Clean install checklist wanted

[davids]

Trying to fix mysterious problems and give the old lampshade iMac a new life by doing a clean install. I don't wanna miss anything - bookmarks, user-made templates, etc. - before the surgery. Yes, I've done all the diagnostics you can imagine, maybe more. Yes, I've got 3 bootable Porshe external HDs to work with.

Question: Is there a checklist for this kind of operation? Any direct, concrete, usable input appreciated here.

[Robert Seltman]

I am dependent on passwords and user names stored in the keychain. All your software password registrations in the preferences. There are also such passwords etc. stored in each of your browsers... Often as cookies. A full back-up may be worth the trouble if you have hard disk space (or borrow a friend's for the transition). Clone everything and be safe.

[davids]

I am dependent on passwords and user names stored in the keychain. All your software password registrations in the preferences. There are also such passwords etc. stored in each of your browsers... Often as cookies. A full backup may be worth the trouble if you have hard disk space (or borrow a friend's for the transition). Clone everything and be safe.

@@@ I don't use the keychain, but, yes, that'd be good general advice. As far as cloning everything, I'd rather reinstall apps that I need. That would get rid of all accumulated, unwanted floatsum, wouldn't it?

[Robert Seltman]

The purpose of the clone or any complete back-up would be to have all the necessary bites in storage in case something doesn't work. Leave the old back-up stuff on a separate off-line hard disk and only access it after you have made your fresh install, hopefully you won't even have to touch the back-up. I just don't have all the applications organized in a way where I would know easily where the passwords are or how I had adjusted my preferences so for me I usually keep things as they are and don't do a fresh install.

But you sound better organized, so certainly a fresh install of everything will make a mean clean machine. A back-up of all the bits and bites would only be a precaution.

[tonyinosaka]

For the clean install, there's really only one BIG checklist item. Backup. Not just your documents, not just your apps. The whole thing, every %#*@~ing file: Users, Preferences, Application Support, Libraries, Fonts, etc., etc., etc., etc.. Root leve and User level. Clone the whole drive. hen whatever piece of info you might need, it's there. If it's a bootable clone, and your new install is giving problems, you can just re-clone your backup back to the Mac and you'll have lost zero.

From the Install Disk, go to the Menu Bar, look for Disk Utility under Utilities, and do a disk check/repair. If you REALLY want to be thorough, have Disk Utility zero the drive. This will take a LONG time, but it will block off any bad blocks on the drive so the machine won't try to write to them.

Ideally, you will move as little of the cloned stuff over after the install as possible. Re-install the Apps you want, move or import your docs back over (incl. music, photos, etc.).

Look at each window in the install process carefully - watch for the OPTIONS and CUSTOM buttons hiding at the bottom along the way so you can avoid installing gazillion printer drivers and the Yugoslavian localization of the OS.

Good luck.

[davids]

Thanx for the detailed input. A few Qs:

How do you clone the whole drive? Simply drag the HD icon to the external HD? What?

While cloning you don't take apps? You install them afresh later? Wouldn't that queer the prefs you'd already cloned?

Ideally, you will move as little of the cloned stuff over after the install as possible. Back to the HD you're restoring? And why?