What are the risks of losing data when reinstalling the OS?

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Apple Mac OS X Snow Leopard

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clayedwards January 10, 2012

What are the risks of losing data when reinstalling the OS?

I'm having some issues with finder and time machine and was told to reinstall the OS but don't want to lose my data, especially since I don't have a backup due to the issues with time machine. Is it safe to reinstall the OS without losing my data?

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ajcohen 4 months ago

It's quite safe, you just need to make sure that everything you need is backed up properly. I did it a few times when I was on Snow Leopard, and I'm looking to go back to it from Lion.

It's pretty simple, pretty much everything you'll need is in your User folder (Macintosh HD-->Users-->your name). This will have all your docs, pics, music, and any thing you have lying around on your desktop.

You should in theory be fine after that. For extra measure, I always backup my Application Support folder. This is where all the settings and registration for your apps will be. Be sure to copy it too, just in case (Macintosh HD-->Library-->Application Support).

Whenever I reload my OS, I make sure to write down all my apps and plugins before doing it, so it once it's up and running again I just re-install them all at once. It saves getting pissed off when you need a program you forgot to install.

Good luck with it! You'll get the best results when you go to do it to open the Disc Utility when you boot from the DVD, and reformat (erase) your HDD. Start with a clean slate.

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clayedwards 2012-01-11 00:36:26

Thanks. I thought you could reinstall the OS without having to wipe everything out and reinstall all of the apps though? Is that not the case or am I misunderstanding you?

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ajcohen 2012-01-11 01:45:11

It is possible, but probably wouldnt fix the issues you're having. Chances are whatever has been bogging your system is related to something that has been installed or downloaded. By starting with a blank drive and clean install, you can reload your programs and hopefully address your issues because whatever was causing them is gone. It's a bit of a pain in the ass and takes time to reinstall everything, but is worth it.
I do it once a year to keep my Mac running its best.

If you have any adobe programs, make sure that you unregister them first. Trying to get adobe to allow you to use a registered serial is a pain.

clayedwards 2012-01-11 03:44:10

Thanks again. I was hoping to avoid all of that extra work, which is one of the many reasons I left Windows for MAC. I have a ton of apps installed and almost 500G of data! This is going to be time consuming. Bummer. Didn't know about the Adobe thing. Thanks for the tips!

ajcohen 2012-01-11 13:10:08

Yea. it's not so much a windows or PC thing, but just a computer maintenance thing.

I understand your pain, I keep 1.5TB of work projects on external drives, and only keep the current ones on my actual drive, it saves time and memory.

clayedwards 2012-01-11 20:50:51

Too bad there isn't a good solution for a cloud drive that could be mapped so we could access the bulk of our data and not have to carry it all around with us. I use DropBox but it still stores it locally and frankly 100gigs isn't enough. I tried Elephant Drive as well but it just didn't cut the mustard either. Any recommendations that I might not know about?

Thanks again for your help.

ranhalt 2012-01-24 15:25:14

"Too bad there isn't a good solution for a cloud drive that could be mapped so we could access the bulk of our data and not have to carry it all around with us."

You mean like Carbonite, Mozy, BitCasa, and a slew of others? What you are asking for exists and plenty of companies do it. I'm not sure if you're asking for something other than paid, unlimited cloud storage.

clayedwards 2012-01-24 15:39:50

Thanks for your reply. I'm familiar with Carbonite and Mozy but neither of those services allow you to actually map a folder for easy access, at least not that I'm aware of. I just started using BitCasa a few days ago and so far it seems great but there are still a few issues, such as renaming folders, dragging mapped folders to the finder sidebar for easy access, etc. I actually really like BitCasa otherwise and am very hopeful that they will be my only storage solution needed in the future for my data. This, however, still doesn't fix the issues I'm having with my timemachine backups. It sure would be cool to to a timemachine backup to BitCasa though!

adrieltan1 2012-01-20 09:54:49

If you have enough storage in your internal HDD, you can do what is known as a archive and install method (support.apple.com/kb/HT1710). Apple says it only works for 10.4 latest, but it may work for 10.7/10.6.

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ranhalt 2012-01-24 15:26:23

If you are having issues with your backup solution, fix it. If you let it just sit there and not work, you wasted your money. Always have your data backed up, regardless of if you're reinstalling your OS.

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clayedwards 2012-01-24 15:35:42

Thanks for your reply but I don't think you read my post very thoroughly. I said "I don't have a backup due to the issues with time machine". I have about 480gigs on my MBP local hard drive and a Western Digital 500gig external drive that I used to do my timemachine backups to but for some reason time machine is saying that my backup needs over 540gigs of space to back up my MacBookPro, which doesn't make sense since my MBP only has a 500gig internal hard drive. I even called Apple on this one and they were baffled and said I should wipe the external drive and just copy/paste all of my files to the external drive for safe keeping just in case anything happened when I re-installed the OS. I tried that but that didn't work so well either as the Apple rep said I have a problem with Finder. So, I'm a little stumped as to what to do and the only option I can think of is to go buy a larger external hard drive just to do the timemachine backup, but that would seem like a waste of money. Thoughts?

adrieltan1 2012-01-25 07:19:58

You need at least a drive that is 2x the space of your Hard drive if you have it to the full as Time machine backs up every hour... May be just be a good idea to get a 1TB drive or make time machine not back up big files.

clayedwards 2012-01-25 11:34:15

Thanks. I think I'll just get at least a 2TB drive or larger, just in case I upgrade my Mac and it has a larger drive.

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