I am addicted to the nuke n pave. The procedure in which I erase every last byte from my computer’s hard drive only to restore the necessary applications and data from backup. A tedious chore for most, the nuke n pave has become an obsession in efficiency for me. Instead of taking an entire weekend, I have perfected my nuke n pave from twenty minutes, to just under two hours depending on the size of my backup. The steps to my success are simple.

• Prepare my shelter
• Backup to bunker
• Drop the bomb
• Isolate & Install
• Repopulate the earth

Prepare the Shelter

The best way to avoid nuclear annihilation is to seek refuge in a fallout shelter. Luckily Apple has provided a sturdy Home folder from which I can make the template for my bunker, the external hard drive I use to backup all of my stuff before the blast. All I have to do before backing up is bring everything indoors.

Mac OS X Home Folders come pre constructed with several different rooms Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Library, Music, Movies, Pictures, Public, and Sites. Applications search their corresponding rooms first when looking for associated files, and that is why I like to keep with Apple’s general floor plan. If the pre constructed compartments are not enough to contain my supplies it is always possible to put on an addition. I just make sure anything I add-on stays within the walls of my Home Folder. I wouldn’t want to leave anything out before performing my last backup and dropping the bomb.

One addition I always make to my Home folder is the raising of an applications wing. As the sole user of my computer I can safely move applications that do not require an installer from /Applications to ~/Applications with no ill effect. This reduces the amount of installations I have to make after the radiation clears.

Another consolidation I make prior to backing up is to move application support files like, ColorSync Profiles, Contextual Menus, Fonts, Internet Plug-Ins. Preference Panes, Screen Savers, and Sounds, from /Library to their corresponding locations inside my ~/Library folder. The more of my computer’s configuration I keep at home the less time I have to spend repopulating the earth.

Backup to the Bunker

With all of my files and most of my applications safely tucked away inside my Home Folder is it time to backup to my bunker and take stock of anything I didn’t save before the blast. I use Apple’s Time Machine to backup my home folder to an external hard drive. (Let’s call it Bunker.) Through the Time Machine Preference Pane I exclude all items outside of my Home folder from being backed up, including the invisible system files you wouldn’t normally see. By knowing everything of importance is at home I know exactly what I am leaving behind.

Adobe CS5 Design Standard and Lightroom 3 are the only Applications on my system that require reinstallation. I maintain a list of these application’s serial numbers inside my Mac OS X keychain for safe keeping. I keep the latest installers for these applications on my backup hard drive so that I don’t have to re download them from the web when I am ready to rebuild. System level preferences like Accounts, Energy Saver, MobileMe, and Sharing are the only preference panes that I need to adjust after the fallout.

Some applications and services like Adobe CS5 Design Standard, the iTunes Store, and my Audible account should be deactivated prior to countdown. Upon successful deactivation, and a final Time Machine backup complete it is time for me to drop the bomb.

Drop the Bomb

After shutting down my Mac I disconnect my backup drive for good measure and then restart from my latest system restore media by holding down the option key. (If you nuke n pave as often as I do it might make sense to clone your latest System Restore CD to a external hard drive for faster installs.) Once the machine has booted from my restore media it is time time to select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu and arm the warhead.

Instead of merely formatting my internal hard drive I scorch the earth by dividing it into two parts. The first a 20GB partition will be my “Boot” volume. The remainder, will be my “Users” partition. I name both partitions accordingly, set my format to HFS+ Journaled, and nuke my hard drive. From this point on there is no going back.

Isolate & Install

With the nuke part of my nuke n pave completed it is time to finish my Mac OS X install, restore my files and applications, and pickup the pieces. The operating system install portion of my pave procedure takes me less than 15 minutes when I am installing from a fast external hard drive and deselect the additional languages and printer drivers from the installer configuration screen. The destination of my Mac OS X installation is the 20GB Boot partition I created earlier.

Isolating my operating system from my Users directory is not required. I perform this action looking towards the future. Months, weeks, or days from now when I nuke n pave again I can save myself a lot of time by not having to restore my entire Home folder from backup. Simply formatting the Boot partition, reinstalling Mac OS X and my Adobe applications is often enough to soothe my nuke n pave addiction.

Repopulate the Earth

With Mac OS X installed, Software Updates downloading in the background, and my Adobe applications doing their thing with some fucked up Flash installer it is time to emerge from my bunker and repopulate the earth.

Before planting the seeds of any future populace and restoring my files I make a quick stop to System Preferences to secure my isolation. Here I visit the Accounts Preference Pane, secondary click on my newly created user account, and choose Advanced Options. With only eight keystrokes I complete the separation of System and User by entering /Volumes at the beginning of the Home directory field and reboot after accepting the change. Upon restart, and from this day forward my home directory will appear on its own volume “Users” forever safe from the future bombings of my Boot partition. The temporary home I left behind at /Users can be deleted, I now have a whole partition to call my own.

Reconnecting my Bunker external hard drive I restore my files manually. Opening a window on the left showing my new home folder. and a window on my right showing the contents of my Bunker. I mutinously copy the contents of Desktop on my Bunker to the Desktop in my home folder. I do this for all of the rooms in my Home folder, but place special attention on my Library folder where I copy the internal contents of each sub folder by hand. As I go I weed out any files I choose not to include in my new home, and excludes ill relevant Library directories such as Cache, Logs, and Receipts. With all of the contents of my Bunker carried over to my new home I restart for a second time to invoke the new preferences I have just copied over into my new Library folder.

As my familiar desktop picture returns, and my dock icons appear right where I left them, I know I have successfully survived my own man made destruction. I still have a few Preference Panes to visit (Accounts, Energy Saver, MobileMe, and Sharing), and a few services to activate, but for the most part my work is done. I have survived. In the future this process will be easier as my isolation has obfuscated the need for a mandatory Bunker.

Until the next time the bomb drops.