Reinstalling OS X...

simX

simX

Unofficial Mac Genius
What do you guys think is the best way to reinstall OS X? I have been having a lot of recent problems with the Dock and the SystemUIServer process (see this thread: http://www.macosx.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=13318 ).

Should I just reinstall OS X 10.1 (I burned a copy of the full install CD via the update CD, and yes I bought the full version), and then re-update to 10.1.2 and all that, or will there be problems (I remember hearing that Apple said it's "dangerous" to do this)? Or should I just back up my User folder, rename my Applications folder so it doesn't conflict, and do a clean install (by deleting all of the other stuff -- the /Library, /System, /Users, and the mach files that are invisible)?

What would be the best way... and I'd like some opinions from people who have actually been in my situation..
 
well, i have no experience with console errors so i can't help you there. I also don't know how doing the full install of osx 10.1 will work going over the top of 10.1.2. lots of people say it doesn't work.

there are several threads in which we have argued about reinstalling over the top of existing osx. apple recommends against it with pretty vague wording at best to say why. several of us have done it with either better or no worse results than before by starting with original install disk and then updating all the way thru.

so my recomendation is to try it and see what happens. might solve it, might not. if it doesn't then move on to a more complete solution. I guess the choice is similar to fixing a car. eg, - if you know the problem is somewhere in the brake system, do you reinstall the whole system or do you start with the part you suspecct. people who can afford it and don't want to take a chance with having to deal with it again just replace the whole works. i would start with the cheapest, most likely solution and work my way thru. i might have to do the whole deal by the time i am thru, but only if nothing has fixed my problem before.

in short - less could be more in the long run, or it could keep you from a lot of extra hassle. only you can really make that call.

ps - check your pm's .
 
If you accept that you have a corrupt system, and nobody can interpret the console messages for you, then a reinstall is obviously required. If you have one or more corrupt files in your system, finding that file(s)amongst the tens of thousands files OS X installs, is in the snowballs category.

You say reinstalling sucks. If you haven't already, I suggest you visit Mike Bombichs site at www.bombich.com and make yourself a OS X 10.1.2 restore disk. Reinstalling is then just a 20 minute coffee break, thats if you follow all of his advice......all your previously settings etc will not be lost, and that dreaded lengthy reinstall is a non event.
 
I also reinstalled without wiping the partition first, after NU 7 beta started doing nasty things to my system. It's been a few weeks now, and so far, so good.
Just make sure to do things in the right order - 10.1, security update, installer update, 10.1.2 (using the version that updates any 10.1.x).
 
Maybe it can be looked as two different system problems. Problematical and Totally Hosed.

Problematical:
You know what your problem is, but not exactly what file and you reinstall in the manner described, and you have no problems whatsoever. Thats not unexpected. I'd give that a go if I didn't have a restore image on tap.

Totally Hosed:
But if you have some pesky unknown corrupt wayward file, maybe having renamed its self or whatever, and on reinstall does not get overwritten/replaced/trashed I would think that you could reinstall over and over until the end of time, and that damn file would keep popping up and causing the problems that made a reinstall necessary in the first place.

So if you wipe the sucker clean, its gone and so has the problem. As you experienced guys know the difference as compared to average user , Apples stance in taking the lowest common denominator and recommending wipping the disk is probably justified. That is, if this argument has any validity.

I believe it does not matter what computer operating system you are using, there are times when wipping the hard disk is the only practical way to get up and running again.
 
Well I actually came to my senses and realized that maybe I could delete a corrupt preference file that might fix the problems. The good news is that I can now use all of my menu extras again without problems -- before the console was complaining about them being positioned out of bounds or something, and the culprit ended up being the menu bar clock. Thank god there was a preference for that for me to delete. :) I also seem to have sped up my Dock a bit by deleting the "com.apple.dockfixup.plist" file that was in my preferences folder, and now my 5 docklings seem to "start up" noticeably faster.

So the good thing is that OS X is still in quite a usable state -- I'd venture to guess that I was having all those problems in the background for a while now, but that I just didn't notice them.

I can definitely wait for the 10.1.3 update now to see if it fixes any of my problems... if not, maybe I could post something in the Apple discussion boards about it or call Apple tech support and see what I can do about it. I REALLY don't want to reinstall.
 
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