Need Help Moving Up To Mountain Lion And Fresh Installing PT 10.3.2

[NBarnes21]

Hi all,

I've done quite a bit of searching but can't seem to find an answer for my specific question-

I'm going to upgrade to Mountain Lion (currently on latest version of Lion), and update ProTools to 10.3.2 with a fresh install after also doing a completely fresh install of Mountain Lion. I have some questions surrounding this (I've only been a PT user for about a year now and never done this before).

Should I uninstall ProTools prior to backing up my current drive (the one I will be importing data from when I fresh install ML)?? I will be moving all my user info over from the backup drive after clean installing ML and don't want protools to come along since Avid recommends a fresh install for 10.3.2. Also, what will happen with all my plugins? I have the licenses for all of them (besides some waves v9 plugs licensed on my current computer they are all on my iLok) , but have downloaded a number of free plugins that I'd like to keep and not have to hunt down again on the web. What's the easiest way to go about this?

Fresh installing both ML and PT seems like a daunting task, just hoping I can get some guidance through the process. Any help is much appreciated, thanks!

[C]

Only guidance would be a recommendation to NOT user the Migration Assistant to move your user data over. It will take more work but I'd recommend doing it manually. So do your fresh install of ML then mount the clone that you are making and move across files etc.

Also Fresh install is a great time to rebuild your preferences for all your programs and clean out something that may have been causing an issue in the process.

Once you've got everything set up as you like it (not including Pro Tools) then create a new clone which you could then use for 'fresh' installs in the future if necessary.

My 2c worth.

[NBarnes21]

cool, thanks for the info. So when I'm re-installing pro tools should I use the installer disks or download the latest version from the web?

[C]

I'd go with the download from web.

[Chief Technician]

Originally Posted by C

Only guidance would be a recommendation to NOT user the Migration Assistant to move your user data over. It will take more work but I'd recommend doing it manually. So do your fresh install of ML then mount the clone that you are making and move across files etc.

You can do a manual migration if your user ID does not need to be 501.

1. Install Mountain Lion.
2. Go through the Setup Assistant process.
3. Copy your home folder on your clone to the Users folder in Mountain Lion.
4. Create a user with the same short name as the folder you just copied in System Preferences-->Users & Groups.

The system will show a dialog that effectively reads "You specified the name of a user that already has a directory in the Users folder. Do you wish to use this directory as the user's home folder?" The answer is yes.

For those of you wondering, I have done what I just described on AVID Symphony v6.0.3.2 using Mac OS X Lion v10.7.5. Those systems have not had any issues.

Originally Posted by C

Also Fresh install is a great time to rebuild your preferences for all your programs and clean out something that may have been causing an issue in the process.

In that case, copy everything except your Library folder within your home folder while going through the process described above.

Originally Posted by C

Once you've got everything set up as you like it (not including Pro Tools) then create a new clone which you could then use for 'fresh' installs in the future if necessary.

Wait until you know Mountain Lion is working properly unless you have another drive or partition for this clone. You do not want to blow away your pre-Moutain Lion clone and then discover you need to revert. 2 weeks will probably be sufficient for figuring that out.

[Weird Audio]

Originally Posted by NBarnes21

Hi all,

I've done quite a bit of searching but can't seem to find an answer for my specific question-

I'm going to upgrade to Mountain Lion (currently on latest version of Lion), and update ProTools to 10.3.2 with a fresh install after also doing a completely fresh install of Mountain Lion. I have some questions surrounding this (I've only been a PT user for about a year now and never done this before).

If you want a fresh install I think you will need to completely erase you HDrives . Since ML is the operating system you will need to install that first after erasing EVERYTHING. Use 0 write pass or more. Don't use the quick 5 minute erase. This takes a long time but works good. After you have erased everything install ML. Fresh drives with nothing left over in theory .
Do you have the ML dick or usb stick or just the lion to m/lion install .

Originally Posted by NBarnes21

I uninstall ProTools prior to backing up my current drive (the one I will be importing data from when I fresh install ML)?? I will be moving all my user info over from the backup drive after clean installing ML and don't want protools to come along since Avid recommends a fresh install for 10.3.2. Also, what will happen with all my plugins? I have the licenses for all of them (besides some waves v9 plugs licensed on my current computer they are all on my iLok) , but have downloaded a number of free plugins that I'd like to keep and not have to hunt down again on the web. What's the easiest way to go about this?

Assuming you haven't erased all the installers for your plug ins.
Save them all on your external drive in your own install plugins folder.
Use Finder in MAC that will help just enter the plug in you want to find and it should be relatively easy. When you find it drag it to the external drive in a folder for where you can have all your PT installs in the same folder.

Originally Posted by NBarnes21

installing both ML and PT seems like a daunting task, just hoping I can get some guidance through the process. Any help is much appreciated, thanks!

Just do a CLEAN UNINSTALL of PT . SAVE YOUR STUFF YOU DONT WANT ERASED FIRST. After the PT uninstall ,erase everything on your drives, install ML , then install PT first and all your plugs next .Dont install the video option if you don't have external video hardware, Actually pretty easy to do . Just don't forget to save anything you want to keep.
Better still if its your first go at it maybe get a brand new drive so if things go wonky on you you will still have everything. And you won't have to save anything just swap out then old drive for the new , Possibly format and part ion . But its likely it has been formatted already. So when you install its brand new and empty , Install ML and your good to go .
I repeated a few things unintentionally just to fully guide you through the process. Its no big thing at all just effort, give it a try

[C]

Thanks for the clarifications Jonathan!

OP : What he said!

:)

[NBarnes21]

cool, thanks for the replies. Looks like it was a success, although i just did a standard erase of my HD before installing ML fresh on it (hadn't read the most recent post). I will be saving all the .DMG files now, as I had to go through and log in to multiple plugin websites (and remember all the login info) to download them, which was quite time consuming.

I did a clean install of PT and moved over everything I needed from my user folder manually. Took a long time but I think it will be worth it- I realized I hadn't done a clean install of any OS since I got my first Mac 7 years ago! Tons of freed up HD space and the comp seems to run a lot more efficiently.

Thanks again for all the input!

[C]

Great. You might want to take a look at 1Password which will help with the remembering/signing into multiple website thing.

No affiliation other than a very contented user for many years now.

C

[Chief Technician]

Originally Posted by NBarnes21

cool, thanks for the replies. Looks like it was a success, although i just did a standard erase of my HD before installing ML fresh on it (hadn't read the most recent post).

The other poster's recommendation to use a zero-pass erasure would only have done a few things for you:

1. Make the previous data difficult to recover
2. Map out any bad blocks

Unless you are experiencing the SWOD frequently, I wouldn't worry about bad blocks. Even then, the SWOD is not a guarantee that there are bad blocks on a hard drive.