Clean Install Questions - Lion

After reading through a few discussions, it sounds like performing a clean install would help with a lot of the issues I am experiencing with Lion. 1) I already have Lion installed, 2) I have added a bunch of stuff since my backup prior to Lion, so I can't use that backup for the clean install.
Basically I would like to clean up all the random folders on my computer without losing any of my information. Basically folders like System and Library are probably filled with junk I don't use anymore, applications I didn't uninstall correctly, random junk, etc. and hopefully a clean install can get rid of all this. I would like for all of my preferences to carry over (not necessarily overall system settings as these are pretty easy to change) but preferences for specific apps. I would also really like it if all of the stock Apple apps would get reinstalled because I have some duplicate apps (chess, text edit, stickies, image capture, etc.) that I cannot delete.
I wouldn't be opposed to doing a clean install and then only moving over the apps I use, my music, my photos, etc. but I am worried that other things will be affected. For instance not being able to sync my iphone because it won't recognize my computer?
Any insight on this would be really helpful; specifically what the process of a clean install is (cmd+R .....), and what files are affected.

skaiser wrote:
I already have Lion installed so I can't download the installer again
Actually you can.
"To redownload the installer on a computer running OS X Lion, press and hold the Option key while you click the Purchases tab. If the button to the right of the Install Mac OS X Lion item doesn't change to "Install" and allow you to download Lion, use Spotlight to search for "Install Mac OS X Lion" on your computer."
I haven't tried this out yet as I'm setting up my machine on another OS right now.
You can backup your files to a external drive, disconnect and then hold command + r to enter the Recovery Partition looks like this.
You need a internet connection, so just have a Ethernet connection before you boot into Recovery, it's easiest as Wifi is flaky here.
You can download and reinstall Lion again right over Lion already installed.

Similar Messages

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    Game of Thrones wrote:
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    Hope this will help someone.
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    Hope this will help someone.
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    Hi,
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