SL Clean Install + Migrate

Question

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.

Answer 1

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.