Clean instal or Archive?

[scholarlymonk]

I am running a Powerbook G3 500 with 10.2.8 and I am ready to move to Panther. Should I do the clean install or the archive?
And if I archive what files are left over to set up the bookmarks or the keychin, or mail?
and if i clean install, where do these files go on the new system from my back uo of my old Home.
thanks,
monk

[crazzyeddie]

Do an Archive and Install. This saves all of your user data, but gives you a clean install of the system software. It is the best option.

[MacBandit]

Please do a search before posting a new thread.

This thread should answer all your questions.

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=43084

[scholarlymonk]

thanks for the link, I read the majority of the posts. What I unclear about is after I have done a clean install, What files from my old Home or Root level Library will i have to copy over to the new system.
thanks alot,
and i am sorry for the redundancy

[Blue Sky]

After doing an Archive & Install I can't type a lower case letter "a" in my home environment. In the other user's environments I can. Also the cube fast user switching does not work. Any work arounds for these?

After doing the Archive & Install, is there a way to undo the install and revert back to the previous system? I am thinking I may have to do this and reinstall Panther to fix these problems.

[MacBandit]

Originally posted by scholarlymonk
thanks for the link, I read the majority of the posts. What I unclear about is after I have done a clean install, What files from my old Home or Root level Library will i have to copy over to the new system.
thanks alot,
and i am sorry for the redundancy

If you do an archive and install choose not to copy your settings over. Copying settings over is where people go wrong. You might as well be upgrading 10.2 rather then doing a clean install.

So the files you need to copy over is everything that you can't reconfigure on your own. You're mail library, music, documents, etc..

[MacBandit]

Originally posted by Blue Sky
After doing an Archive & Install I can't type a lower case letter "a" in my home environment. In the other user's environments I can. Also the cube fast user switching does not work. Any work arounds for these?

After doing the Archive & Install, is there a way to undo the install and revert back to the previous system? I am thinking I may have to do this and reinstall Panther to fix these problems.

Do another archive and install but don't chose to copy previous settings. You will still have your old previous system folder but there will be a new one labeled with a 1 at the end of it.

Once you have done that reconfigure the system and your apps manually the way you want them to rather than copying your settings over. The only one I make an exception to this is the mail app which there is no real way to backup just the mail so you have to copy the mail library over.

The golden rule to everyone is if you have files on your system that you can't replace and you can't afford to lose then don't upgrade your system until you can back them up. If your data can't fit on CD than an external or an additional internal drive (if you have room for one) is a small price to pay when considering the loss of invaluable data.

[thekaiser]

An iPod is great for lots of data backup. I used mine to backup all my user data since it would not fit on a CD. It is real slick. It would be a good excuse to get an iPod!

[MacBandit]

Originally posted by thekaiser
An iPod is great for lots of data backup. I used mine to backup all my user data since it would not fit on a CD. It is real slick. It would be a good excuse to get an iPod!

I agree totally unless you have room for an internal drive in which case you can get a really nice 160GB 8MB cache 7200RPM internal drive for $100. Having two drives or multiple partitions allows you to clone your system to a safe partition/drive and then completely wipe the one you are going to install on and do a clean install from the ground up without worrying about losing your data. Of course having you data on a separate drive altogether is always the better route. There is always the chance the new system install could damage the hard drives control information and the whole drive could be inaccessible. Without some serious no how or some luck with a good disk utility you would lose all your work on that drive.

[Doctor Q]

The lowercase 'a' problem is caused by the iTunes utility named Synergy. Get the new version at http://synergy.wincent.com/index.html.en and the problem goes away.

[MacBandit]

Originally posted by Doctor Q
The lowercase 'a' problem is caused by the iTunes utility named Synergy. Get the new version at http://synergy.wincent.com/index.html.en and the problem goes away.

Sure is look there the second change in vers. 1.0a says it fixes the A key problem.

http://synergy.wincent.com/history.html

Just goes to show the most compatible innocuous system add-on can cause problems.