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[Editor’s note: This article is part of our series of articles on installing and upgrading to Mavericks.]
It used to be that if you upgraded to a major new version of OS X, installing over an existing OS X installation—for example, installing 10.3 over 10.2—entailed some degree of risk, as existing applications, add-ons, and support files could conflict with the new OS. For this reason, many people performed a “clean install”: wiping your hard drive (after backing it up, of course), installing the latest version of OS X, and then either using Setup/Migration Assistant to restore your applications and data, or manually reinstalling programs and copying over your data. (The Mac OS X 10.2 installer debuted an Archive And Install option, which preserved your original 10.1—or problematic 10.2—installation in a special folder while installing a completely new, fresh copy of Mac OS X 10.2. This feature was eliminated in the Snow Leopard OS X 10.6 installer.)
But a new download-and-install procedure debuted with Lion (OS X 10.7) and has continued through Mavericks (OS X 10.9). Instead of using a bootable installation DVD, you download the latest OS X installer to your Mac and install the new OS from the same drive. With the debut of Mavericks, as with Mountain Lion and Lion, many Mac users are asking two related questions: (1) Can you perform a clean install of Mavericks? (2) Should you? Here’s my take on each of these questions, which is essentially the same as with Mountain Lion last year.
Can you perform a clean install of Mavericks?
First, the technical question: Given that the OS X 10.9 installer doesn’t include an official clean-install option, is it possible to perform such an installation? The simple answer is yes. As explained in my main article on installing Mavericks, the installer will let you install the new OS on a blank drive. So if you first back up your existing Mountain Lion, Lion, or Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6) installation and all your files—I recommend creating a bootable clone using SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner—you can then boot from a bootable installer drive, erase your Mac’s normal startup drive, and install Mavericks on it. In fact, you can use the instructions in my article on how to install Mavericks over Leopard. Specifically, scroll down to the section called “The brute-force method” and perform Steps 1 through 7, substituting “Mountain Lion,” “Lion,” or “Snow Leopard” for “Leopard”; the result is a clean install.
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