Should I do a clean install with High Sierra

[Wildmanjohn]

I have a mid 2012 MacBook pro and I want to do a clean install. I have read that high sierra is best for the older hardware but will it be a security risk? I don't know if its Catalina but my mac is running really slow. Also I want to setup dual boot with linux. Do I partition the hard drive for linux while I'm doing the clean install of macOS? Please point me in the right direction.

 

[honestone33]

I have a mid 2012 MacBook pro and I want to do a clean install. I have read that high sierra is best for the older hardware but will it be a security risk? I don't know if its Catalina but my mac is running really slow. Also I want to setup dual boot with linux. Do I partition the hard drive for linux while I'm doing the clean install of macOS? Please point me in the right direction.

Need some information first:

1. What Mac OS did you "upgrade to" when you installed Catalina?

2. Did you do a clean installation of Catalina?

3. Are you making backups to an external device? And if (hopefully) you are, what software do you use for that task? A number of folks use Time Machine, but an equal number use SuperDuper! (I use it), or Carbon Copy Cloner.

4. Have you ever done and disk cleanup/maintenance/repairs? You can actually do a good amount of disk cleanup on your own, and there are some excellent programs (both free and commercial) that can assist you with those tasks.

5. Before you "moved" to Catalina, did you confirm that all your third party software is compatible with Catalina? That could involve downloading and installing either new versions of such software, or updates.

While High Sierra is a very good OS, you are risking the lack of security updates from Apple, along with the lack of security updates for some third party software that you use.

Is there a reason why, if you want to go back, you do not want to go back to Mojave? That might be better, especially regarding Security Updates.

 

[Wildmanjohn]

I don't know what was on this mac when I bought it, I'm a serious mac noob. But I did do and upgrade to Mojave and then not too long ago I did the upgrade to Catalina.

I did not do a clean install of Catalina.

As far as backups go, I don't' have an external storage device but I pay for 100GB on Google Drive and I also pay for 100GB on iCloud. I won't be able to backup all my music so that's a bumber.

I installed a few disk cleaners, disk drill and ccleaner. I don't really know what i'm doing but i can follow instructions good.

I did not confirm compatibly with my. 3rd party software. The only thing I had a problem with was my DJ mixer and I just downloaded the newest version and it was fine.

I read that High Sierra has the social network integration to share things directly to facebook. I read that it runs better.

I'm doing this all by reading the forums and following the procedure and when I have and issue I look that up.

 

[mtngoatjoe]

I installed a few disk cleaners, disk drill and ccleaner. I don't really know what i'm doing but i can follow instructions good.

I've never used a disk cleaner on my 2012 iMac. They should be completely unnecessary.

 

[konqerror]

While High Sierra is a very good OS, you are risking the lack of security updates from Apple, along with the lack of security updates for some third party software that you use.

Though third party and application support may be an issue, High Sierra itself is currently receiving Apple security updates.

 

[mikzn]

I have a mid 2012 MacBook pro and I want to do a clean install. I have read that high sierra is best for the older hardware but will it be a security risk? I don't know if its Catalina but my mac is running really slow. Also I want to setup dual boot with linux. Do I partition the hard drive for linux while I'm doing the clean install of macOS? Please point me in the right direction.

I have a 2012 MacBook Pro running Catalina just fine so it should work and perform well.

Are you still using the original HDD drive? Have you upgraded your storage to an SSD? An SSD can make a huge difference in performance and the cost has come way down recently so it should be an affordable upgrade (easy to do) that will make a big difference.

 

[Roxy.music]

I have a mid 2012 MacBook pro and I want to do a clean install. I have read that high sierra is best for the older hardware but will it be a security risk? I don't know if its Catalina but my mac is running really slow. Also I want to setup dual boot with linux. Do I partition the hard drive for linux while I'm doing the clean install of macOS? Please point me in the right direction.

I tried to get Linux on an external drive on here I could not get it to work. All I got was Grub when turning the computer on Even when pressing the option key. Thank goodness it has gone now.If i had it on here it would be with VM FUSION.

 

[honestone33]

I've never used a disk cleaner on my 2012 iMac. They should be completely unnecessary.

No, it is not completely unnecessary. As it is, I'll bet most folks do not even do ANY disk cleanup on their own. That is a good place to start.

An automobile is always a good analogy. If one neglects to do any maintenance on their automobiles, they are asking for trouble. Also, it is actually beneficial to wash an automobile and clean the inside. And of course there is some simple maintenance that one can perform on an automobile: checking tire pressure, changing the air filter, and changing the cabin air filter are just 3 one can do on their own. Besides being wise to do it, you can save a good amount of money, along with learning some things about one's automobile.

For a Mac, it is actually not difficult to do some basic cleaning and maintenance. There are some very good programs out there that do a fine job of that. One is the excellent freeware program Onyx. Been using it for a number of years, and it has never failed me. I also use the excellent commercial program TechTool Pro. It goes beyond Onyx with some additional, useful features. I would not be without either one. (BTW, TechTool Pro is the only commercial program that can effectively handle APFS-formatted drives). IN fact, given that there is not yet a Catalina-compatible version of TechTool Pro, I am waiting to move to Catalina from Mojave for that reason.
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I have a 2012 MacBook Pro running Catalina just fine so it should work and perform well.

Are you still using the original HDD drive? Have you upgraded your storage to an SSD? An SSD can make a huge difference in performance and the cost has come way down recently so it should be an affordable upgrade (easy to do) that will make a big difference.

Well stated about SSDs! When I first got my late 2012 Mac Mini (bought it brand new), it had a 1 TB Hitachi 5400 rpm HDD. While I actually did not need that much space, the machine was sure slow. After about 3 months, I replaced that HDD (and eventually sold it) with a 256 gig Samsung 840 Pro SSD, and the speed and performance difference was tremendous! I am still using that Mac today, but unfortunately I will need to replace it around the time the next version of the Mac OS arrives, as Catalina will be (most likely) the last OS I can use on it. Too bad, as it is a very reliable machine, and easily satisfies my needs.

 

[mBox]

Question, do you have a Mac OS High Sierra Boot Disk (installer)?
Do people even have these lying around?

 

[ZMacintosh]

You do not need a disk cleaner, what do you need this for? What are you doing that would require this?

If your Mac is compatible you can erase and install with High Sierra, Mojave is a great solid OS as well.

high Sierra can be obtained from Apple’s website.

 

[honestone33]

You do not need a disk cleaner, what do you need this for? What are you doing that would require this?

If your Mac is compatible you can erase and install with High Sierra, Mojave is a great solid OS as well.

high Sierra can be obtained from Apple’s website.

If he is going to do a backup first (an obvious task), then it would be good to insure that the backup is as clean as possible.

 

[ZMacintosh]

If he is going to do a backup first (an obvious task), then it would be good to insure that the backup is as clean as possible.

again I'd think it depends on why they believe they need a disk cleaner? it would help to understand that more.

 

[honestone33]

again I'd think it depends on why they believe they need a disk cleaner? it would help to understand that more.

I do understand that, in detail. And given that I have always been successful by doing a clean OS installation, and then a migration of "as clean as possible" data just, at least for me, validates my approach.

Part of it depends on how "clean" one wants their prior system to be before doing a clean installation of the applicable Mac OS, and then a migration of needed "items" from a backup. Myself, I would want that backup to be as "clean" as possible. The notion of "clean" actually entails a number of factors. Onyx and TechTool Pro provide processes for dealing with those, beyond the installation of the Mac OS.

I am of course not saying that a clean installation is the way to go. Some folks are happy with doing just an upgrade, and also not doing much (if any) disk cleanup/maintenance. That's fine. I just prefer taking the other approach.

One thing, though, is that many folks do not take into account their third party applications, no matter what type of "upgrade" to a new Mac OS is concerned. That includes unneeded files, data, etc. from such applications. A clean installation of the Mac OS does not clean any of that. Myself, I am constantly keeping all my third party applications up to date, along with my cleanup tasks (both manual and with the help of Onyx and TechTool Pro). I am perfectly happy to keep doing that. For folks that are not, fine, that's their choice.