[stephanielamb]

I'm going to do a re-install on my 2 day old Powerbook. (some things are just..eh..and it was suggested to maybe help)


I've never had to do this before, and frankly, i'm pretty naive about this whole process. I'm going to back up all my current files to CD, so then I have the CD that came with the computer.

Do I just boot the computer with the CD in and it takes care of everything?

Also..new Powerbooks come with some goodies. iLife, iWork, idontknow

Is a reinstall going to wipe these, or are they included on the CD since they came on the computer?

Thanks!!


P.S. The more detailed instructions, the better. I reaaaally don't need to screw this up, and i'll be sad if Garageband is gone.

[SMacTech]

Do an archive and install option when you reinstall the OS. You will not lose your installed applications, unless you chose to erase the disk and install everything from scratch.

What is wrong that you feel you need to reinstall the OS, especially after two days? Did you install something that made it go awry ? Did you try a new user account to see how things worked with it?

What OS version are you running?

[OptimusG4]

http://www.apple.com/macosx/upgrade/

Scroll down to the "30 minutes to a new Mac" section and print it out.

[stephanielamb]

Originally Posted by SMacTech

Do an archive and install option when you reinstall the OS. You will not lose your installed applications, unless you chose to erase the disk and install everything from scratch.

What is wrong that you feel you need to reinstall the OS, especially after two days? Did you install something that made it go awry ? Did you try a new user account to see how things worked with it?

What OS version are you running?

Several applications are just not quite working write.. crashing or not running at all. Including iBatt, which my friend swears works in Tiger. It won't even start, and i've tried downloading and installing and restarting several times. I don't really have much else installed on here thus far, so I might just go for the 'erase and install' option.

[CharlesS]

Originally Posted by stephanielamb

Several applications are just not quite working write.. crashing or not running at all. Including iBatt, which my friend swears works in Tiger. It won't even start, and i've tried downloading and installing and restarting several times. I don't really have much else installed on here thus far, so I might just go for the 'erase and install' option.

I'd do an Archive and Install since you are concerned about losing bundled software. If you do an Archive and Install, you won't lose anything that's currently on your drive.

With that said, I'm not sure that I'd reinstall the OS just because some third-party apps aren't working. In particular, this iBatt app doesn't start on my machine either, so I'm inclined to suspect it's a problem with the app and not your OS.

What are the other apps that are having trouble, and what exactly is going wrong with them? If the issue is something simple, it might be to your advantage to try some basic troubleshooting with them rather than spending the time to do a whole reinstall of the OS.

[stephanielamb]

Originally Posted by CharlesS

I'd do an Archive and Install since you are concerned about losing bundled software. If you do an Archive and Install, you won't lose anything that's currently on your drive.

With that said, I'm not sure that I'd reinstall the OS just because some third-party apps aren't working. In particular, this iBatt app doesn't start on my machine either, so I'm inclined to suspect it's a problem with the app and not your OS.

What are the other apps that are having trouble, and what exactly is going wrong with them? If the issue is something simple, it might be to your advantage to try some basic troubleshooting with them rather than spending the time to do a whole reinstall of the OS.

In addition to iBatt, my AOL Instant Messenger isn't working. No big deal, because I can use Adium or iChat, but I don't think it's a buggy program beyond usually even working in Tiger.

Also, this is the biggie. I have this "VPN Cisco Client" that I have to run to access the wireless networks at school. It's having huge issues. Crashing randomly, and then throwing up error boxes when I try to start it.

I actually looked in my PB manual and I see that the reinstall *will* include all of my bundled software. So which reinstall I do will probably be dependent on what kind of destructive mood i'm in..

Troubleshooting may be the less drastic way to do this, but more programs are acting up on here than are working correctly. In another forum someone told me factory installs could be iffy so i'd rather do this now than later.

[msuper69]

Originally Posted by stephanielamb

In addition to iBatt, my AOL Instant Messenger isn't working. No big deal, because I can use Adium or iChat, but I don't think it's a buggy program beyond usually even working in Tiger.

Also, this is the biggie. I have this "VPN Cisco Client" that I have to run to access the wireless networks at school. It's having huge issues. Crashing randomly, and then throwing up error boxes when I try to start it.

I actually looked in my PB manual and I see that the reinstall *will* include all of my bundled software. So which reinstall I do will probably be dependent on what kind of destructive mood i'm in..

Troubleshooting may be the less drastic way to do this, but more programs are acting up on here than are working correctly. In another forum someone told me factory installs could be iffy so i'd rather do this now than later.

Every program you mentioned is a 3rd party (non-Apple) application. If the Apple supplied programs are working ok and you're not having any other problems, I don't think a re-install is going to make any difference. You need to see if there are Tiger upgrades for those apps; I know that the Cisco VPN client did not initially work with Tiger but I can't recall if there was an update yet.

[CharlesS]

Originally Posted by stephanielamb

In addition to iBatt, my AOL Instant Messenger isn't working. No big deal, because I can use Adium or iChat, but I don't think it's a buggy program beyond usually even working in Tiger.

I hate the description "It's not working." Exactly what is it doing that is different than what you expect, and exactly what do you do that makes it do that?

Also, have you tried using the latest version of AIM? I never use that app, so I don't know if older versions are incompatible with Tiger or not, but why not give it a try?

Also, this is the biggie. I have this "VPN Cisco Client" that I have to run to access the wireless networks at school. It's having huge issues. Crashing randomly, and then throwing up error boxes when I try to start it.

Older versions of the Cisco VPN client do seem to be incompatible with Tiger, so you'll need to get the Tiger version.

You can download the latest version from here, but you apparently need some sort of login password to the site. In the comments, a few people have posted download links that don't require logins, which seems sort of weird to me - is this legal? I have no idea, but one of the download links is at ucla.edu, which seems like it wouldn't be a h4x0rish site. MacUpdate lists the Cisco VPN client as being free, so who knows.

At any rate, I agree with the previous poster that I wouldn't bother reformatting the hard drive. It will probably only waste your time, as it really doesn't sound like your problems are due to any issue with your OS.