Mac OS X Lion: The Missing Manual

The Setup Assistant

What you see depends on whether you installed Lion onto a Snow Leopard drive or an empty drive.

After Installing Over Snow Leopard

If you installed onto a Snow Leopard drive that already had stuff on it—accounts, files, settings, and so on—then after the Mac restarts, all you have to do is log in as usual. Enjoy the box that warns you about Lion’s upside-down scrolling habit (Full Screen Mode, Safari). Click Start Using Lion, and start using Lion.

Note

It’s possible, at this point, that Lion will display a message warning you that it found some incompatible software on your Mac during the installation. You’ll discover that this outdated software has been summarily tossed into a folder called Incompatible Software in your startup disk’s main window.

POWER USERS’ CLINIC: The Clean Install

In all of Mac OS X’s incarnations so far, there were two ways to install Mac OS X: the automatic way and the clean install.

The automatic way preserved everything on your Mac. Every program, setting, and file stayed exactly as you had it. In essence, this kind of installation just worked through your System folder, updating each component and disturbing nothing else.

The clean install was preferred by power users, especially in times of troubleshooting, because it erased your entire hard drive and then installed Mac OS X. Any minor corruptions or ancient software crumbs were swept away, leaving you with a clean, perfect system.

The clean-install option is gone from the Lion installer; ...