Preparing for a Clean Install

[kylehayes]

Hey Everyone,

I think it is time for me to do a full clean install of Tiger on my Dual G5. There have been some issues with settings and what not over the past couple of years and the system has been running very slowly lately. I would like to do a fresh install and wipe the harddrive clean and restore my files and other applications.

What is the best way to make sure I get all the settings back for my applications (bookmarks, mail, photoshop and illustrator settings, etc, etc, etc) and everything else when I start again?

I have a 500 GB harddrive (external) that should accomodate anything that I actually need to back up to it (which is mostly all the files).

Thanks,
Kyle

[Sherman Homan]

Well the easiest approach is to do an Archive and Install. That is the default setting when you launch the installer. The good news is that you will be able to keep all of your preferences, settings, bookmarks, etc. You won't even need to reinstall your applications. The bad news is that you are liable to bring all the the gummed-up slowness along with it.
How about doing directory repairs, permissions repairs, defragging and optimizing?

[kylehayes]

@Sherman: Actually, I did do the Archive and Install about a month ago, and like you said, it did bring all the gunk back. Certain things still were not working the way there were supposed to. I have done the permissions repairs, but not the other three. What's the best way to go about that?

[kylehayes]

I found this really sweet tool called iBackup:
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/system_disk_utilities/ibackup.html

It allows you to backup settings for the system, system applications, and many other applications.