10.5: clean, archive or upgrade?

Lt Major Burns

Lt Major Burns

"Dicky" Charlteston-Burns
i'd rather just upgrade to 10.5.

but i know that clean is the best way to do these things.... is the upgrade improved in Leopold?
 
I plan on clean installing, even though it is a hassle, its always better in the long run.
 
While in theory, you should be ok to update & install, I will be doing a clean install because I find things build up over the years, and I don't have a lot of extra space on a 60 GB drive.
 
eric2006 said:
While in theory, you should be ok to update & install, I will be doing a clean install because I find things build up over the years, and I don't have a lot of extra space on a 60 GB drive.
Click to expand...

Yep, I had an 80 gig in my iMac G5 and it was hardly enough for 10.4.

Also I thought of another reason, leopard for sure will have some bugs, and clean install will make the risk of having more bugs smaller.
 
If I remember correctly, I upgraded from 10.0 to 10.1 to 10.2, and also from 10.3 to 10.4. I've never had problems.

That said, I will probably do a clean install, because like Eric I have a relatively small HD (40GB), so I'll want to clean out any unnecessary remnants of 10.4 (and 10.3, for that matter). If Leopard's disk requirements are significantly larger than Tiger's, I'll probably need to repartition, too.
 
Well, just because the disc is big, doesn't mean there will be a lot to put on your hard drive, only about 1/4 of the data on the DVD will be put on your computer/
 
MisterMe said:
Well, do it that way. It is how Apple intends for you to install your new OS. This is why Upgrade is the default.
Click to expand...

You are mistaken - where do you get your information from??

Apple does not specify or "intend" for you to do anything of the sort.

The Mac OS X Help Desk Essentials training manual lists the three different
methods to install OS X and the pros and cons of each method,leaving the
decision up to you and your specific needs.


Erase and Install:

Pros - Provides a clean start, allows you to reset your partitions, can install on any partition

Cons - All data on selected partitions will be erased


Update:

Pros - Installer will update Mac OS X 10.x or later, maintaining preferences, fonts,
applications, and files.

Cons - Requires that Mac OS X 10.x or later is installed


Archive and Install:

Pros - Same as update except creates archive of current /System directory and
installs a new /System directory.

Cons - New /System directory will not have any custom files from current /System directory.
 
g/re/p said:
You are mistaken - where do you get your information from??

...
Click to expand...
Oh, come on. You know better than that. Simple upgrade has been the default behavior for every shipping version of the Macintosh System Software, MacOS, or MacOS X. When you insert an install disc and press [enter], it does a simple upgrade. That is the default by definition. This is how it has worked for the 19 years that I have used Macs and the five years of the Mac before that. Perhaps your have been different, but I doubt it.
 
he's right. the default, and obviously preferred way, is upgrade. you have to want a clean/archive and specify it.
 
MisterMe said:
Oh, come on. You know better than that. Simple upgrade has been the default behavior for every shipping version of the Macintosh System Software, MacOS, or MacOS X. When you insert an install disc and press [enter], it does a simple upgrade. That is the default by definition. This is how it has worked for the 19 years that I have used Macs and the five years of the Mac before that. Perhaps your have been different, but I doubt it.
Click to expand...

Is that always the case though? What if the drive was wiped clean or if the drive is a brand new unformatted drive? Does the default end up being the Upgrade option anyway or does it detect for a System folder on the hard drive in order to give you the proper option by default?

I'm asking genuinely because it's been a while since I've done an installation of OS X and I don't remember off hand.
 
As far as I can remember, if you install MacOS X onto a newly formatted drive, it defaults to 'new install'.

If you insert the start up disc on a drive that already contains a version of MacOS X it will offer 'upgrade' as a default option.
 
nixgeek said:
Is that always the case though? ...
Click to expand...
Clearly you cannot upgrade the OS on a clean hard drive because it doesn't exist. The thing that some don't seem to understand is that the Apple OS installers are smart installers. They install only what is needed to bring your old software up to the new OS. Apple also provides the ability to for its installers to perform more radical surgery at the user's request.
 
I'm all for backup, then clean install and bring only back what you really need. :) Like a good spring cleaning.
 
The upgrade route may be the easiest with Leopard. Doing an archive and install doesn't keep any applications and I'm pretty sure that it used to with Tiger. Your applications will be in the previous systems folder and you can just drag them back. This is how it is so far with the beta. I hope they will change it back to how it was where it will leave all your applications where they are.
 
I thought it was the same with Tiger, actually... But I have to admit I've only done it once and it was a long, long time ago. ;) I know reinstallation of apps can be a drag, but I think it's really healthy to _do_ the spring cleaning when moving on to a new OS, because you've quite probably got things installed that you really don't miss when they're gone. And a leaner system is always better, isn't it.
 
^Key word: healthy. You know you should do it. It would most likely free up many gigabytes of space from your machine (even with the Leopard install). I'm all for it (if I can find/borrow an External HDD) :D.
 
External harddrives aren't that expensive anymore, and one of the main reasons you want to upgrade to Leopard should be TimeMachine, which without a backup harddrive doesn't make much sense. :) So go, find a nice harddrive. :)
 
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