scottj's Profile

I believe "Archive and Install" should really be a separate next-to-last step, as Apple recommends. Before taking the drastic step of erasing your entire disk and re-installing, you can preserve all your settings and user data by using the "Archive and Install" option (offered when installing on a disk that already has OS X). It simply moves aside the current set of system folders, installs new ones, and voila, you may well be back up and running in much less time than a full install. Very useful if you crash the computer during an OS upgrade (which just happened to me with 10.4.7).