Leopard upgrade options

H

hexstar

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I haven't done a Mac OS X update install, it sounds like Leopard will have a Upgrade option in addition to Archive and Install (not sure if the Update option has always been there as I haven't done a upgrade install before), would the Upgrade option be better then a Archive and Install or? Wonder what the difference is...

Thanks!

(options found from http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,138577-c,macos/article.html and article found via google "leopard archive and install")
 
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.


The Update method is convenient, but upgrades tend to be less stable.

If you have an external harddrive to backup all your inpotant data and apps,
i would recommend doing an Erase and Install.

see this thread for a discussion of this already in progress:
http://macosx.com/forums/apple-news-rumors-discussion/295792-10-5-clean-archive-upgrade.html
 
Essentially the difference seems to be that while both in the end move over your accounts and preferences associated with those accounts an Archive and Install archives the system files and installs a fresh copy of system files meanwhile a upgrade simply replaces whatever system files are newer from the installation media and could potentially cause problems as possible system tidbits are left over from the past version of Mac OS X...

So from this at least to me it seems like a archive and install would be a wiser choice in terms of ensuring system stability as although there is still the possibility of incompatible account preferences being kept IMO having incompatible system tidbits left over could be even worse and harder to diagnose...

Any further thoughts? Thanks!

Oh and thanks for that link, very useful :)
__________________
 
It would appear there are already some adverse side effects from Upgrade Installs of 10.5 Leopard -
just as i imagined there would be.

I have a partition already set aside on my external firewire drive for 10.5 - After i have replaced
and/or done any required necessary upgrades to essential applications and see that the OS is
stable and running smoothly, i will transfer the firewire volume to my internal disk and use it as
my full-time OS.
 
I have done a archive and install upgrade from 10.4 to 10.5 without issue (at least that I'm aware of), the only bit being that custom compiled Unix apps such as wine had to be recompiled and reinstalled :)
 
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