Just installed Leopard ... few questions

The more space the better for Time Machine but at least double of what your internal hard drive is. If you go into System Prefs > Expose & Spaces > Spaces you can change what space an app would be in and one of the options is to have it appear in all spaces. Sorry I couldn't answer your other questions.

"its a teeny bit sluggish but i guess this is just to do with spotlight indexing things and other stuff so it'll buff itself out eventually. probably the reason why this transfer is going so slow as well."


Erase and install is always your best bet, but, archive and install is the next best thing. Spotlight indexing can take a few hours to complete, depending on how many files you've got and the speed of your computer.

"i read that not all things get migrated after the install, what files should i be making sure have been transfered from the previous system to the new?"

Anything in your home folder: pictures, movies, itunes library. You can just move the iPhoto Library folder to Pictures, and the iTunes folder to music, etc. You'll want to reinstall your programs before you do that, though (i.e. iLife, etc.)

"how much space do i need for time machine?"

Generally, it is recommended that you have twice as much space on your backup drive as you have on the primary drive. So, if you have a 150 GB drive on your Mac, a 300 GB partition (or larger) would be ideal.

"my parallels wont work because it cant find a driver... best bet is to reinstall, however i dont know what my serial key is, anyway i can find it? or will it not ask me for it?"

I would reinstall it. Check your email for a serial number, or try emailing the company.

"Anything else i should be watching out for?"

Nothing in particular. If you feel things are not as smooth as you were expecting, you can always do an erase and install. Generally, I would recommend that for all OS X upgrades. Many people will have no problems whatsoever with upgrade or archive and install, but, if you have any, it can end up being a lot more trouble than just doing the full erase and install.

"oh and with spaces, how would i, for instance, get programs like Adium and my Day (from MS Entourage) to follow me round to each space?"

See post above. It's in the Spaces section of "System Preferences".