Clean install of Maverick on my iMac

Hi,
I have an early 2009 24" iMac and ever since my initial purchase, I upgraded my OS to the latest version, and now I have Mavericks. But my machine is performing slower and slower (even before Mavericks). Even for simple tasks like browsing a page with Safari, it takes minutes ! I'm not sure if my machine is adware free, because many ads popup, or are build in the html page.
Anyway, I decided to start all over again with a clean install of Maverick, and only restore the necessary files and apps I need and not the stuff I downloaded during the past 5 years, and never used it again. I also want to add an extra 4GB RAM up to 8GB.
I already did some research and build a bootable Maverick on USB, so I'm prepared to do the clean install.
But before going on, I want to be absolutely sure, I can restore the things I need.
So what is the best method, to take a backup of :
1) My iTunes files (music, apps, videos, books,...)
2) My personal data (documents, ....)
3) My software (most of them I don't have the installation files anymore)
4) My iPhoto library
I also took a backup on my Time Machine, but I read somewhere that this is not ideal for restoring after a clean install, because Time Machine won't recognize the new machine anymore.
So before plugin in my bootable USB drive , please help me out on choosing the right way to backup (and restore) the things I want..

For your iTunes stuff, photos, and documents, you can just navigate to the media files or documents on Time machine and restore them to your new installation.
For the software, I'd get updated versions of good installers, either on disc, or from new downloads, and make sure they are compatible with Mavericks. Just dragging the app over won't work very well.
I wouldn't reinstall any "crapware", such as MacKeeper or CleanMyMac, or anything else that purports to "optimize", "clean", "accelerate", "monitor", or "protect" your Mac. If you have this stuff on your Mac, that is probably what is making it slow in the first place.
Antivirus software, also problematic, and not that useful on Macs; I wouldn't install it.
For any peripherals, look for updated versions of drivers or other software from the manufacturer and install those. Old drivers and kernel extensions are not going to play well with Mavericks.
I just did a clean install. I found it useful to make a list of everything I wanted to move, and wrote down passwords, network settings, and email settings.

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How to make a clean install of Mavericks over 10.4.11

Hey everyone,
I would like to make a clean install of Mavericks on mid-2007 MacBook Pro ([email protected], 2GB RAM) which currently runs 10.4.11. I already made bootable USB of Mavericks, which i downloaded with my MacBook Air.
When I insert USB and restart the computer the screen with the option "Install OS Mavericks" comes up but when I click on the icon nothing happens and computer just proceeds to boot into 10.4.11. If I try to run it from the desktop it says that Mavericks is not supported on this version of OS which doesn't surprise me. I've been searching around forums for a way to go about this problem and the general solution seems to be to buy some newer version of Mac OS and then proceed with the upgrade from there. But from what I can tell the reason why people are mainly recommending this option is because only then you can download Mavericks via AppStore, which I have already done.
So what I'm really asking is whether I can somehow install Mavericks without buying intermediate version of Mac OS first, given that I already have Mavericks downloaded? Would it be possible to just delete the whole hard drive with 10.4.11 on it and then make a clean install of Mavericks?

To install Mavericks, you need one of these Macs:
iMac (Mid-2007 or later)
MacBook (13-inch Aluminum, Late 2008), (13-inch, Early 2009 or later)
MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid-2009 or later),
MacBook Pro (15-inch or 17-inch, Mid/Late 2007 or later)
MacBook Air (Late 2008 or later)
Mac mini (Early 2009 or later)
Mac Pro (Early 2008 or later)
Xserve (Early 2009)
Your Mac also needs:
OS X Mountain Lion, Lion, or Snow Leopard v10.6.8 already installed
2 GB or more of memory
8 GB or more of available space
I would, STRONGLY, advise that you install more RAM into your MBP.
Also, while the minimum RAM spec for Mavericks is 2 GB. This is a minimum and NOT ideal working amount of RAM to be running OS X Mavericks.
To run Mavericks with some success, you need to install, at least, 4 GBs of or greater.
Your MBP year and model can take a total of 6 GBs of RAM max.
i advise purchasing and installing the full 6 GBs of RAM.
Correct and reliable Mac RAM can be purchased from online Mac RAM sources Crucial memory or OWC (macsales.com).
This RAM kit can be found here.
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/MacBook/Pro/Core2/
Good Luck!

What to migrate after clean install of Mavericks?

Hi,
I just did a hard drive wipe and a clean install of Mavericks from a thumb drive installer onto my iMac. I'm not sure which things to select in Migration Assistant. I'd like to know what kinds of things are restored if I migrate from the checkbox options: 1) it has my name, 2) other files and folders, 3) computer and network settings. I'm presuming I shouldn't migrate anything from my applications folder.
Also, before the clean install I backed everything up on an external hard drive, which has a couple of TB of info. Will the migration assistant, if I select other files and folders grab everything else on that hard drive and attempt to install it on my iMac?
What's missing is Messages history, mail acccounts, etc.
And I have had itunes set up on an external drive. When I open itunes, it doesn't show any of my podcasts or music, just my apple purchases. I selected the folder name on that hard drive in itunes preferences, quit and reopened itunes, but still nothing.
And I'm not sure how to get my iPad syncing info activated in itunes.
Thanks very much for any help with any of this

How to use Migration Assistant to transfer files from another Mac.
The above should help you out with using MA. Also, see Using Migration Assistant on Lion or Mountain Lion.

I need to do a clean install of maverick on my 2010 mbp what disk do i use and how do i move certain files from an external hard drive

I want to do a clean install of maverick on my 2010 mbp. I need to know what disk to use and also how i take certain files off my external hard drive and put on my computer. When I was having problems with my airport they did a clean install and they pulled files of my time machine.   however they forgot to put the partition back in for a windows side. Originally I had Parellels on my computer. After my external hard drive got corrupted i called apple and they fixed the problem but didn't have me set up the time machine except for the external hard drive. Now my only back up is from the external not from the laptop.    I am not sure how to do any of this. I am not computer savvy...PLEASE I NEED HELP>

First, you need to make a backup of your MBP onto your external drive. I suggest you start by cloning your MBP drive to the external drive:
Clone Mavericks, Lion/Mountain Lion using Restore Option of Disk Utility
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
     1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu then press the Continue
         button.
     2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
     3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
     4. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it
         to the Destination entry field.
     5. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to
         the Source entry field.
     6. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the external backup drive. Source means the internal startup drive.
This clone is fully bootable and also contains a clone of your Recovery HD.
Second, you need to do a clean install of OS X onto your MBP as follows:
Install or Reinstall Mavericks or Mountain Lion from Scratch
Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.
OS X Mavericks- Erase and reinstall OS X
OS X Mountain Lion- Erase and reinstall OS X
OS X Lion- Erase and reinstall Mac OS X
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible
            because it is three times faster than wireless.
This should accomplish your goals. You will have a clean install of OS X on your MBP and a bootable clone of your old system and all your files on the external drive.

Restore from time machine after clean install of Mavericks

I decided to do a clean install of Mavericks to get rid of all the very old files hiding in my system folders. I made a startup disk following online instructions, rebooted from the USB drive and wiped the drive and reinstalled Mavericks. Then I plugged in my Time machine backup drive and tried to recover particular folders from the latest backup. However, I am getting a permission error that prevents me from going into the old user folder from that backup. It has a red circle/line icon on the folder. How do I get around this so I can select what to restore?

You might be able to view in System Preferences > Users & Groups.
Time Machine - Troubleshooting by James Pond is the best source around for Time Machine help.
I'm not seeing your issue listed. It's possible you will need to do a full Time Machine restore to another drive so you can actually boot from the drive then log into the user. If you have enough space on internal you could partition to restore there without polluting your current new install.
Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions 18. How can I copy my TM backups to a different location?
I backup to Time Machine but I also use a clone and use it over Time Machine when I'm trying to restore a User like youare trying to do. Hopefully someone else will have a better suggestion other than doing a full restore.

Why do you need a usb bootable drive to do a clean install of Mavericks (or any other OSX)?

I have had a few minor bugs with Mavericks, and I finally got an external hard drive, so I decided to do a clean install of Mavericks.
Every single tutorial I've found online has suggested making a usb-bootable drive to reinstall the os with. However, I simply backed up the things I wanted to save on my external hard drive, restarted holding Cmd+R and went to disk utility, erased my Macintosh HD in the correct format, then went over to the install Mavericks tab on the recovery mode screen. Now, I understand it takes a little longer to do it this way, but it's only got about an hour left, and I started the reinstallation about 20 min's ago.
Besides the much longer time to wait for the OS to reinstall using my method, without a USB drive, what is the disadvantage of simply doing it all through the recovery mode boot screen via wifi? I know I could have done the bootable drive on my external hd, but I'd rather not mess with partitions on this drive...it's just got my documents, music, movies...etc, and I'd like to keep it that way.
Any info would be appreciated.

Besides the time difference and the data used on your network connection they are the same.
Actually there is one difference depending on when the USB installer was made the software you load might be out-of-date. When you download from a Apple you know you are getting the latest versions. So if you do use a USB stick to install make sure you run a software update before doing anything.

How can I wipe hard drive and do a clean install of Mavericks?

I have a 2012 MacBook Pro that is terrible sluggish, probably from upgrades and semi-deleted Symantec software. I want to wipe the hard drive and do a clean install of Mavericks. I have all files backed up, and can reinstall software.
I think there is a way to do this with Disc Utility? But don't know how. Advice welcome

If you have Yosemite installed and want to reinstall it, do a backup, preferable 2 separate ones on 2 drives. Boot to the Recovery Volume (command - R on a restart or hold down the option/alt key during a restart and select Recovery Volume). Run Disk Utility Verify/Repair and Repair Permissions until you get no errors. Reformat the drive using Disk Utility/Erase Mac OS Extended (Journaled), then click the Option button and select GUID. Then re-install the OS.
OS X Recovery
OS X Recovery (2)
When you reboot, use Setup Assistant to restore your data.

How do i install iPhoto on a clean install of mavericks

My macbook was getting extremely slow so i did a clean install of mavericks. Now i don't have iPhoto. I have the original install dvd, but when I try the applications install dvd it just ejects it after a few seconds. I can't find anyplace on the app store where i can download a version for mavericks.

a little clarification. The original install dvd is 10.5.5. I installed mavericks over the net.

How to restore files from Time Machine after Clean Install of Mavericks

How to restore files from Time Machine after Clean Install of Mavericks. I know the data is there but seems unaccessable because I may have changed the Computer or Owner name. Is there any way to fix that now?

Hi Linc,
my back-up data is managed by Time Machine; the actual data is on a second internal Hard Drive with a capacity of 1TB - not partitioned. I am using Time Machine and have access to all data backed up since Mavericks Clean Install but not the data prior to this date.
When I open the 1TB drive in Finder I can see a folder "Backups.backupdb/Sigi's Mac Pro/ followed by many folders of backup dates going back to 2010-09-20-103441 and up to 2014-02-07-142414 all followed with folder Macintosh HD. February 7th 2014 was the date of the clean install.
These Backups are followed by backup date folder 2014-02-08-075554 with a subfolder of MacPro-320GB (this is the name I assigned to my Boot Drive during formatting; I suspect I should have assigned the same name as before ie. Macintosh HD) and 2014-02-11 with a subfolder Macintosh HD, these are the ones I get access to by way of Time Machine > Restore.
Weird thing is on Febr 11 when I relised my possible mistake and renamed the Bootdrive back to what it was initially ie. Macintosh HD despite this I have access to all backup data since the Clean Install in both folders MacPro-320GB as well as Macintosh HD but not to any data prior to the Clean Install.
Is there something that Time Machine knows and prevents access or is it simply a matter of renaming the subfolder 2014-02-08-07554/MacPro-320GB to ........./Macintosh HD?
I like to restore selectively and not everything - It was hard work reinstalling apps that were supposed to be the troublemakers (ref my discussion on Maverick problems) but I now need to get onto data specific to some of these apps as well as other data I may have missed. Long story? Yes and sorry.
Sigi

Can't install Logic Studio 9 on clean install of Mavericks due to "powerpc applications not supported" error message

Hello -
I've recently performed a clean install of Mavericks on my MBP. I then attempted to install Logic Studio but was met with the error message "You can't open the application "LogicStudio.mpkg" because PowerPC applications are no longer supported." Mavericks was installed as an upgrade prior to the clean install, and at that time Logic Studio functioned normally. Any suggestions?
Thanks

Logic 9 or 8?
There is a bug in the installer program of Logic that makes Lion, Mt. Lion and Mavericks think that it is PowerPC.
Best solution would have been to install Logic BEFORE you upgraded to Mavericks, but before you backup, wipe and start all over, try to use Pacifist to install it and please report back.
http://www.charlessoft.com/

How to use Time Machine to do a system restore after clean install of mavericks

Hi I have a late 2008 MacBook Pro 15" ... I updated from mountain lion to mavericks and was having issues with mavericks running slow. Took it to Apple today and they were great with helping me upgrade the RAM to the max (8GB DDR3) ... I asked them to do a clean install of Mavericks as well. I have Time Machine backups that I would like to use to restore to my previous settings but I can't seem to figure out what to do.... When I enter Time Machine and I try and select a past date, it doesn't let me choose a date to "restore" ... What am I doing wrong? Please walk me through it thanks!

Use Migration Assistant to migrate your previous account from the Time Machine backup. Migration Assistant is in your Utilities folder.
Read: OS X: How to migrate data from another Mac using Mavericks
When doing so, select your previous User account but do not migrate "Applications", "Computer and Network Settings" or "Other files and folders". De-select those choices. Subsequent to using Migration Assistant, you will need to reinstall any essential software you may require.
"Essential software" means programs that have been verified by their developers to be compatible with Mavericks, and specifically excludes junk such as "cleaners", "boosters", "optimizers", or ill-conceived "anti-virus" garbage. Install that essential software from original sources such as the App Store, developer's websites, or original optical media, and not from untrustworthy download aggregator hosting sites such as C net dot com, Mac update dot com, etc, and not from backups that may have been corrupted.
Be aware that if you already created an account with the same name as the one you want to migrate, Migration Assistant will offer to rename the account it's about to create. In other words if you're already logged in as "Tara", and you want to migrate the account named Tara from the Time Machine backup, it will offer to name the migrated account Tara1. Migration Assistant will tell you what it's going to do, but the warning is easy to overlook. Therefore you might consider creating another, temporary account with Administrator privileges, and deleting the one you created subsequent to erasing your Mac and installing Mavericks.
For those instructions read: OS X Mavericks: Set up users on your Mac. Follow the instructions under "Add a user". Be sure to select “Allow user to administer this computer.”
Log in under that temporary account, then use Migration Assistant. Confirm everything works as you expect, then you can delete the temporary account.

Reinstall Apple software after clean install of Lion on 2009 IMac

Completed a clean install of Lion on 2009 IMac, which initially reacted poorly to an upgrade (my first attempt to move to Lion). How do I reinstall iPhoto, Garageband, Aperture, Final Cut Express, iMovie, Logic Express? These were all preinstalled with original purchase. How would I find the serial numbers that will inevitably be asked for? The App store wants to charge for these items, and other non-Apple software I've purchased for the App store won't download again. Multiple issues! Any suggestions?

You'll need to use the DVD's that should have accompanied your system when you bought it.
Prior to the App Store when you purchased a system from Apple that included installed software such as iLile or Final Cut the DVD's were always included in the box. The serial numbers will be on the DVD boxes or DVD's themselves.
regards
Concerning the App Store purchases if you long into the APp Store using the same Apple ID you used when you bought the software you should be able to download again without charge. At least this is how it works for Apple software don;t know if 3rd party stuff has different rules

Clean install of Mavericks, now cannot access Time Machine backups

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Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer...

Things just got worse. After manually copying over some files via Finder, and then performing a full backup of the new system, even the NEW backup is blacked out; e.g., NO backups, past or present, are accessible from within Time Machine.
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Clean install of Mavericks lost iMovie.

I did a clean install of Mavericks and lost iMovie. Can I install iMovie from White Leopard disks into Mavericks?

iMovie would be on the original installer discs that came with the computer, not on the retail installer.

CC & CS4 - I'm doing a clean install of Mavericks

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Thanks,
Phil
I was hoping to post this question to tech support at Adobe but could not drill down far enough to find that option

However, if somewhere down the road (say 5 years from now) I decided to opt out of CC will I be able to install CS4?
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Clean install of Maverick on my iMac

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