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How Do I Do a Fresh Install Of OS X?

I want to re-install a fresh installation of OS X. Do i need to create a boot disk and install from there or can i just restore from the hard disk. Is there a difference?
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John Jones

Comments: 3 Responses to “How Do I Do a Fresh Install Of OS X?”

    8 years ago

    The way you would do it is to reboot into Recovery mode and go from there. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201314
    But I would only do this in an extreme case. What is the problem you are trying to solve? Have you looked into other solutions? Chances are that simply re-installing OS X won't help if it is an app, some system extension, hardware issues or low disk space that is causing the problem. I would take it to an expert first (Genius Bar) to have them diagnose the problem before going to this extreme step.

    john jones
    8 years ago

    Thanks Gary, the OS X Essentials Exam book I bought says that (on page 34) that "if your computer is having trouble, it may be best to erase the existing data and start over with a clean installation of os c. To do this , you must start up from another disk, erase your computers internal disk, and then install a new operating system". I don't understand the difference between that and doing a recovery mode re-install.

    8 years ago

    John; Sounds like bad advice. Also sounds outdated. The Recovery Partition has been around for a while and it is definitely the best way (by far) to do simple or complete-wipe re-installs. But as I said before, only attempt this after an expert has tried and failed to solve the actual problem.

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