The last time you started from Scratch

Hey Gang -

 

I'm still on Sierra 10.12 and LPX 10.3. I'm waiting on the dust to settle on a big project I just shipped and thinking I'll move up to HS and 10.4 the first of March.

 

It used to be that for any major update in the os - going from 10.9 to 10.10 for instance - I would do a complete fresh install. Wipe my system drive, Install a clean, fresh system and start over installing everything fresh. This is a pain, but it has always served me well and I always felt the time spent doing this - cleaning out all the crap that builds up from demo software and stuff I no longer use - was worth the effort. All my samples are on a separate drive, so I don't have to deal with installing all the content - just the plugs an such.

 

But as the OS has gotten more advanced and better at updating itself, I haven't done this is a while. So my question to you: When is the last time you did this and did you feel it made a difference. i am still thinking I will do a clean install this time around, but maybe it's no longer advantageous to do so, and I can certainly use that time other places.

 

Cheers

kc

I used to do this too, religiously, in fact I'm sure it's possible you would find older threads where I recommend doing this... but lately I've been avoiding it as well. I don't remember when exactly I've changed my workflow but it's been a few years already. Lately my workflow has been to install everything from scratch only when I get a new Mac, otherwise just update the OS and my apps from the App Store, and I've been happy with that workflow.

Thanks David - I'm not sure when I stopped doing it either, maybe since the App store? I starting to think a better use of my time is to manually clean house a bit and get rid of old stuff from the usual places and then just update. Sure is a lot easier, and I don't have to block out a whole day to reformat and install....

Yes, that's exactly what I was thinking, it probably started around the time of the App Store, well probably a little later because I do remember doing clean installs even with the App Store.

It's amazing how times have changed, yes? I remember getting OS 7.5 on 3.5" floppy disks. What, maybe 2 or 3 of them? And reading about Rhapsody (or was it Gershwin?) (8.0) in MacWorld with the new look and icons and all. When OS updates were physically delivered every couple years or so. Those were the days

 

Anyway, thanks for the advice. I think I will just update and save the time.

Cheers

The last time i did a fresh installation was from Mountain Lion to Mavericks on my Macbook Pro, and from Yosemite jumped straight to Sierra on my regular Macbook.

 

I did the fresh installations because i couldn't update them the regular ways, i got some weird errors during boot up.

 

They didn't make any significant difference in performance. I gained like some negligible amounts of free space but that was it, no significant improvement in performance though.

I think you know when it's needed, there's a certain expectancy of performance, or zip to the OS that you become accustomed with.

 

As soon as i start to see beach balls when opening apps, or moving between them, that's usually the trigger for me to clean install - i don't even spend time trying to clean my existing OS at that point as i can be up and running again within 2-3 hours as i've refined the art over time and like you managed my data well on secondary drives.

 

But yes, updates actually seem to breathe new life into a machine last few that i've done, very refreshing and something that maybe Apple should get credit for when they're getting slammed for everything else - particularly if you rely on the machine for income, as if you lag behind like i generally do it's always something out of the blue, midweek, that causes you to NEED to update (i.e. can't open/edit a particular file for someone).

I did it a month ago after 5 years.

 

It feels *so good*. Also cleaned ~100 plugins, demos, cracks, whatever, I don't use, out of the folder. Everything works much better - but I also have many more professional jobs than i used to, finished school, so use is different than 5 years ago and i had so much crud on it.

 

Also, something went wrong (because I had system integrity disabled) and the system had major issues.

 

Also bought a cheap 512GB SSD where i have a 2nd system used for all non-music related stuff and that i can nuke any time i want.

 

I think SIP (system integrity protection) is crucial for keeping the system clean and working for a longer time, very good feature.

Since reinstall i just disabled it once to install custom resultion for my Packed Pixels external display, then locked it back immediately. (did it from an external, so main system didnt even boot with SIP disabled)