eMac Upgrade questions

[LeoTheLion89]

adaptor gender changer

[LeoTheLion89]

why not just upgrade from 10.3.9 to 10.5? why should i choose "Archive & Install"?

[DeltaMac]

It's Leopard.
A simple upgrade with Leopard may change your admin user (even if it's the only user account) to a standard user - which means that you have no permission to install new software, or do anything else that requires admin access - because there is no admin.
It's just a slight glitch - that can create a lot of problems. You will NOT have this problem if you simply choose the option of Archive and Install.
The bottom line is: an Archive and Install assures that the install will have a good result, with very little change, other than your OS X version is now 10.5.something.
The Archive & Install is a very safe one, and won't discard YOUR files and apps.
You will be left with a (very large) folder (Previous System) on your hard drive, which you can trash after your Mac boots successfully. There will be 60 thousand files, or more in that folder (all the old stuff that was replaced during the install), which you can safely trash - be sure to EMPTY the trash, otherwise it still takes up several GB on your hard drive until you do empty the trash. It will take a 10 minutes or more to empty, so don't be too concerned about that....

[LeoTheLion89]

so how would i copy the HDD (EVERYTHING onto a external HDD so i can simply just put the HDD into my iMac and boot up?

[DeltaMac]

That's a simple procedure:
attach your external hard drive.
Open Disk Utility.
click on the Restore tab.
Drag your hard drive (the one you copy from) to the Source window.
drag your destination drive to the Destination window.
Click Restore.
If you have a lot of files/folder, this could take an hour or two.
When that is complete, then your external will be ready to transplant into your old iMac.

[LeoTheLion89]

i got specs from the seller its eMac USB 2.0

[LeoTheLion89]

256mb RAM

[DeltaMac]

256mb RAM

Not with OS X 10.5
Minimum for that is 512 MB, and I advise you to upgrade to as much as you can.
I can offer to help you do that, if you feel so inclined. It's easy to do.

Memory is PC2700 (PC3200 is OK, and probably easier to find) DDR SDRAM.
2 x 1024MB = 2GB maximum for your eMac.

Ah, I see what you want to do!
Good thinking!

Backup (Restore) the internal, which is 10.3.9, eh?
Then, transplant that external to the old iMac
Yes, good idea...

When you upgrade your eMac, and then want to upgrade the RAM - let me know, and I'll help you inspect for possible failures on the logic board. It's very easy to do, when you get access to change out the memory. You can PM me here - or just post back to this thread, I'll watch for that.