My daughter handed me down her Ibook G4 (late 2004) that came with 10.3 operating system. Believe it or not, this is a step up for me! I'd like to clear it all out, and start clean. Of course, she can't find her install disk. I'm thinking about installing 10.4. I have a 1.2G HD and 512M memory. I also see full installs and upgrades. What do I need? Does a person have to reformat it before installing either? Will either the full install or upgrade automatically clear out the old? There isn't a program already stored in the laptop that will reformat it, is there? Go easy on me, I'm not real savvy with all this.
Upgrade from 10.3 to 10.4 (sad, isn't it?)
- Thread starter KerryM
- Start date
sgould
Registered
You need to find a retail copy of Mac OSX. You can install up to 10.5 (Leopard) on the G4, but you won't be able to go to 10.6 (Snow Leopard) this version needs the Intel chip and won't run on a G4.
Retail discs are black.
Discs that come with the computer are grey, and they won't work on a different model to the one they came with.
YOu may have to scour ebay, Amazon etc. for a black retail copy of the OSX you choose. Apple don't seem to be selling old systems.
I'm running 10.5 on our iBook G4 with no problems. I would recommend that you go for the latest software. It will make things a bit more compatible for a bit longer.
Retail discs are black.
Discs that come with the computer are grey, and they won't work on a different model to the one they came with.
YOu may have to scour ebay, Amazon etc. for a black retail copy of the OSX you choose. Apple don't seem to be selling old systems.
I'm running 10.5 on our iBook G4 with no problems. I would recommend that you go for the latest software. It will make things a bit more compatible for a bit longer.
Your Hard drive cannot be 1.2GB it must surely be bigger.
If yuo click once on the Hd and choose command (apple), and press 'i' it will tell you the HD capacity and whats left.
If it is reading 1.2Gb as FREE it must be nearly full so you mare in danger of it causing problems.
You can upgrade from 10.3 or do a CLEAN install to 10.4 or 10.5 as 'sgould' says but you would be beneficial getting more RAM especially if you choose to got to Leopard 10.5.
If yuo click once on the Hd and choose command (apple), and press 'i' it will tell you the HD capacity and whats left.
If it is reading 1.2Gb as FREE it must be nearly full so you mare in danger of it causing problems.
You can upgrade from 10.3 or do a CLEAN install to 10.4 or 10.5 as 'sgould' says but you would be beneficial getting more RAM especially if you choose to got to Leopard 10.5.
ElDiabloConCaca
U.S.D.A. Prime
Nope.
Your G4 has a PowerPC, RISC-based processor. Mac OS X supported these types of processors all the way up to 10.5, and no farther.
Newer Macs use Intel, CISC-based processors. All Mac OS X versions going forward will support only this processor type, starting with Mac OS X 10.6.
It is impossible to "upgrade" a PowerPC-based Mac to an Intel-based Mac. Your only choice if you want to run the latest-and-greatest version of Mac OS X is to purchase an Intel-based Mac.
Your G4 will be forever stuck with 10.5 or less. That's a pretty good run for a 7-year-old computer!
Your G4 has a PowerPC, RISC-based processor. Mac OS X supported these types of processors all the way up to 10.5, and no farther.
Newer Macs use Intel, CISC-based processors. All Mac OS X versions going forward will support only this processor type, starting with Mac OS X 10.6.
It is impossible to "upgrade" a PowerPC-based Mac to an Intel-based Mac. Your only choice if you want to run the latest-and-greatest version of Mac OS X is to purchase an Intel-based Mac.
Your G4 will be forever stuck with 10.5 or less. That's a pretty good run for a 7-year-old computer!
The easiest way to preserve your files is to simply upgrade to MacOS X 10.5. Periodic backups are recommended standard operating procedure having nothing to do with OS upgrades, per se.
Unless he wants to wipe the drive and start completely clean.
What MisterMe is referring to is to do an archive and install to get to 10.5 and you should be doing a periodic backup of your drive so that worrying about losing files should not be one of your major worries.