I am considering wiping my hard drive and reinstalling the programs from scratch on my imac G5 as I have installed and deleted 1000's of programs, just wandered whether it would make much of a difference and how I would do it? Also theres information id like to keep such as itunes playlists and web bookmarks
Formatting a Mac
- Thread starter sappleton
- Start date
To do a clean install you can either use Disk Utility when you boot from the install CD or DVD to partion the drive or select the erase and install box during the installation process.
To secure your bookmarks will depend on which browser you are using, but most have an import/export feature. If you have an external drive copy your entire iTunes library folder off and then re-import into iTunes once you have re-installed.
To secure your bookmarks will depend on which browser you are using, but most have an import/export feature. If you have an external drive copy your entire iTunes library folder off and then re-import into iTunes once you have re-installed.
Veljo
Mac Enthusiast
It shouldn't make that much of a difference, unless your Mac is excessively cluttered with rubbish. Newer versions of Mac OS X contain a technology called "Journalling", which effectively defrags your hard disk on the fly, making sure it is always optimized. That being said, a format can't hurt.
If you decide to format, make sure to choose "Write zeros to disk" from under the Options. This will ensure that you hard disk is properly erased, and when you reinstall everything it'll run at its optimal speed.
If you decide to format, make sure to choose "Write zeros to disk" from under the Options. This will ensure that you hard disk is properly erased, and when you reinstall everything it'll run at its optimal speed.
ElDiabloConCaca
U.S.D.A. Prime
"Journalling" does not "defrag" the hard drive. Journalling is a way for the system to keep track of recent modifications to the file system so that it can better recover from a crash or interrupted startup/shutdown procedure. Journalling has nothing to do with defragmentation.
Writing zeros to the disk will not get you any "better" or "cleaner" or "faster" of a format. It will simply make it more difficult to reconstruct a formatted hard drive to recover files. It will also check and re-map bad blocks on the hard drive if any exist, which isn't likely. It's not any more "proper" than a simple, quick format, and will provide absolutely NO speed boost over a regular/quick format.
Writing zeros to the disk will not get you any "better" or "cleaner" or "faster" of a format. It will simply make it more difficult to reconstruct a formatted hard drive to recover files. It will also check and re-map bad blocks on the hard drive if any exist, which isn't likely. It's not any more "proper" than a simple, quick format, and will provide absolutely NO speed boost over a regular/quick format.
Reformatting your hard drive and reinstalling you OS is a Windows solution to a Windows problem. Unless you have corrupt OS files, which is unlikely, then there is no need. If you have journalling enabled--and it sounds like you have--then it is even less likely that yyour OS is corrupt. Your files are most vulnerable during OS installation. Coupled with the time required to restore your applications and data, reinstallation is massive waste of time.sappleton said:
nixgeek
Mac of the SubGenius! :-)
For the record, I just backed up my files on the Mac and did a complete reinstall. For some reason I was getting Safe Boot every time I started up the iMac G5. There was a power outage during the day so I'm thinking it was because of that. I did everything I usually recommend others to do here, but to no avail. Finally, I just decided to backup everything (including my Music, Documents, and other folders that might contain stuff iTunes and GarageBand might need) and blow it all away. Right now, everything is back in working order and much snappier than before. I also used this problem as an excuse to repartition my hard drive to play around with Ubuntu PPC64 on my iMac G5. 
Regardless, sometimes it's just faster to backup everything and reinstall of nothing else has solved the problem. I not only do this on the Windows side, but on my Mac and Linux systems as well (mind you, these are on personal systems...had they been production systems I wouldn't have done this). It's like killing a fly with a boulder, but if it kills the fly I guess that's what counts.
If you DO decide to reformat, just backup everything you can think of. Then triple check what else might need backing up....you never remember to backup everything on the first or second attempt.
Regardless, sometimes it's just faster to backup everything and reinstall of nothing else has solved the problem. I not only do this on the Windows side, but on my Mac and Linux systems as well (mind you, these are on personal systems...had they been production systems I wouldn't have done this). It's like killing a fly with a boulder, but if it kills the fly I guess that's what counts.
If you DO decide to reformat, just backup everything you can think of. Then triple check what else might need backing up....you never remember to backup everything on the first or second attempt.