Time Capsule & Clean Install iMac

Question

Hi
I have 750GB of data to backup onto Time Capsule for its first run. It will take several days to do the first run. If I manage to do this, can I do a clean install on my iMac and use the data on Time Capsule, or will I have to start again? What I'm aiming to do, is safely backup everything to Time Capsule, then spend time removing my files. At the end of that, I want to do a clean install of Snow Leopard. I had wanted to do a clean install, run Time Capsule, then add the files as needed. However, some of my files are huge iPhoto libraries that are up to 200GB! I have an external FW800 HD for SuperDuper! clone of the iMac. Apart from that, any advice is most welcome.

Answer 1

wayne.andrews wrote:
I have the iMac, an external SuperDuper! HD clone of the iMac and the Time Capsule. The iMac is 75% full. Would it benefit from a clean install?
Doubtful, at 75%. First, your Mac automatically and continuously defrags any file under 20 mb. Second, unless your disk has been much more full, and you manipulate lots of large files, the drive won't be seriously fragmented.
How can I check the fragmentation of the iMac?
There's no OSX tool for that, since Apple doesn't think it's necessary. The 3rd-party tools tend to overstate the importance of any fragmentation they find.
At the moment, I am stuck. I have managed to transfer everything that I may need onto the iMac. Most of the data is from Apple's Backup application (where files were backed up onto CD/DVD). For this reason, I have many duplicated files. I don't know where to start.
Do you mean you copied the Backup files? Or used Backup to restore them? Are they Full or Incremental backups? Restoring from them can be tedious, error-prone, and "iffy." Have you ever done any Backup restores?
I could do a clean install and add the files as I need them. Alternatively, I could backup everthing I have now and delete the files. Two ways of doing the same thing - adding or removing. Either way, it's a huge task sorting out the duplicated files, and removing what I no longer need.
I could really do with some advice on how to sort through files - not how to do it, but more a guide to a good strategy. What is the easiest, pain-free way of managing a good de-clutter in small chunks?
It depends on what sort of things you're talking about. If it's 3rd-party apps, erasing and selectively restoring will probably be a nightmare. Many such apps, especially the ones that come with their own installers, put various things in various places, besides the app in your Applications folder. Unless you know what and where all those are, the app may not work right, if at all. Worse, you may not notice that for quite some time, until you try to use a feature you haven't tested. Also, there may be some "leftovers:" background jobs that no longer have what they need to run, so they continually start, crash, and re-start forever, filling up your logs and using lots of CPU.
If it's pure data, such as a very large video library, you likely won't have those sorts of problems, but it would also be much easier to just delete what you don't want.
Without knowing just how much of what sort of stuff you're looking at, it's hard to give better advice. If you have a 2 TB TC, then I'd say back it all up and start deleting; the TC should have plenty of room to keep the backups for a long time. But if you move or rename folders with a lot of content, they'll be backed-up again entirely, so you may fill up the TC rather quickly.
However you approach it, I'd be inclined to also make a full "clone" before starting; check it by booting and running from it to be sure everything's there and working, then put it "on the shelf" in case you need it in a week or a few months.
Who is Mr Murphy?
Ah, that may be a US-only expression. +Murphy's Law:+ "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong."
The corollary: " . . . and at the worst possible moment."