Should I format my OS X?

[Folmanik]

i bought a macbook pro 6 months ago and lately i'm experiencing some minor problems, nothing horrible but i can't manage to fix them,
for example, almost every time i'm not in full screen mode in chrome and i move from for example the finder to chrome and start typing, all the open windows jump upfront the chrome..

i guess iv'e had it coming since i played around with my mac non stop in order to get to know him (my first one)..nothing fancy but i guess enough to cause some troubles..

anyway, is it unusual to format and re-install mountain lion? back in windows i used to do it every couple of months just in order to make it faster, but in mac i experience very minor slowing of the os..is there a reason not to format?

hope i made myself clear

thanks!

 

[allan.nyholm]

You might aswell see what other damage or things you can do to OS X and then when you feel like you've played enough then go re-install Mountain Lion. You have the Recovery partition already there so why not just do what you feel like.

With this post I'm just saying that you learn often by the mistakes you've done down the line. It was that way for me in all my computing years on various platforms.

 

[maflynn]

Sounds like you're having issues with Chrome and not OSX. Does this issue exhibit itself with other apps?

I'd say its generally unusual for most mac users to reformat and reload the OS.

Be sure to have a current back up, since you'll lose all your data with a reformat if you wish to proceed with that.

 

[benwiggy]

anyway, is it unusual to format and re-install mountain lion? back in windows i used to do it every couple of months just in order to make it faster, but in mac i experience very minor slowing of the os..is there a reason not to format?

Reinstalling OS X is not something that you need to do regularly, periodically, or even occasionally. I've done it 3 times in 10 years.

Most problems are likely to originate in the user domain, rather than the system: corrupt or incorrect preferences, bad cache data, or preferences to load third-party software that doesn't work very well.

A useful troubleshooting technique is to create a brand new user account AS A TEST, and see if the problem is there. If not, then you know there's no point to reinstall the OS. Just go back to your old account and fix the problem there.

 

[Folmanik]

thank you all for the response!

the problem is that even if in the new user i will not experience the problems, i have no idea where to start fixing them..

but it's a good idea, i think i'll give it a try first..thanks!

p.s.
in overall..formatting doesn't have long term negative effect right?

 

[Oldmanmac]

p.s.
in overall..formatting doesn't have long term negative effect right?

Just the loss of time, if backed up.

 

[benwiggy]

in overall..formatting doesn't have long term negative effect right?

Rewriting the majority of your storage volume may have an effect on its longevity, particularly if you do it often.