start Disk Util and erase the partition Mountain Lion is installed on then proceed with the install. This will redownload Mountain Lion and do a fresh install. But as mentioned, you will not have your data.

Another idea... how large is your existing drive and how much free space is there? If there is enough free space you could shrink the current Snow Leopard partition then copy (clone) your data to the new partition. Then do a clean install and migrate your data from the new partition you made into the Mountain Lion install.

If I cloned the partition and made a Mountain Lion partition, could I delete the old one and then have one partition with all my stuff? Also could I possibly transfer some of my stuff with like a flash drive then put it back after a clean install of ML?

 

[AppleDApp]

If I cloned the partition and made a Mountain Lion partition, could I delete the old one and then have one partition with all my stuff? Also could I possibly transfer some of my stuff with like a flash drive then put it back after a clean install of ML?

Probably but you would need the hard drive space to do so. You could also move all your stuff to a flash drive and import it into Mountain lion after but space could be limiting on that flash drive.

 

[Weaselboy]

If I cloned the partition and made a Mountain Lion partition, could I delete the old one and then have one partition with all my stuff? Also could I possibly transfer some of my stuff with like a flash drive then put it back after a clean install of ML?

Yes, you can use Disk Util to shrink then later expand the main partition. If you had a large enough USB key, that would work also.

 

[macuser1232]

Yes, you can use Disk Util to shrink then later expand the main partition. If you had a large enough USB key, that would work also.

I've decided im going to use a flash drive and then right down some of the other programs I need.

 

[SR45]

So many thanks for the guide. Did the clean install from a Thumb drive OP and it was a very quick install, no issues. You put a lot of work into this, and I appreciate it.

 

[macuser1232]

Well I have found out I have plenty of room on my hard drive to duplicate my files and then install Mountain Lion on a partition and delete the other but I think I would rather do a clean, fresh install and just keep some files that I need on a flash drive to transfer later so that I can start from the beginning again.

 

[kiwisteve]

How do I apply these instructions to a Lion installation with multiple user accounts? i.e. I have one admin account and 2 user accounts and need to ensure that all the users data is backed up and restored as it existed prior to the update. I have Time Machine set up on each account backing up to an external hard drive connected by USB.

I'm not sure what order to do the steps and whether I'll have the required permissions to access the user data on the backup disc after I recreate the accounts

 

[Weaselboy]

How do I apply these instructions to a Lion installation with multiple user accounts? i.e. I have one admin account and 2 user accounts and need to ensure that all the users data is backed up and restored as it existed prior to the update. I have Time Machine set up on each account backing up to an external hard drive connected by USB.

I'm not sure what order to do the steps and whether I'll have the required permissions to access the user data on the backup disc after I recreate the accounts

It does not matter that you have multiple accounts. Time Machine backs up everything from all accounts by default and handles permissions issues. Just follow the OP's guide and it will work the same for all accounts without you having to do anything special.

 

[CKohkah]

Hello,

I'm new to this, so bare with me here... I want to do a clean install of Mountain Lion on my sister-in-laws Late 2008 MBP. However, it currently still has 10.5.8 Leopard on it.

How would I go about doing this without losing all of here files and data?

Would I upgrade to Snow Leopard (I have the free install disc they sent MobileMe users), do a time machine back up of all of her files, then follow the attached instructions to do a clean install of Mountain Lion and just let Time machine restore everything after?

 

[AppleDApp]

Hello,

I'm new to this, so bare with me here... I want to do a clean install of Mountain Lion on my sister-in-laws Late 2008 MBP. However, it currently still has 10.5.8 Leopard on it.

How would I go about doing this without losing all of here files and data?

Would I upgrade to Snow Leopard (I have the free install disc they sent MobileMe users), do a time machine back up of all of her files, then follow the attached instructions to do a clean install of Mountain Lion and just let Time machine restore everything after?

I would start by backing everything up ideally with carbon copy cloner or something that will make a bootable drive.

Then install Snow Leopard. Your files should have been moved over.
Install all the updates to get the app store.
Then install Mountain Lion.

Enjoy.

If you let time machine restore everything (including settings you aren't doing a clean install)

 

[Steve.P.JobsFan]

Thanks for the guide!

I'm just wondering, if I do not want to go through the hassle of buying a new USB drive... would it be possible if I just press command-option-R and use Internet recovery option (without pre-wipe my current harddisk) to clean install Mountain Lion after it's released?

Internet Recovery would restore Lion. When you install Mountain Lion, it updates the Recovery Partition to Mountain Lion. Since your Mac would be running Lion, it wouldn't restore to Mountain Lion.

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I would start by backing everything up ideally with carbon copy cloner or something that will make a bootable drive.

Then install Snow Leopard. Your files should have been moved over.
Install all the updates to get the app store.
Then install Mountain Lion.

Enjoy.

If you let time machine restore everything (including settings you aren't doing a clean install)

Just because it restores your Home folder doesn't mean it isn't a clean install. It's a clean install if you uncheck the settings. The only that would be on the Mac is your data. I did it just like that, and my iMac is already faster than Lion was. And Lion was like a rocket, too.

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Hello,

I'm new to this, so bare with me here... I want to do a clean install of Mountain Lion on my sister-in-laws Late 2008 MBP. However, it currently still has 10.5.8 Leopard on it.

How would I go about doing this without losing all of here files and data?

Would I upgrade to Snow Leopard (I have the free install disc they sent MobileMe users), do a time machine back up of all of her files, then follow the attached instructions to do a clean install of Mountain Lion and just let Time machine restore everything after?

Yep! You got it!

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I have fixed a few more errors in the PDF. See "EDIT5" in the original post above for more details. Please re-download the PDF, so you have the correct version.

 

[Balaamsdonkey]

I would highly suggest creating a bootable backup of the system drive using carbon copy cloner/super duper. Don't rely on Time Machine alone.

Test the clone before wiping the system!

Also Lion Disk Maker is an easy way to create a USB/SD OS installer.

How would the instructions differ in using SuperDuper? I've never used TimeMachine but have SuperDuper. Would step 17 work for me?

 

[Steve.P.JobsFan]

How would the instructions differ in using SuperDuper? I've never used TimeMachine but have SuperDuper. Would step 17 work for me?

SuperDuper would make a image file containing your entire hard disk. This file would be 60+ GB, depending on how much data you have on your Mac. Migration Assistant transfers files from your Time Machine backup. To restore your Mac to Lion from the SuperDuper clone, you'd use SuperDuper to do so. Although, I think you restore the image to the drive with Disk Utility. Backup your stuff with TM, and when you restore your data in the OS X Setup Assistant, be sure to uncheck the settings box. Then click transfer. All your data will be the way it was before.

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How do I apply these instructions to a Lion installation with multiple user accounts? i.e. I have one admin account and 2 user accounts and need to ensure that all the users data is backed up and restored as it existed prior to the update. I have Time Machine set up on each account backing up to an external hard drive connected by USB.

I'm not sure what order to do the steps and whether I'll have the required permissions to access the user data on the backup disc after I recreate the accounts

I had two user accounts on my iMac when it was running Lion. One was my main, and the other was a "temp" account Apple Support made when they did remote service, that I forgot to delete. After restoring my Time Machine backup, sure enough it migrated both user accounts to OS X Mountain Lion.

 

[126351]

Excellent guide and a nice reminder of the Lion upgrades.

However, in my case, my Mac decided to follow a completely different course to which it was instructed. For example, it start installing ML without giving me the option of opening Disk Utility, but I managed to fix that.

The unfixable bit is the Time Machine backup. When I try to migrate data across, all of the checkboxes are hard set and greyed out; I cannot un-tick any of them.

Has anyone else encountered this?

 

[Steve.P.JobsFan]

Excellent guide and a nice reminder of the Lion upgrades.

However, in my case, my Mac decided to follow a completely different course to which it was instructed. For example, it start installing ML without giving me the option of opening Disk Utility, but I managed to fix that.

The unfixable bit is the Time Machine backup. When I try to migrate data across, all of the checkboxes are hard set and greyed out; I cannot un-tick any of them.

Has anyone else encountered this?

I don't think anybody has encountered that issue. I'll try and find a resolution to this issue.

 

[playsontheleft]

Probably a bad question, but can this be done using an SD card rather than with a USB flash drive? And if so, is it the same process?

 

[Weaselboy]

Probably a bad question, but can this be done using an SD card rather than with a USB flash drive? And if so, is it the same process?

Exactly the same.