Seeking Advice on Clean Install

[Rick Cornish]

Hi folks......
I'm planning on upgrading my late-2013 Mac Pro from El Cap to Sierra. I haven't done a clean system install since I got this machine, so it's time.

I've built a boot drive to install Sierra… but before I do, I'm wondering if there are any re-installs or (re-) authorizations that are tricky or I should be concerned about. (i.e. are there some I should DE-install or DE-authorize before wiping my HD?)

I'm running....
• DP 9.12
• Spectrasonics VIs (Omnisphere 2.x, Trillian, Stylus RMX)
• NI Komplete 10 (not ultimate)
• MachFive 3 v3.2.1
• East-West Play 5.0
• XLN Audio Addictive Keys
• UVI Workstation
• Papen Punch BD
• Waves Electric 200 & Electric Grand
• Plug-ins (too many to list) include Waves 9, Brainworx, Wavesfactory, Vengeance, PSP, UVI, NI, Valhalla DSP, Eventide, Lexicon, Stilwell Audio, iZotope, and others
• I have an iLok account and have some iLok plugs registered to the physical USB key and others registered to my HD

I also am running Finale 2014.5 and Avid MediaComposer on this machine.

Any suggestions welcome. Thanks.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

In my experience, if the installs are going to transfer they are going to transfer. If not, only a handful will require reauthorization. Warning: some authorization software may not run on Sierra, so if you remove the authorization and can't then run the authorization app, you're screwed.

I would just do the clean install and deal with the authorizations on a need-to-reauthorize basis. Someone is about to post that I am wrong. Will ignore them. LOL

I've been there before and will be doing the same thing in a few months, updating all my HDs to 4TB spinners (except the boot drive, which is a proprietary SSD and damn expensive to replace/upgrade.

They don't call it a trash can for nothing!

[mikehalloran]

1) Deauthorize any internet authorizations that let you do so. For me that would be Finale, Final Draft and Masterwriter 2. This is not an issue with DP 8 or 9.

iLok authorizations aren't an issue, likewise any that authorize on the machine. As for the rest, I never find it a problem—take them one at a time. Isotope, PSP etc. simply meant another trip to the web site where I downloaded the license files again. Wasn't a problem. The NI authorization manager shouldn't give you grief, either.

I don't believe in clean installs and normally use Migration Assistant to pull everything over. Still do step (1).

If you are still using certain old applications such as DP 7.24, Office 2008 and certain Adobe products, then Migration Assistant is the only way to get them to work on your new system since the installers no longer work correctly—and haven't in awhile—but pulling them from your old Mac or a Time Machine backup works.

It wasn't a bad idea when I was forced to do one in 2014 since I hadn't done one in over 20 years. There was a ton of PPC crap to remove. If you did one in 2013, I don't see any real benefit. It will take a long time, however.

[Rick Cornish]

1) Deauthorize any internet authorizations that let you do so. For me that would be Finale, Final Draft and Masterwriter 2. This is not an issue with DP 8 or 9.

iLok authorizations aren't an issue, likewise any that authorize on the machine. As for the rest, I never find it a problem—take them one at a time. Isotope, PSP etc. simply meant another trip to the web site where I downloaded the license files again. Wasn't a problem. The NI authorization manager shouldn't give you grief, either.

I don't believe in clean installs and normally use Migration Assistant to pull everything over. Still do step (1).

If you are still using certain old applications such as DP 7.24, Office 2008 and certain Adobe products, then Migration Assistant is the only way to get them to work on your new system since the installers no longer work correctly—and haven't in awhile—but pulling them from your old Mac or a Time Machine backup works.

It wasn't a bad idea when I was forced to do one in 2014 since I hadn't done one in over 20 years. There was a ton of PPC crap to remove. If you did one in 2013, I don't see any real benefit. It will take a long time, however.

Thanks for the sage advice, Mike. I will look into migration assistant. Two things I neglected to mention:
1. All my VI sample files are on external SSDs, so I don't plan to re-install them.
2. I have had some persistent oddities in DP (bypass automation disappearing from random plug-ins, that sort of thing). MOTU tech support recommended I rebuild my user account and, once I started doing that, a clean install seemed like not much more effort for a better result.

I understand it will take days and plan to wait until after my current projects have all been approved and closed.

Thanks again......

[HCMarkus]

I was very pleasantly surprised when a simple OS update from Mountain Lion to Sierra worked without apparent issue on my studio Mac. You might give it a try Rick; worst case is it doesn't work and you then spend the time you will be spending doing a clean install. If all goes well, well... happiness!

[Rick Cornish]

I was very pleasantly surprised when a simple OS update from Mountain Lion to Sierra worked without apparent issue on my studio Mac. You might give it a try Rick; worst case is it doesn't work and you then spend the time you will be spending doing a clean install. If all goes well, well... happiness!

Thanks for the suggestion. I'm tempted to try it.

[HCMarkus]

I was very pleasantly surprised when a simple OS update from Mountain Lion to Sierra worked without apparent issue on my studio Mac. You might give it a try Rick; worst case is it doesn't work and you then spend the time you will be spending doing a clean install. If all goes well, well... happiness!

Thanks for the suggestion. I'm tempted to try it.

Clone your good system drive first for safety. To keep my concerns (possibly aka "paranoia") at bay, I first cloned my known good drive too a second drive, then updated the clone and tested how DP ran. Only when all seemed well did I update my actual system drive, but only after re-cloning it in its original state to the second drive just in case.