[ghporter]

I'm about to upgrade my wife's 800MHz G4 iBook from Panther to Tiger. I'm assuming the Tiger disc will walk me through the process, and I've been told I don't need to do anything special to retain my wife's data or programs.

Is there anything I should know beforehand about how this process will go? Should I be prepared to do anything else? (I'm going to upgrade her to iPhoto 6 as well, and probably a newer version of MS Office, if that matters,)

[C.A.T.S. CEO]

From what I remember from when I upgraded my iMac G5 to Tiger (when it 1st came out) its pretty smooth.

[TETENAL]

The default upgrade (ie. when you don't change any options at all) is a regular update over whatever you already have installed with regards to system, system extensions, applications etc. and which preserves all users and user data. If your wife does not install many hacks or other third party extensions, and the machine runs without issues currently, then this is the way to go. Most users do the upgrade this way.

If the machine currently has some issues, or you are the kind of persons who likes "clean" systems, then you should select the "Archive & Install" option with importing users and user data. This will archive the old system including third party extensions (you can then delete it later), then it will install a absolutely clean new system while keeping users and user data. It also keeps your applications. However you will have to reinstall all third party system extensions (like Flip4Mac for example) and you might have to reinstall some applications if they install parts in the Library folder (probably Adobe apps need to be reinstalled for example to work properly). This is the upgrade option that is recommended the most often in this forum here. Keep in mind that most users here play a lot with their system, so we benefit more from a clean reinstall than a casual user without much third party stuff.

The last option is to make a backup of your users and then format the disk, install the operating system, install your applications, create the users again and import the user data from the backup. This is the most "clean" way to do the upgrade, but it's also the most work, and it's easiest to lose user data. There is little advantage to this over doing an "Archive & Install". Don't bother doing it this way.

[ghporter]

This iBook is something Steve should use in his presentations to show how reliable Macs are! And she says "you're the computer person, you tell me what I need." The only stuff on that computer that isn't pretty much standard is MacJanitor. It's looking like a simple upgrade is the way to go.

If I customize to eliminate languages and/or printers, that shouldn't impact the rest of the installation's smooth flow and preservation of existing files and apps, right?

[TETENAL]

If I remember correctly, you can not uncheck anything from being updated that is already installed in an earlier version. If you want to not install languages and printer drivers to save disk space, you would have to do an Archive & Install. I always install the Gutenprint driver anyway, since it is only a few MB and it's nice to have this driver for almost any printer just in case.

[fisherKing]

you'll be fine minimizing languages, printers.

btw, am going to have to report you to a, ahem, moderator for cross-posting...!

[ghporter]

Not REALLY cross posting. Mainly because I did ask different things in the two forums. But I'm about ready to ask the OS Forum mod to close this one anyway. I did not bother with doing any customization, and just let the upgrade go. It took a while, but it did fine, and my wife is pleased with the results-very pleased, in fact!

Thanks for the help!

[OreoCookie]

It happens … closing.

[Peter]

cross posting doofus.