Reformatting when installing Snow Leopard

Question

Hi guys, I just installed Snow Leopard today. But apparently while using Migration Assistant, I accidentally import all my stuff back, which I don't want to because there's loads of unwanted stuff. So I was wondering if it is advisable to reformat the computer again and do a clean install. By the way, this would be my third attempt because I didn't do a clean install during the first attempt. Yes, I may have OCD and may sound like an amateur, but hopefully one of you guys maybe able to help me out.
Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

While granted, every full rewrite of a hard drive is probably more harmful that leaving it alone, the frequent writing and rewriting of a hard drive due to adding and removing data is probably more harmful than a single sweep. Think of repeated mechanical actions. As these drives though are typically rated for 10,000 hours MTBF and more though, a relatively new machine shouldn't experience a much more earlier death as a result of either procedure. My procedure while it may not be as quick, would at least help you isolate whatever your issue is. Simply reformatting risks losing data quicker, as any data loss or corruption anywhere in your backups may not be as easy to recover if you tried a simple wipe. I try to attempt the least risky approach first, and only risk the most when nothing else works. See my backup FAQ*:
http://www.macmaps.com/backup.html
- * Links to my pages may give me compensation.