“Up until last week, my user account on the MacBook Pro was one that had been migrated forward through OS X upgrades and Migration Assistant since moving from OS revision to OS revision and machine to machine since — and I can’t believe I’m writing this — 2003,” John Moltz writes for Macworld. ” That means this account has existed since I was using Mac OS X 10.3 Panther on a PowerPC machine.”
“Running the OS X upgrade process (as opposed to doing clean installs) and using Migration Assistant to move accounts to new machines both have worked fairly well for me,” Moltz writes. “But over a period of 12 years, some unwanted baggage can accumulate, and that user account you rely on can get little temperamental. How does a computer with a more than a decade-old user account express its temperament? It’s slow. It lets you rename the computer in the Sharing Preferences pane but doesn’t change the name in the Terminal. It refuses to let you connect via screen sharing. It takes two tries to reboot it. It’s generally just surly and difficult.”
Moltz writes, “Enough was enough. It was time to start over with a fresh install.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Hmm, this gets us thinking. The last time we built clean Macs from the ground up were our first round of 11-inch MacBook Airs (MacBookAir3,1), so… late 2010. Yeesh! Not nearly as bad as 2003, but pretty bad. Time to do it again!
My MBP has been acting a bit weird of late. Not sure if it is a hardware or software issue.
It may be time for a clean install.
I’ve been meaning to do a clean install for a few months now.
I don’t remember if I’ve ever done a clean OSX install. If not, then that means my current account on my 2012 Macbook Pro was migrated from a 2006 Macbook… which itself would’ve been migrated in some fashion from a 2000 PowerMac.
I sleep it and don’t restart it often, because it takes 5 minutes from boot to get to a useable desktop, and even waking from sleep takes 30 seconds before Safari can connect to a website. Sure it’s a slower 5400 RPM drive, but it shouldn’t take that long.
It was even worse before I upgraded the RAM from 4 to 10 GB.
4 to 10? That’s odd (for even numbers….)
I have a 2012 13″ Pro that I upped to 16 GBs when I first bought it and added it’s 4 GBs into my 27″ 2013 iMac to up it to 12 GBs from 8.
Anyhow, the BIGGEST difference I did was to install a 512 SSD.
Amazing. that’s all….amazing.
I spent another $25 or so and bought an enclosure for the 500 GB internal I removed and made it the external back-up.
Less than $250 for the SSD and enclosure.
Well worth it.
http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/macbook-pro-2*5ghz-intel-core-i5-%2813-inch-ddr3%29-mid-2012/CT5444541
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/MOTGS3U3/
OK, cheaper here
Came with 2 sticks of 2 GB RAM for 4 GB total, just replaced one of them with an 8 GB stick. Didn’t and still don’t need 16 GB so I didn’t bother paying extra for it.
Have been looking to replace the stock HDD with an SSD, or maybe a hybrid.
If you go SSD your boot time is less than 30 seconds, battery runs longer, it stays cooler, and even wake time is amazingly quicker.
Oh I’m quite aware of the speed benefits of SSDs. My work Macbook Pro (late 2013) has PCIe flash, and even before I got that a friend’s Macbook Air blew me away with its 12 second boot-to-desktop time. I was helping her with a minor issue and after turning it on had just turned away to mention something briefly to her, and when I turned back the desktop was already there.
My uncertainty is over whether to go SSD or hybrid. SSD would certainly be faster overall, but with a hybrid I can get more storage for less, while probably still getting most of the benefits of a faster SSD. Battery life doesn’t matter that much to me, as it’s plugged in most of the time anyway
Well, if it is a desktop replacement more than portable, I might recommend a smaller SSD internal with a larger FireWire 800 or USB 3 external for files.
Besides the MacBook Pro with 512 SSD I also have a 27″ iMac 2013 maxed out (but 12 GBs RAM) including a 3 TB hybrid. Yes, it is fast, but it’s load times don’t seem any faster than the MacBook. We are talking about a 3.5 GHz I7, 4 GB GTX 780 video with the aforementioned 12 GB 1600 MHz RAM vs a 2.5 GHz I5 but with more RAM and faster HD. I’m not mapping genomes, so….
Now, my music server is a 2010 Mini, 2.4 Core 2 Duo with 8 GBs RAM and standard 320 HD. I have the OS on it and the apps, but since it is mainly for video/audio, I have those on an external Lacie FW800 1TB, and it seems to load files VERY fast via Audirvana. I was going to throw an SSD in it but decided to pass it down to my youngest son instead and add the library to my iMac.
If you are going to keep it portable, yes, the fusion makes sense. Just don’t expect miracles.
2009 on my 27 inch iMac I’ve got the new 2014 iMac now and migrated… my MacBook Pro I migrated so I just may do a clean install. With 7 TB hanging on the side I think I can afford to move everything over for a while.
A clean house is always a nicer place to live
With appropriate clones, archives & spare HDs ready, the clean install is quick and easy, I agree. However, the author glosses over where I spend most of my update time.
It is not quick & easy getting the dozens of 3rd party applications and utility data together first. Then I have to make sure they are all compatible with the new OS and compatible for the current OS update version according to the developers websites. Then I scan other sites for “glitches,” like on MacInTouch.
I have a total of over 50 items to check and potentially update, including Boot Camp. Then there is the inevitable utility that has been discontinued or not upgraded and I have to find a substitute.
Sometimes it takes 2 days to document with clones of interim builds of the new OS as apps and utilities are added to finish the whole process and verify that all apps and utilities work as expected. Once in awhile some utility doesn’t work right, and then more work ensues.
I take a different approach. I find for myself and my clients, seldom do we need most of the crap we’ve collected over a year or since the last time we updated computers.
I back up the current machine creating a disk image of the full system. Store that on an external device.
I wipe the old system if we’re sticking with it or set up the new system. From there I install the known critical applications and data. We often put back most if not all user documents, but not all the crazy apps.
From there the work proceeds. 99% of the time we find we just don’t need most of the crap we’ve tested, looked at, installed etc.
Thelonius, I agree with you.
I simply don’t put “crazy apps” on my work machine, though.
Anything in trial mode goes on a Mac Mini first. Nothing touches my work Mac until I know it is a go.
12 years?
Duh.
I can honestly say I’ve had the same account since 10.3 as well.
Mine is still rocking on strong, on a 2010 MacBook Pro (with Hybrid drive). I’ve often thought of creating a new account and might do it to see if it makes things even faster.
I think my user account dates back to the betas of the first OS X. Yikes. I just hate losing my app registrations, but it’s become mostly a non-issue thanks to the Apple Mac App Store. Most of my apps are from there. As long as I can still keep the stuff synced to iCloud I guess it would be ok. I need my keychain and bookmarks, calendars. Now that photos and music are in the cloud, it does release a huge barrier.
Yup — same account since the days of 10.2 and a PPC machine — no fuss, no muss — just works.
Typing this on a 10.6.8-equipped 2007 Macbook with 6 GB of RAM (Santa Rosa CoreDuo-2 CPU) — an absolutely indestructible and utterly reliable combination that has been bounced from one side of the globe to the other — too many times to count.
Niffy