what folders to delete in botched SL install before reinstalling SL or Leopard?

[dawntodon]

So after hours spent trying to find out why my screen no longer shows the proper image but instead flashes instantly from grey to black, I've decided to reinstall the OS. The thing is, I don't have anything to back up my precious data onto and would like to reinstall SL over it. I had already tried removing /System and its subfolders along with /Extra and mach_kernel and /usr and /Library, to name a few folders, only to find that the reinstall of SL behaves identically. I'm wondering if there might be some other folder that I've overlooked and would be very interested in getting rid of this folder or file or folders before I give the ol' SL install another go. Or I may perhaps reinstall Leopard. In which case, I imagine there may still be folders to be removed prior to the reinstall. Any help with this would be much appreciated. Thanks!

[Mac Boy]

Here's what I would do:

 

1. Boot from your DVD

2. Before installing, start the terminal

3. cd /Volumes/MacHD

4. mkdir 1

5. mv * 1

 

Now your entire drive has been moved to a directory named 1. Exit the terminal and install. If everything works, you can retrieve your data from 1/Users/.

[MacUser2525]

Here's what I would do:

 

1. Boot from your DVD

2. Before installing, start the terminal

3. cd /Volumes/MacHD

4. mkdir 1

5. mv * 1

 

Now your entire drive has been moved to a directory named 1. Exit the terminal and install. If everything works, you can retrieve your data from 1/Users/.

 

Even better use mv /Volumes/MacHD/Users 1/ thus only saving the data that is needed from the user account then rm -r every directory except the 1 that was created to save the data and whatever the OP does do not format before install or all the data will be lost.