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timinky · Feb 6, 2006, 10:51 AM

Time to finally upgrade a still very reliable Pismo Powerbook. Currently running OS 9.1 with 640mb ram, stock 10g hd. Have a 60g Seagate hd via firewire connected. Which version of OS X would be best for the upgrade: Jaguar, Panther, Tiger? Other World
Computing has all these versions for sale and want to make right choice. Any other hardware/firmware issues I need to consider before upgrading OS? And with my current
set up, could I use the faster Seagate drive to house the new OS and boot from? Any tips
comments appreciated. Thanks!

AndrewEWilson · Feb 6, 2006, 11:42 AM

Why try anything other than the latest, i.e. Tiger. I am running it on a Lombard with no problems.
You will find that the installation takes about 2 GB, as long as you are very selective about which printer drivers to install. So after you decide which drive to put the installation on, make sure you choose the left hand Options button before starting the install, and decide which parts to install at that point.

Since you have the external drive, and presumbaly you have not tried installing and running the newer OS yet, I recommend you start by installing it on the external drive, and learn from there.

Ryknow215 · Feb 6, 2006, 07:14 PM

I've run Panther and Tiger on my Pismo and both have been great. I'd suggest either one but if you don't mind spending the $100 or so, put Tiger on there. It works quite well on the Pismo.

timinky · Feb 7, 2006, 09:54 AM

going to order Tiger plus upgrade ram another 512mb, giving me
1Gb to work with. That too should help I guess. Love this powerbook,
been a true winner for me. thanks for the replies

timinky · Feb 10, 2006, 12:53 PM

so I have OS X Tiger in hand...before I proceed a couple of questions. I've moved some data I want to preserve to the 60gb firewire drive, all data created in a OS 9 environment (i.e., Appleworks, very old version of Address Book). Should I just go ahead and do a complete erase and install on the stock 10GB internal Pismo or put the new OS on the firewire drive. If I chose to put new OS on firewire drive would that need to be wiped clean as well? I have a 266 imac in the house running OS 9, maybe I should move data I want to keep there to be safe. Any advice appreciated before I click in install button here

black bear theory · Feb 10, 2006, 01:07 PM

Originally Posted by timinky

so I have OS X Tiger in hand...before I proceed a couple of questions. I've moved some data I want to preserve to the 60gb firewire drive, all data created in a OS 9 environment (i.e., Appleworks, very old version of Address Book). Should I just go ahead and do a complete erase and install on the stock 10GB internal Pismo or put the new OS on the firewire drive. If I chose to put new OS on firewire drive would that need to be wiped clean as well? I have a 266 imac in the house running OS 9, maybe I should move data I want to keep there to be safe. Any advice appreciated before I click in install button here

if you've moved ALL your data to the firewire drive (and are sure everything you want is there), i would just do an erase and install on your internal drive. the data is easy enough to copy back to your powerbook.

CharlesS · Feb 10, 2006, 01:21 PM

Of course, there's no need to reformat the drive really, as Tiger still uses the same file system that OS 9 did - HFS+. You can just do a normal install and you'll be fine.

discotronic · Feb 10, 2006, 02:51 PM

Originally Posted by CharlesS

Of course, there's no need to reformat the drive really, as Tiger still uses the same file system that OS 9 did - HFS+. You can just do a normal install and you'll be fine.

On top of this you will still be able to boot into OS 9.

olePigeon · Feb 10, 2006, 03:31 PM

Another option is to partition your drive 8GB/2GB. Put OS X on the 8GB and OS 9 on the 2GB. It might run a little smoother than having both OS 9 and OS X on the same partition.

timinky · Feb 10, 2006, 03:47 PM

thanks all for the replies....wish me luck

CharlesS · Feb 10, 2006, 03:57 PM

Originally Posted by olePigeon

Another option is to partition your drive 8GB/2GB. Put OS X on the 8GB and OS 9 on the 2GB. It might run a little smoother than having both OS 9 and OS X on the same partition.

The only real advantage to having OS 9 and OS X on separate partitions is that you can hold down the Option key at boot time to quickly switch between OS 9 and OS X. If you'll be switching a lot, then it makes sense to put them on separate partitions. Otherwise, it doesn't matter a whole lot.