My Leopard install experience

Upgrading to a new version of Mac OX does not have to be traumatic.

There’s One Word to put your mind at rest. No, it’s not “plastics.”

The word is “backup.”

If you are totally backed up, then you’re safe. Granted, it may take a while to get back up if your Leopard install goes sour, but if you’ve got a tested, bootable backup, you’re safe.

Here’s how I did my Leopard install.

1) Diskwarrior! No bad disk directories for me.

2) Carbon Copy Cloner 3.01 to clone my main drive to my backup. Double check to make sure the backup is bootable.

3) Boot off the backup just to make it -does- boot.

4) Remove Unsanity’s Application Enhancer from my main drive.

Read this:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306857

5) Install Leopard. I chose Archive and Install with Preserve Users and Network setting.

6) I then chose to customize the install to save wasting LOTS of disk space. I did not install any other languages (I don’t speak, read of write Serbo-Croation), and picked just the printer drivers for HP and Brother printers. This will save you hundreds of megabytes.

7) Wait. The MacPro has a fast DVD reader; the install took about 20 minutes. The MacBook Pro, with its slower DVD drive took about 30-odd minutes.

8) Test your applications. Check for updates on Versiontracker or Macupdate.

During this entire affair, I had only one problem.

After the install was complete, the MacPro would not boot; it stalled with a the blue screen. I booted with the Option key held down, which allows you to select the boot drive. I chose the drive that I had just updated, and the Mac Pro booted normally.

I suspect the Installer did not correctly reset the Startup Disk setting to the just-updated drive.

After that, be patient while your Spotlight index is updated, then enjoy!

My initial reaction was that my Mac is significantly faster!

9) If you get into a mess you can’t fix, boot from your backup, wipe your Leopard disk, and clone the backup onto your main drive.