Can I reinstall OS without doing a backup?

[fabadelic]

Sorry people but I've trawled through enough forums on enough sites for one day and I've finally done enough searching...I figure my question's just too dumb...so here it goes...

Can I reinstall my system without backing up my personal stuff and applications and not loose it all into the ethers? I've zapped the PRAM and run disc utility from the CD.

In case you're wondering why, well I have that ever so charmingly pretty vertical stripes thingy happening on my screen - however I think my stripes are a different, yet perfect, alien species. Reason? They're absolutely symmetrical from one side of the screen to the other - five red stripes, a gap, five red stripes, a gap etc etc. They're barely noticeable in a window (like this one) but when my screensavers come on, dada the stripes are really obvious.

I'd really appreciate some help thanks people.

[jwboyd]

One of our mottoes here is, "There are no dumb questions." (That said, it's possible that you may run across some dumb answers here depending on who posts!)

Yes, it is possible to reinstall your OS without doing a backup first. But it's really not a good idea.

[dolphin]

I do not have "the" answer for you, but as jwboyd said...there are NO dumb questions on this site. I do agree with him that it is not a good idea to reinstall the OS without doing a backup first.

That said... to TS!!!

[Xairbusdriver]

First of all..Welcome Aboard, fabadekic! You've got a perfectly reasonable question.

You may be able to find some info in the Finder "Help" menu, the info, of course, is about the OS, not really the Finder.

The solution you are looking for, I believe, is called "Archive and Install." It will actually not remove anything but will preserve your old System files in a new folder while installing the new one. Just be sure you do not ask for the "Erase and Install" method.

OS installers would not normally do anything to files in your user folders, anyway. The only things they update/reinstall are System files. The Archive and Install may even leave any prefs/plugins/caches/etc. that many apps need and use. If they are not left as is, they will be moved to the "Removed System" folder along with all the old System files, anyway. You can then manually return them to their proper place in your new System.

Another warning, however, if you are experiencing problems in a particular program, you may only need to reinstall that one app (after moving or renaming any pref files it may have).

I would also second the concerns about making a backup of your data/work before doing his Re-Install. External drives are becoming very low priced, just set aside a few dollars every day for a month and you'll have more than enough to buy one. Your internal drive is too fragile to trust all your work since you bought that computer to not have a continuos back up plan.

Perhaps you could answer a question from "us," however. Why do you want to make the install without making a backup?
Do you have a regular back up plan?

[tacit]

Why don't you want to do a backup? An iron-clad rule of computers, as immutable and universal as the law of gravity, is this: If you do not make backups, you ABSOLUTELY WILL lose all your data. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but some day.

If you do not keep backups, you do not own your files. You are just leasing them from Fate.

Doing an "Archive and Install" will not touch your data. However, from the sound of it, it may not fix your problem either. Weird display glitches like the one you describe often indicate a hardware problem, not a software problem.

[krissel]

It does sound more like hardware than software but try a few things first before you look for repair shops.


Change the resolution of the screen.
Change the setting from millions to thousands (or reverse)
Create a new user and see if it still happens.
Start up in Safe Mode and monitor:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107393

Do a power manager reset which will reset the NVRAM:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=14449

Some of these may temporarily 'fix' the situation (or not).

An Archive and Install is generally a fairly safe action BUT, as Tacit indicates, if anything might go wrong, it will. Even if you can just spring for an inexpensive external hard drive you will feel so much better knowing you have a backup.

Archive and install:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107120

OH, and to TS!

[fabadelic]

 Thanks for all the helpful replies people. As an( add-on I forgot to say yes I initially did a par for the course Safe boot but that didn't change anything either. I will try all your other suggestions asap. Maybe I'm a weirdo but I find all Help(s) incredibly difficult to decipher, as if they're created in Eskimo then translated into sign language and then translated into English!

My inquiry about backing up or not backing up was to fill a void of information. In all my meanderings in and out of Mac forums only one 'poster' in one (ancient) topic on one site (totally irrelevant to my problem btw) ever mentioned that reinstalling wouldn't touch personal files. Like I said, it may seem a dumb question but now I know the answer. No you DON'T have to back up, but it's advisable.

Btw I was ever so slightly misleading with my description of the charming vertical stripes. There are actually sets of eight one pixel stripes (not 5) at even intervals, and depending on the background (remembering that they show up on screensavers) they may indeed sometimes be yellow as opposed to red.

[Paddy]

Fabadelic, I really wish that an OS reinstall would solve your problem, but having just read this thread on the Apple forums - with 231 posts (!), methinks you've got a hardware problem, and unfortunately a problem that seems to have occurred all too frequently with the 17" Powerbooks. Have you called Apple? I realize that it's out of warranty, but still worth a try. Does your PB fall in the same sequence of serial numbers mentioned in the thread?

Unfortunately, if you read through the thread, the parts required to actually fix the problem are not readily available and the general procedure is to replace the entire LCD. Not a cheap thing to do.

[Gregg]

to TS, fab. I bet I can ask (and have asked) a "dumber" question than that!

I've never had a problem with my files after doing a complete reinstallation of the OS. But, I did have the files backed up. How many files? How much "space" to they take up? If you don't have backup software, you probably should get it. But, if you have access to a flash drive that will hold your files, you could use that as insurance until you know your files are ok, then erase them from the flash drive.