Leopard installation

B

Brasseye

Registered
Hi, this is my first post!
I need some help with my iBook. I have an iBook G4 and a Powerbook G4. The Powerbook runs Leopard but has been damaged and I want to know if I can transfer Leopard from the Powerbook to the iBook. The iBook meets the minimum requirements (933Mhz) 1.5 gig RAM. It runs Tiger at the moment. I don't have a Leopard install disk though. Does anyone know if it can be done from one computer to the other?
 
If you're not concerned about losing any data on your iBook, or you have it all backed up, you can connect the two Macs by FireWire, start up the PowerBook in target disk mode (hod T at startup), and use a utility like Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the PowerBook to the iBook. Since you probably won't be using the PB again, you wouldn't be violating any licensing restrictions by doing this.
 
Yes you can do that just as earthsaver suggested, but you might want to consider a few things.

Tiger, is a very good operating system in itself, some would say probable the best choice for an iBook.
If you have the install discs for Tiger, this is a big asset in case of future problems.

Leopard will run on the iBook, but not as well as Tiger, due to it's extra resource needs, plus, the lack of the install disc will cause problems down the road.

Your choice, have fun...
 
I disagree with jbarley. In my experience, Macs run faster on Leopard than Tiger. If ever you need to repair your system by starting from an install disc, your Tiger discs will be fine for the job.
 
I would somewhat agree with earthsaver, that most recent macs (ones that can handle enough memory), will perform better running Leopard.
But the iBook is limited with it's max 1.25MB memory, not enough to see Leopards potential gains.
This has been my own, real time experience.
 
jbarley said:
But the iBook is limited with it's max 1.25MB memory, not enough to see Leopards potential gains.
Click to expand...

I have to agree here. I've worked on several G4 machines of all kinds with both Tiger and Leopard and most of the G4s lag right down with Leopard as soon as you open up a couple apps because Leopard is so much more RAM hungry than Tiger.

Back on Topic: If you can at least get the PB to boot to target disk mode, then you can connect both machines with firewire and use the Tiger installer to boot the ibook then go to disk utility and do a restore from the PB to the ibook.
 
If that's the case, then I have no further argument for Leopard. Djackmac's suggestion to Restore seems the best choice.
 
Great suggestions from everyone, you're right about the RAM amount. My mistake I was thinking about the Powerbook. I think for now I will stick with Tiger and buy a new Mac.
 
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