Reformat- clean install or archive install

So I got the endlessly spinning gear screen at start, booted to the install disc, tried to verify then repair disk, got the messages- "keys out of order" and "can't be repaired - backup your files REFORMAT, then restore your files". This means a re-install of the OS, right? What's better in this case, clean install or archive and install (that is, if they're both do-able on SL)? Advice?

trebber wrote:
So I got the endlessly spinning gear screen at start,
Grey screen issue, hold the Shift Key down while booting, it might get you in to copy files out to a regular storage drive (don't use TimeMachine)
Most commonly used backup methods
tried to verify then repair disk, got the messages- "keys out of order" and "can't be repaired - backup your files REFORMAT, then restore your files". This means a re-install of the OS, right? What's better in this case, clean install or archive and install (that is, if they're both do-able on SL)? Advice?
Archive and install isn't do-able like it was on 10.5
In 10.6+ you have two options, Reinstall just OS X or erase and install OS X.
In your case the file structure is toast, so a Erase and Install of OS X is in order, meaning all your files, programs etc are gone and have to be reinstalled from fresh sources or disks/downloads.
If you don't have a backup of your data on a storage drive (TimeMachine could be corrupted) then you need to recover files first using this method
Create a data recovery/undelete external boot drive
If you use this above method as outlined, you have already rebuilt your boot drive, but it's on a external bootable drive. Then you Zero Erase the internal drive and use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the external to the internal. Done.
If you already have your files on a external drive and they are in a free state (not trapped by TimeMachine) then you can zero erase and install 10.6 again fresh onto the internal drive.
How to erase and install Snow Leopard 10.6
The Security Option > Zero All Data on the entire drive booted from the 10.6 is very important to elliminate bad/failing sectors BEFORE you place data on the drive. Your initial drive problems likey occured because of failing sectors.
Read why here
Reducing bad sectors effect on hard drives

Similar Messages

Upgrading to Leopard from Tiger. Should I clean install, or is archiving ok

I have the capability to backup up everything myself and clean install, but my only issue is...
I'm running a couple of programs that could be...might be....cracked versions. And I'm also running my own copy of the CS3 Adobe Master Collection, which is a huge part of my work. I REALLY do not want to reinstall all these programs. Can these be backed up and copied over?
I was going to just upgrade, but a friend of mine told me of LOADS of problems people have been having with doing that, so I need some advice on what way to do this.
Also, I heard that if I'm going to run bootcamp, which i plan to, i have to setup it up as early as possible after I upgrade for some reason. is this true?
-Chris

My recommendation is to Erase and Install. It assures the lowest potential for problems. You can do an Archive and Install provided you take some precautions:
How to Perform an Archive and Install
1. Be sure to use Disk Utility first to repair the disk before performing the Archive and Install.
Repairing the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger.) After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported, then quit DU and return to the installer.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior (4.0 for Tiger, 4.1 for Leopard) and/or TechTool Pro (4.5.2 for Tiger, 4.6.2 for Leopard) to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
2. Do not proceed with an Archive and Install if DU reports errors it cannot fix. In that case use Disk Warrior and/or TechTool Pro to repair the hard drive. If neither can repair the drive, then you will have to erase the drive and reinstall from scratch.
3. Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When you reach the screen to select a destination drive click once on the destination drive then click on the Option button. Select the Archive and Install option. You have an option to preserve users and network preferences. Only select this option if you are sure you have no corrupted files in your user accounts. Otherwise leave this option unchecked. Click on the OK button and continue with the OS X Installation.
4. Upon completion of the Archive and Install you will have a Previous System Folder in the root directory. You should retain the PSF until you are sure you do not need to manually transfer any items from the PSF to your newly installed system.
5. After moving any items you want to keep from the PSF you should delete it. You can back it up if you prefer, but you must delete it from the hard drive.
6. You can now download a Combo Updater directly from Apple's download site to update your new system to the desired version as well as install any security or other updates. You can also do this using Software Update.
Note that there is always the potential problem that some of your software may not be compatible with Leopard. I would check first because it's always a pain to have to go back. If I were you I would clone your current system to an external drive so if there are any problems you can simply boot from your clone and restore it.
It's best to set up the Boot Camp partition on a drive that hasn't developed some fragmentation if the Windows partition is going to require a large chunk of the drive. However, Boot Camp will let you know if it isn't able to create the partition size you've requested, so it should not be a problem to create the partition on the drive.
People will tell you lots of stories, but most do not understand the particulars of the individual situations. All they hear is "it didn't work" and whatever other horror story goes with it. Upgrade Installs and Archive and Installs can work and do work perfectly well provided that they are done right. Most users don't do it right. If it works they're just lucky.
So here's the short story:
1. Repair your hard drive and permissions.
2. Clone your current system to an external Firewire drive.
3. Test that the clone will boot your computer.
4. Determine that your software is compatible. If not upgrade it or replace it.
5. Decide which installation option you will use - Erase and Install, Archive and Install, Upgrade Install.
6. Do the installation.
In my opinion do not install a new operating system if your mission critical software is not compatible.

After performing a clean install, is my startup disk correct for apple stock 1TB fusion hard drive? I think I may have to reformat.

After performing a clean install on a stock apple 1TB fusion Hard Drive it appears as things got reversed and showing my startup as not using the SSD portion. The SSD portion of the fusion drive used to be on top in disk utility, now its on the bottom. It also appears that I have to many partitions. Im thinking i need to reformat my Hard Drive again. I can't seem to find any answers.
CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)
|
+-- Logical Volume Group C2619AFE-0EB5-4721-8C50-3F3DBA520D1B
    =========================================================
    Name:         fusion
    Status:       Online
    Size:         1120333979648 B (1.1 TB)
    Free Space:   114688 B (114.7 KB)
    |
    +-< Physical Volume 583AAEA9-E333-4A83-9BE3-E937396E9248
    |   ----------------------------------------------------
    |   Index:    0
    |   Disk:     disk0s2
    |   Status:   Online
    |   Size:     120988852224 B (121.0 GB)
    |
    +-< Physical Volume B0C1CB16-D46F-4387-A679-B55392BB7934
    |   ----------------------------------------------------
    |   Index:    1
    |   Disk:     disk1s2
    |   Status:   Online
    |   Size:     999345127424 B (999.3 GB)
    |
    +-> Logical Volume Family FB42B9F4-CB77-4162-831B-7DCB7816E760
        Encryption Status:       Unlocked
        Encryption Type:         None
        Conversion Status:       NoConversion
        Conversion Direction:    -none-
        Has Encrypted Extents:   No
        Fully Secure:            No
        Passphrase Required:     No
        |
        +-> Logical Volume C0B8479B-C51C-45BF-B59B-1AA5DF3A3B83
            Disk:                  disk2
            Status:                Online
            Size (Total):          1111826497536 B (1.1 TB)
            Conversion Progress:   -none-
            Revertible:            No
            LV Name:               Fusion
            Volume Name:           Fusion
            Content Hint:          Apple_HFS
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *121.3 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         121.0 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Boot OS X               134.2 MB   disk0s3
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk1
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk1s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         999.3 GB   disk1s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Boot OS X               650.0 MB   disk1s3
/dev/disk2
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                  Apple_HFS Fusion                 *1.1 TB     disk2

Hi,
According to your descriptioin, I don't think this is system problem, it should be Intel driver problem. It would be contact Intel to confirm this issue whether this is their driver problem.
Roger Lu
TechNet Community Support

Should I reformat and clean install to my iMac?

I have an 27" iMac that is about five years old. It was custom top of the line i7 hyper threading 16 GB of RAM yada yada but it's much slower to boot up and the 1 TB hard drive is almost full. I'm sure some of that is orphaned files and other junk. I'd like to think that reformatting the hard drive and doing a clean install of Yosemite followed by a Time Machine restore from an external disk would be helpful. Is there an article or something that can tell me how to do this safely? Any suggestions appreciated, thanks.

HI ..
Make sure your Mac can run Yosemite > Apple - OS X Yosemite - How to Upgrade
You can reformat (erase) the drive then restore OS X using OS X Recovery.
Then upgrade to Yosemite.
Yosemite requires 5.16Gb's of drive space.
Click your Apple menu  top left in your screen. From the drop down menu click About This Mac > More Info > Storage
Make sure there's at least 15% free disk space.

Clean install vs. archive and install?

I did an archive and install of OSX to try to solve a stubborn problem with a 3rd party program. No dice, so today I tried a clean install.
I was surprised after the clean install completed that I got an iCal reminder and most of my other system settings were still in place. I thought a clean install was more thorough than that. it still didn't clear up the problem with the 3rd party software, so I guess the next step is to backup everything and do an erase and install.
What exactly does a clean install do? I thought it was comparable to restoring the OS to factory-fresh condition, but it doesn't seem much different than an archive and install.

Obviously this does not happen because it is common for previous settings and configurations (as well as the issues that the user performed the "Erase and Install" to eliminate in the first place) to remain in place after an "Erase and Install" is completed.
Everything remains 'in place' after a normal erase except the info that tells the file system where the erased item is on the drive. The OS finds the actual data the file contains through the file system, which keeps track of the logical sectors on the drive that make up the file. When a file is "erased," all that happens is the file's entry in the file system is erased, freeing up the sectors the file used for new files.
The *only way* the OS could somehow mistakenly retrieve even a part of a previous settings file's or any other file's data is if the file system is corrupted, meaning it contains incorrect info about one or more sectors that contain an active (un-erased) file it is trying to access. Understand that the sectors just contain ones & zeros, whatever they represent in terms of executable code or data. The name, file type, & all the other info about it is in the file system. The OS has no way of knowing where a file's data used to be or what it was used for except through the file system.
So, the chances that corruption in the file system would somehow exactly point to an old settings file's sectors and they would be in the right order and the file the OS is trying to access is also the same settings file are vanishingly small. This is the only way the OS could mistakenly use the old settings file -- anything else would cause the OS to choke on the file because the zeros & ones are not in the correct order to represent that same settings file.
With this in mind, it should be obvious how bizarre the idea is that zeroing out the drive somehow prevents this from happening. It absolutely doesn't matter in the slightest if the 'bad bits" are all zeros, all ones, or some combination of the two. If the drive is zeroed out, every bit returned will be a zero. If the file is supposed to be an XML-formatted preference file, all the OS gets is a long string of null characters, lacking the required XML header, & the OS chokes. If it is supposed to be an executable file all it gets is NOP's & the zero address, & the OS chokes.
Simply put, in the digital world, zero isn't "nothing" or a sign that the computer should ignore it, it is one of only two possible values a bit can have. All useful code & data strings are made up of zeros & ones in exact patterns. Any string of all zeros is no better or worse than a random sting of zeros & ones unless it is exactly the string that the file should contain, & there are no useful files that should contain all zeros.
What users do need to do if there is any question about the wrong data being returned is to replace or repair the file system, not futilely write zeros to the sectors it should be keeping track of. An Erase & Install *does not do this*, which is why that step alone is not enough to fix this problem.

What to do after archive and clean install

I had to re-install 10.3 on my G5 after the hard drive icon icon disappeared from my desktop and the finder froze. Its back to normal now after I did a clean install of 10.3, choosing the archive and install option. What should be my next step? How do I get all my stuff in the 'previous system' folder (my music, photos, etc.) to the main account? Can I somehow log in my old account with all my stuff and delete the new one I had to make? What's the easiest way to do this?

Hi-
How do I get all my stuff in the 'previous system' folder (my music, photos, etc.) to the main account?
How to get files from a previous home directory after Archive and Install

Clean install or archive and install?

Hi,
After much deliberation, the time has come to upgrade from Tiger to Leopard.
Having updated Tiger numerous times (to 10.4.11), the system has become rather bloated and takes up too much space on my MBP.
Would it be beneficial to do a clean install or install over the previous system?
Also, is it possible to migrate files/settings/apps from an external firewire drive that has been partitioned? One partition has a bootable version of Tiger, the other contains data.
I'm always very reluctant to zero a drive, so any thoughts appreciated!
Cheers,
Colin.

I recommend an Archive & Install or Erase & Install rather than an Upgrade.
When upgrading from Tiger, the installer leaves the "old" Group permissions structures in place - when a default installation of Leopard now uses a different structure (every user is in a staff account - as it used to be back in the days of 10.2!).
This has caused a few hassles, as the Tiger user groups usually appear as "unknown" to an upgraded Leopard user.
Also, the original installer left some kernel extensions in place that are no longer used, but have been demonstrated to have caused airport problems for some people.
Cheers,
Rodney

Reformatting HD with clean install... but first a question...

So my Powerbook has been... slow since I put Leopard on it. Much, much slower than when I had Tiger on it.
I am thinking however that maybe it has to do with me just doing an upgrade rather than a clean install. So I want to do a clean install, etc.
If I do this can I still go back to my Time Machine and pull files, apps, etc back on to the machine? Or will it not allow this?
If anyone has any information I would really appreciate it (or if you think I should just go back to Tiger I'd love to hear why)!
Thanks,
Stephen

Sorry, I don't want to restore the whole thing from the time machine back up, just pull individual files/folders or apps.
Can I do that with my Time Machine Volume and a new install of Leopard or will it not recognize it as such?
For instance, could I pull Quicksilver or Photoshop over from my TM backup to my new system without having to re-install? Or old work and school files/folders?
Or if I pull the whole user over (as was suggested) would it just give me all my apps, all my settings, etc with no losses?

Can I do a clean install of 10.5 and use migration assistant from backup ?

I want to install OS 10.5 on to my Macbook. If I do a clean install rather than an archive and install can I then use migration assistant to transfer my accounts and emails from the cloned Superduper backup I have made on an external drive?
Or is Archive and Install better?

I think 99.9% of the people know what you want to do by "clean" (ie, erase or reformat) and that insures there aren't any file or directory problems when you start, that the new OS is all that will be taking up space. Clean has two connotations: Windows or OS 9. There are lots of words that are "no longer used" but everyone knows what "initialize" or reformat means and does.
If you said, "Scratch that" you could mean, "scratch that idea" even though you can't actually scratch anything. And the idea isn't in stone (scratch out) or written with a pencil where you could erase the word or line. Or draw a line through words to "scratch out the line." There can be multiple meanings. Some languages have 5 words for "blue" to denote different shades of blue, and meaning.
Your drive is 60GB which is on the small side so that is one more reason to reformat.
And because installers will create and delete a lot of files, and scatter around, I would do another SD backup (and leave your old backup as is) so you have a copy of Leopard you can boot from and that would be just Apple OS (maybe after applying the 900MB of updates required to get to 10.5.4+).
Migration Assistant has posed some problems for some with how account data is imported into a new group account. Check out http://www.macfixit.com

How to upgrade (with clean install) a OEL4 server to OL5 on a live system

My problem is that I cannot find any meaningful information on how to perform a OL upgrade on a live system with a running database.
The system is running OEL 4.9 (migrated from RHEL 4 to OEL) and I want to upgrade it to OL 5.7 (wanted to use 6.1 but that is not yet certified for 11.2)
I know that using Anaconda's upgrade is not supported so I guess I will have to use a clean install. (the system is full of legacy rpm's and old drivers that where needed in previous 4.x releases and dependencies that I wouldn't want to upgrade).
So I want to do a clean install of 5.7 on the server, but what is the process? There are 3 LVs running 1 for the OS (with partitions for /, /boot, /tmp, /usr, /var and /home )
1 for the Oracle software / data files and 1 for exports / archive logs and such.
If I do a clean install on the OS LV (after taking a backup of everything) will I be able to reuse the existing setup of Oracle software on the 2nd logical volume? create the oracle user with the same uid/gid, running root.sh, etc.. Will it start and be able to mount/open the database ? (I am assuming the need to rebuild the installation) There is also a home for 11.2 middleware web-tier utilities (for APEX).
I have been searching in vain for some guides / insight into what the correct procedures are for upgrading the OEL4 to OL5 (or OL6 if it gets certified in the next few months).
Any help appreciated.
Oli

My problem is that I cannot find any meaningful information on how to perform a OL upgrade on a live system with a running database.Firstly, it is good to know your system is running satisfactorily.
After taking a full backup (and checking that the backup is good!), you must shutdown the RDBMS instances.
1) Reboot from the distribution media.
2) Choose a full install; you do not want to upgrade.
3) Be very careful to click on the checkbox to "use custom setup" so that you will get a display of the current storage setup.
4) In the Anaconda Disk Druid screen, edit the displayed LVMs to use their old mount points.
5) Make absolutely certain that the checkbox to reformat the LVMs for your database setup are clear, not checked.
6) Do install the default RPM package selection; the OL distro is configured to install the necessary prerequisites for an RDBMS setup.
7) After the installation completes, be sure to install the "oracle-validated" RPM package to do the necessary tuning.
8) Add back all the user accounts.
9) Move on to bringing up the RDBMS.
Looks scary, and is, but can be done. Practice installing this way before doing it for real -- you do want to be familiar with each installation step and to realize where you are along the process.

How to install a clean install with leopard upgrade DVD!

Does somebody know how to do an clean install with a Leopard upgrade DVD?
I bought my MacBook for 1 week ago, and them said that i would get leopard sent later. And when i get it, its a upgrade cd that i cant install only leopard on my ny frsh hard-drive. *** apple?

First, there is no such thing as a "clean install" option in OS X. But the "cleanest" install is to start with a reformatted drive (using Disk Utility's "Partition" tab), followed by an install of the OS that will be cleansed of any traces of OS or file system corruption. (The "unclean" options, "Upgrade" & "Archive & Install" won't be possible, & the erase part of "Erase & Install" is at this point redundant.)
However, if you use Setup Assistant (which runs after rebooting) or Migration Assistant to bring over copies of old system components, applications, & settings, you may be reintroducing something "unclean" from the old versions.
This said, if your up-to-date disk is just an updater (nobody seems to know yet), you can do a "cleanest possible" install by following the above with your original Tiger Installer disk, letting it reboot & not importing anything during setup, & then following the instructions supplied with the up-to-date disk to upgrade. At this point, you may want to clone the startup disk for future reference, before adding back in your apps & user files by whatever method(s) you chose.

How to reformat and install

I'd like to get a clean start on my MBP and do a reformat and install with Leopard. I've never done this before, so I have no idea what I need to do. I have 500G external hard drive that is partitioned to have some storage space and some backup space.
I have pictures in iPhoto (waaaaaay too many), some fonts I've downloaded, and music files. Plus just all my regular documents and such.
What's the best way to go about this??? Any tips and advice are more than welcome.

It doesn't sound like you need to wipe the drive and reinstall everything fresh. Depending on how much "stuff" you have, this could be up to a weekend long project. Thanks to the way OS X is organized, there is little that can go wrong with the System and Library folders at the root level and there's very little inside that you can touch. If your machine is healthy why bother?
That leaves the Applications folder and your own drive space. Here's a hint for cleaning up the applications folder. Use the Label feature to give every program in the Applications folder a red labe and before you launch a red program, unlabel it. At the end of a month check out every program that is still labeled red. There are three possibilities: 1) it is a program that was installed by Apple. Probably don't want to delete it. 2) it is a program that you didn't use this month but know you use. 3) it is a program you realize that you almost never use and can be deleted.
Every program has a configuration file called a plist and many will create a folder in the Applications Support folder of your Library. As you delete programs you can manually delete the plist and support folder or you can buy a shareware program to do it manually. AppZapper is one.
Your own drive space. This is the tough one and I apply a variation of the applications method described above. There are files I know I frequently use. For me, these are kept in project folders. Anything that isn't in a project folder, in iTunes, or iPhoto gets labeled red. As I use it I unlabel it. Every six months I take all the red files and create archives. Then I label all the files red again. I've found that I seldom have to unarchive a file. BTW, the archives also get labeled red and if after 6 months they are still red, I move them to my archival hard drive.

SL Clean Install + Migrate

SL has been behaving badly since updating from 10.5, even after a 'not-quite-archive-&-install' again to 10.6, sooo... clean install time.
I have everything on Time Machine, I can also clone the disk first in case of major screwups, but what I want to be able to do is set up a Migrate, reformat, install afresh & then only restore from the migrate things such as address book, diaries, bookmarks, Keychain, etc... all the personal stuff, but NO application data, prefs etc. I want as little legacy data going across as possible, to avoid what I think is years of upgrades not quite meshing with 10.6
My SL Disk is 10.6 Retail, so I can clean install straight from it, yes? No need for 10.5 first?
Does the migrate tool to 'new Mac' give me the option of only restoring the personal data, or will it automatically fill my system with legacy prefs etc I just don't want to carry over?
Any definitive answers on exactly how to go about this. I've never tried to do this before so, even after 20 years on the Mac, I'm in new waters.

V.K. wrote:
... there could be problems in your current home directory such as corrupt or conflicting preferences files. they would transferred using this method. this is unlikely though so you should try this first.
Personally, I think that a) the source of the problems could just as likely be in the home folder as anywhere else & b) it is always better to first try to systematically locate the specific cause of the problem & eliminate it (since otherwise there is always a chance of unknowingly reintroducing it again later, resulting in a lot of work for nothing).
Accordingly, I suggest that before taking the radical step of erasing the drive, there are several things worth trying. The first, if not already done, is to run Disk Utility's "Verify Disk" check. If it finds anything wrong, restart from the installer disk & run its copy of Disk Utility to repair the disk. Only if it can't fix any found problems, should you then erase the drive.
Otherwise, the next thing to try is creating a new user account for testing purposes. If the problems disappear when startup up into this account, you know the cause is somewhere in the normal account's home folder. If they don't disappear, the problem is somewhere in the system domain. The most likely suspects are a) corrupted OS components (which usually can be repaired by reinstalling the OS or sometimes a combo update), b) conflicting third party startup items in /System/Library/StartupItems or /Library/StartupItems (which can be eliminated or archived), & c) corrupted system fonts (which can be identified using Font Book.app's font validation option).
If the problems do disappear, the most likely causes in the original home folder are a) bad user fonts (with the same fix as above), b) incompatible login items (visible in System Preferences > Login items tab, where they can be eliminated with the minus button), & c) bad user preference files (which can usually be identified by what they affect or with a utility like Preferential Treatment or the command line equivalent).
Depending on the nature of the 'bad behavior' & what the steps above reveal, it is quite likely that the problem(s) can be eliminated permanently without the hassles of a clean install & restoring a lot of stuff manually.

Want to reformat and install tiger

ok right now i have 10.3.8 and i want to upgrade to tiger but
i also want to reformat or start anew
is there any other way to freshen up my computer
or how do i go about upgrading/ reformating the imac
thank you

oboe:
Although Archive and Install is preferable for most users as it preserves your Users Folder including your data, preferences and applications, Erase and Install or a Clean Install are also options. In any case you should make a good backup of everything you cannot afford to lose before any major operations, but particularly if you are doing a clean install, because everything on your HDD will be wiped out.
However, if you want to start out with a clean slate select the Erase and Install option. Also, as suggested earlier, you may want to deselect Foreign Language Translations and Additional Printer Drivers in the interest of disk space.
Before you do anything, make sure your computer meets the Minimus Requirements for Tiger.
Good luck.
cornelius

How many times can you clean install leopard on the same computer?

How many times can you clean install leopard on the same computer? Will the leopard dvd run out of installations and not let you install anymore?

Hi colman Prez;
Now that the funny comments have been made, I have a serious question and that why are you worry about reinstalling Leopard with an Erase & Install which is what I take that you mean when you say clean install. In actually fact there is no such thing in OS X as a clean install.
I am curious because in all the years I have used OS X, I have yet to do an Erase & Install yet.
I know with Windows that they suggest reformatting and reinstalling at the drop of a hat but that isn't true with OS X.
Allan

Reformat- clean install or archive install

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