Install Mavericks OS X from scratch. "Clean" installation with Usb

     With the advent of the new desktop operating system Apple, OS X 10.9 Mavericks it is normal that we face the dilemma of directly updating our Mac or carry out a clean installation, from scratch. Personally, from OS X Lion I always install from scratch, even when we've already had a couple of updates to the same operating system, I usually repeat the process. The reason is the enormous advantages that this type of installation supposes:

• we will eliminate possible corrupt files, system garbage, etc.

• we will gain space on our hard drive

• and as a consequence, our Mac will flow much lighter, and even more so considering the greater fluidity of OS X Mavericks regarding Lion or Mountain Lion.

     The first thing will be to make a backup with time Machine (It is the most recommended for its perfect integration with Mac but you can also use any other that you are used to) for, once installed Mavericks, dump that backup and let our Mac It remains just as we had it before, as well as download the installer from OS X from the Mac App Store.

     Once this is done, we will follow two steps:

1. Creating a bootable USB with the new operating system

2. Installing OS X Mavericks from created USB (and optionally dump of our Time Machine backup)

Creating an installation USB with OS X Mavericks.

1. We open the Applications folder and, on the installer icon OS X Mavericks, we show the contents of the package by right clicking on it.

2. We scroll through Contents -> Sharedsupport and drag the InstallESD.dmg image to the desktop

3. We mount the image (double click) and, since we are going to need the hidden files to be visible, we will open the Port and we will execute the following command: defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles True and restart Finder with KillAll Finder. So the hidden files are already visible. Remember to respect capital letters and spaces, essential for the terminal to recognize the commands.

4. Next we drag the file to the desktop BaseSystem.dmg

5. We open Disk utility and we connect the USB memory that must have a minimum capacity of 8GB. We select it in the sidebar, we go to the Delete tab, we format it Mac OS Plus (Journaled) making sure in options that the selected partition is GUID, and we click Delete. We wait for the process to finish, very brief, and we have the USB ready to mount the installer.

6. We select our USB partition in the sidebar, go to the Restore tab and at the source we drag BaseSystem.dmg, and at the destination we drag the partition created on the USB.

7. Once the restoration is finished, a Finder window will open in which we will go to System–> Installation and there we delete the alias “Packages”

8. Now, from the mounted image of InstallESD.dmg (the first one we made) we drag the "Packages" folder to the folder where we delete the alias (it is about replacing one with another). Once the copy of this file is finished we will have our OS X Mavericks USB Installer to start the installation from scratch.

9. To make the hidden files not visible again, we will use the Terminal command defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles False and restart Finder with KillAll Finder.

Install Mavericks OS X from USB created (and optionally dump from our Time Machine backup).

      To carry out the installation we must restart our Mac by holding down the "Alt" key; We will be shown two boot drives, from which we will choose the USB drive that we have created.

The installer will then start. OS X Mavericks. In the Menu Bar we select Utilities -> Disk utility. We will then proceed to erase all the content of the current hard drive from our Mac To do this, we select the partition to delete and click on "delete" within the Delete tab.

      Once all the content of the hard disk of our Mac We only need to install the system and for this we exit Disk Utility and simply follow the steps indicated by the Installer itself. OS X Mavericks.

OPTIONAL: if we want to dump a backup copy of time MachineWe will only have to connect the hard disk that we use for our backup copies and select the copy to dump at the moment in which, during the installation process, we are asked.

If you have any questions or problems, do not hesitate to contact us through the comments.

And if you want to know everything about the news of OS X Mavericks we recommend our series of posts "OS X Mavericks in depth", where we delve into all the features and new functionalities of the new operating system of Apple .

If you also want save space on your Mac, you can check the tutorial "How to take advantage of the reduced capacity of your Mac" where you will learn some "tricks" how to move your libraries from iTunes o iPhoto to a USB memory.