[Christopher McDonell] " Is it really necessary to do a clean install of FCP and/or OS X every single time?"
Yes, but only if you are running FCS, and only if you are on a major revision like FCS2 to FCS3, or Leopard to Snow Leopard.
[Christopher McDonell] "It's time consuming, means I have to dig out all my serials and reinstall every other piece of software, etc."
If you are a professional editor, you should be organized in everything you do, and shouldn't have to dig out anything. And you don't have to reinstall everything, only FCS. You simply drag your old software from your clone to the new drive.
If you are really concerned about time, don't upgrade. FCS is not going to be any better, or faster, and there is always the chance that plugins, driver, etc will not work under a new OS. Just because apple is selling something doesn't mean you have to run out and buy it. Wouldn't it be better to spend that useless upgrade time editing?
[Christopher McDonell] "It's 2012. Sure this isn't just being overly and unnecessarily cautious?"
Without going into the minutia of how FCS and the OS work, I'll instead point out the numerous posts over the years from people that didn't follow this advice in the past and thought all was well because FCS opened, and they were able to do a couple of quick edits and such. Then when they really needed the system to perform with big projects and deadlines they were faced with the beachball, and kernel panic after kernel panic. There have been a few that report cutting corners works, but how trustworthy are their reports? Do we know how hard they push their system, or how many KP's they'll tolerate?
Just because someone upgraded yesterday, and reported all is well, is not the best yardstick to judge by either. How much real stress can the average user put on the system in just a couple of days?
If you are organized and have disc images and all the items you need, this only takes an afternoon. If you corners it is possible to lose much more productive time to to KP's, the beachball or other anomalies. And then when you have had enough, and decide to do the clean install, you have lost more time that if you had just done it right. Not only does this cost you money, but it hurts your reputation. Scheduled maintenance is a normal part of being a business professional, but in the end it's up to you to decide if your the cut corners type of person, or not. If you find that you are, perhaps you should rethink your vocation. I don't want my plumber, mechanic, electrician to cut corners on work I'm paying for, or miss an appointment because the truck broke down from lack of proper maintenance and I bet you wouldn't either.
[Christopher McDonell] "P.S. You can pounce on me all you want. But it needs to be asked. ;)"
Actually, it doesn't need to be asked. There is a search box right at the top of the page. If you searched 'clean install', you would get over 1400 results, going back to at least Tiger installs. This story has been told again, and again. But hey, you did invite us to pounce on you, right?
Scott Sheriff
Director
http://www.sstdigitalmedia.com
http://www.affordabledolly.com
"If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." ---Red Adair
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