MacOS – How to clean install OSX without formatting drive

installmacos

What's the best way to clean install (not upgrade) OSX (from 10.10 to 10.11) without formatting my drive?

This is a MBPr with a 1TB internal, where I have 700GB of media that I would like to leave on there, all within 2 folder at /

Can I just delete everything except those 2 folders then install OSX?

I'm thinking I have 2 options:

  1. Boot from a bootable USB with 10.11 installer
  2. Boot from a CCC clone external of my system drive

… and then delete everything except those 2 folders, then run the OSX installer.

Best Answer

There is no easy way to do this. You can't clean install and keep your files because those files live as part of the OS. The OS knows where they are, what they are, the permissions etc. Clean installing would be removing all parts of the OS and installing a the new OS and the links to those files, where it would not know it needs those files or what they are.

Alternatively you can try:

  • Create a New Partition (Say of 200GB)
  • Install a clean copy of OS X there
  • Copy 100GB of your files to the new partition
  • Delete those exact files on the old partition
  • Shrink old partition and expand new partition
  • And repeat last 3 steps till you have all files

But the best solution would be:

  • Buy external HD
  • Copy all files to external
  • Reinstall OS X
  • Copy files back
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