Spring cleaning, Glasgow photographer.

Spring cleaning, Glasgow photographer.

Spring cleaning, Glasgow photographer.I’m a big fan of doing a clean install on computers every so often. It clears out orphaned files, little glitches and software that you don’t really need. It generally gives you a leaner, faster streamlined machine.

I never store data for longer than a few days on my machines, they are moved to my server where I have a proper archiving system. You’re asking for trouble keeping data on your main day to day working machine. I have my apps on the boot drive as they can be reinstalled easily.

With all my machines running Lion and being happy about their stability, I decided to do a clean install on my MacBook Pro. This is my main working machine on the road so it was crucial I had a few days clear of news jobs so I wasn’t stuck not being able to file.

Lion is download only so you need to burn a boot DVD before you start. So, the MBP has had it’s SSD drive erased, reformatted and a clean install of Lion.

I’ve taken the opportunity to only install apps that I really use, so it’s Photo Mechanic, Photoshop, Launch2Net, Photo Rescue, Shotput Pro and Final Cut Pro. Basically thats all I need on the road.

The machine is leaner and faster, so well worth it. You really don’t need all those programs you downloaded just to play with.

Obviously your mileage may vary, and don’t try this if you aren’t sure what you are doing. The one thing I will say is, make sure your data is backed up. Get a proper backup strategy in place, you’ll thank me for it.