should you ever need to reinstall your mac os x

0	I'm running Snow Leopard on a MacBook Pro. I am curious about reinstalling OS X. Does anyone know if I should? osx mac help software asked Feb 12 '12 at 18:34 techmaniac 11●70●72●82 edited Feb 12 '12 at 22:25 PCLinux7 1.3k●17●22●39

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2	I tend to re-install every year or so. It's nice to get back to a nice, clean install. answered Feb 12 '12 at 22:30 jwire4 1.2k●50●55●69

Well, it's always good to keep up with maintenance. Usually people just run the default programs and their anti-virus scanner a few times every week or two. I'm not sure about reinstalling your operating system though, I generally don't do that. Some people I know do take the extra step and do a complete overhaul on their computer. Really, it depends on your experience with computers. I haven't had much of a problem with my OS's so I haven't felt the need to reinstall mine that often.

answered Feb 12 '12 at 18:45

BriNCz
16●1●2●4

Well from what I do know. Mac OSX is like using freebsd or a linux/Unix environment. not as much fragmentation as in windows. It keeps it to a minimum on it. But after a while I would agree I was even speaking with a colleague a long time ago he was backing up a AIX system. He mentioned it was good once in a while to do a refresh of the system. Kept it up and running for the longest time as far as I know. I personally don't own a mac myself. But I do run linux over here on at least one desktop and laptop over here.

answered Feb 12 '12 at 23:37

Compucore
2.4k●11●19●25

Depends on your reason for wanting to do it.

OSX, like Linux and other Unixes, is immune to the kind of deterioration that happens on Windows (i.e. Windows Rot) - and as long as you haven't done crazy things using administrative access, it's not likely you'll have managed to do any kind of serious / real damage to the O.S.

If you're thinking of upgrading to another, different version of OSX, then go for it. If you have another, solid reason for wanting to do it - even if that reason is as simple as "to learn" then again I say go for it.

But it's not likely to be necessary. :-) Only you could tell us whether or not that was the case. :)

answered Feb 13 '12 at 08:59

Menageryl
126●3

My reason is that recently i had put allot of movies music software etc , it took allot of memory up so i took it all off it seemed a bit slow still so i was wondering would you know why? or is there a way around that ?

(Feb 13 '12 at 09:30) techmaniac

Technically there shouldn't be any reason for that (that being a perceived slow down) - not from the installation and then removal of software. Unlike Windows, OSX doesn't have a registry or similar where software data from installs is placed or removed - as such there's no potential for fragmentation of such "devices."

System slow-downs in ANY O.S. is possible once the system hard-disk reaches capacity - but reasons for this vary from O.S. to O.S. and in the case of OSX this sort of symptom should have cleared up once sufficient free space was restored. And, had you not been near capacity before you began removal of things then this shouldn't have been a concern at all...

Could you perhaps desrcribe in more detail the slow-down symptoms you're experiencing? When you experience it? How is it expressed? Additional info regarding the software you had in-place then removed may also help us help you here...

(Feb 13 '12 at 16:49) Menageryl

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