[bgordon]

All,

Question that I should know the answer to, but don't:

1. I have a Powermac G4 MDD with 2 internal drives. The original drive (120GB) is the main drive, so to speak; it currently has OS 10.4.2 on it, an upgrade all the way from 10.2 (i.e., not a fresh install of Tiger). The second drive (also 120GB) is used only as a back up for my iPhoto and iTunes files.

2. I understand that a fresh install of TIger can improve overall performance.

So....

Can I install a fresh version of OS 10.4 on my backup drive and run the computer from that? If I do, will the computer still run the apps found in the old "Applications" folder from the original drive, or do I have to transfer all of the programs (or reinstall) them into the new "Applications" folder on the new (backup) drive? Will this cause any kind of system confusion? And if possible, are there pros or cons to running applications not found on the same drive as the OS?

Hope this wasn't too confusing, thanks in advance -

- bgordon

[CatOne]

Yes, you can install Tiger on the 2nd drive. In fact, this is a very easy way to do a clean install with 2 drives.

You can run most applications from the original drive, but it really depends on the Application (e.g. Adobe Apps like Photoshop you probably can't run, because they rely on some stuff in the boot /Library folder).

You could always use the OS X migration assistant to copy over pretty much *everything* you need when you boot off the new drive... one of the options is "from another drive attached to this system." It's how I migrated from 10.3 to 10.4... my 10.3 drive is still in the system but I haven't booted from it in 3 months

[gooffer]

My 2cts, leave it as is, add some RAM to your machine if you have less then 1 GiG.

Fresh install will only be margial faster I doubt you will notice.

I run all my apps and everything from a different drive then the OS.

So the answer is yes you can install on drive #2, you probably want to move or dd the user from drive 1 to drive 2 to regain all the settings.

Lot's of work very little benefit, get more ram or a faster spinning boot drive.

[bkb]

And I assume you know that you can boot holding Option to select which system to boot into.

[bgordon]

Thanks everyone - exactly the info I was looking for.

I think my backup HD is faster - 7200 v. 5400 - than my original HD, so I may go ahead and try this. And I totally forgot about the migration manager aspect in Tiger. I've got a GB of RAM already in there, and since I'm a hopeless tinkerer, I'll do it.

Thanks again for the advice!

- bgordon