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Clean, ground-up install...should I? Worth the time/hassle?


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Clean, ground-up install...should I? Worth the time/hassle?
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psmith2.0
Mr. Vieira
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Tennessee
 
2014-11-22, 15:26

Kinda bored this afternoon, not much going on. I've been thinking about doing a clean, ground-up reinstall/setup on my iMac for a while, and I'm *this close* to doing it.

I'd boot from my Yosemite install USB, totally wipe the hard drive (I've backed everything up in two places, no worries there) and install a fresh new copy of Yosemite 10.10.1 that I just re-downloaded from the Mac App Store and made a new USB boot/install drive from. I tested it, and it boots into it, brings up the Disk Utility, Install OS X, etc. window.

A couple of questions before (if) I proceed:

1. When I reformat my hard drive, I'm gonna do Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and choose the GUID option. I don't have/use partitions so I can just leave it at the default (or 1...can't remember which pops up).

2. I only have a couple of third-party applications to reinstall (Adobe Illustrator, Angry Birds), so it shouldn't - in theory - be some huge, drawn-out ordeal. But still...is it worth it? The time and general hassle? This machine turned six in September and I've never done a clean, ground up install. It's the same as it is the day I got it, just laying the new OS X releases on each year or so they became available. What, realistically, can I expect? Anything tangible in the form of a bit more "bounce" and responsiveness? I run a pretty clean, light setup, but over the years I have installed demo or shareware titles and drivers to printers that are long gone. Will there be any extra pep in the general, overall feel of this thing? Is there a reason NOT to do it?

3. Kinda confused on some of the Apple software...I know they've now made iPhoto and the iWork suite free, so I'll get those back on, no problem (because I actually use iPhoto and Pages a good bit). And I seem to have GarageBand 10.0.3 installed (the new icon with the guitar leaning against the amp). But what about iMovie? I'm using an older versions of it (8.0.6) from a few years back...will I be able to retrieve it again, or will it be missing (and I'll have to purchase the current version from Apple)? Seems 10.0.6 is the latest version of iMovie. It's just $14.99, so no biggie. But I was just wondering how that worked.

I remember Adobe Illustrator CS6 being a bit of a weird, convoluted download when I got it about two-and-a-half years ago (some weird third-party streaming client(?) I had to download, etc. It was so inelegant and goofy, compared to what I'm used to), so I'm not looking forward to revisiting that. I just checked my email receipt and it said I can log in to my account at Adobe.com and get my serial number and the option to download it again, if needed. I'm just hoping I don't get stuck in some moronic "upgrade/subscription loop" with Adobe, where I'm unable to download CS6 and they try and force me to "upgrade" to the latest nonsense. I do have an Illustrator uninstaller file here inside my Illustrator CS6 folder, so I was going to uninstall it first so Adobe doesn't think I'm trying to put it on a dozen machines. It's just this one iMac. But Adobe's model has changed a good bit in these past two-and-a-half years, so that has me a little worried (otherwise I'd dive right in already).

I'll figure that out, but how about answers/help/confirmation on 1-3 above in the meantime?
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PB PM
Sneaky Punk
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Vancouver, BC
Send a message via Skype™ to PB PM 
2014-11-22, 17:02

1. Go with the default settings. One recommendation when you reformat, write zeros to the disk, rather than a standard quick format. Doing so will help the drive's software map out any bad sectors that may have developed over the years of usage, which should help with performance.

2. I don't think you'll have any issues with the third party apps, if you aren't having any now.

3. iLife apps should be available free if you've updated to the latest versions for free.
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psmith2.0
Mr. Vieira
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Tennessee
 
2014-11-22, 18:12

Thanks.

I went to Adobe's site and logged into my account there for the first time in a million years. I followed around (they don't make it easy/obvious) and found where my purchase of Illustrator CS6 was recorded, and where they have the download ink. It's good for three years, and I bought it in March of 2012. I'm going to copy that installer (hopefully...I think it downloads first, then I extract from there, if I remember correctly) to a backup drive. I guess after the third year they'd force me to do the cloud/subscription stuff.



Not gonna happen.
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drewprops
Space Pirate
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Atlanta
 
2014-11-22, 19:34

Upon the recent and ignominious demise of my MBP 2011 I decided to start from scratch and install ALL of my software so as not to bring over any digital turds.

Took forever, like it always did in the past.

Little plug-ins forgotten until much later.

Things that were no longer compatible abandoned.

Things that were never useful not re-installed.

Lots of sifting through emails for license keys.

Pain in the ass.

But it felt like the right thing to do.

EDIT: And I'm on CS5.5, so I'm also a bit worried about being forced to the Cloud.


...

Steve Jobs ate my cat's watermelon.
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