What is "Previous Systems"? Should I keep it?

Along with "Applications," "Library," "Users," etc, there's another large folder on my iMac called "Previous Systems." It's apparently a large folder consisting of my entire HD - or at last, an earlier version.
What is the point of this folder? Can I delete it without any ill effect? I back up regularly and already have a clone of my current hard drive. Why do I want, or need, the previous system on my HD?
Thanks!

Hi.
Most of what is in the Previous System Folder is indeed just duplicates (but later versions of your installed operating system and standard applications) and indeed can be safely trashed.
However...
Before you dump everything, go through the "Library" folder and compare contents of the folders - in particular, Audio, *Application Support*, Contextual Menu Items, Internet Plug-ins, Dictionaries, Documentation, Mozilla & Thunderbird (if you use Firefox - or the specific support folder for your browser), PDF Services, Preferance Panes, Preferences, Printers (if you added new printing software), Quicktime, Receipts (just copy the ones for software you installed separately), StartupItems, and Widgets. These are the Library folders most likely to have been changed by your own program usage preferences and software that you had added yourself.
If you trash the previous system without checking these, you might find yourself having to re-enter software serial numbers and re-doing all the preference choices you've created through using the computer.
Note: Be careful when replacing things in folders that contain data created by the version of the operating system you re-installed - updated packages in the "Receipts" folder for example. When you do a clean install, you've in effect gone back to an earlier version of the operating system (the one on the install disk), which has not yet gone through all of the downloaded Software Updates. If you replace items that have not yet been updated with a newer OS versions, then the apple os updater could get confused and you wouldn't be able to automatically update to the latest versions of your software. If you're not sure, I'd recommend you go through all the downloaded updates before you start comparing the contents of the Library Folder. Software you yourself have installed (ie photoshop, firefox, toast, word office, and such...) won't be affected by the auto apple updates - whether you installed it by cd or downloaded it yourself from the internet.

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