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Erase vs Archive vs Upgrade

I

ItsAddison

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 25, 2007
22
0
Dallas, TX
I need to fully understand what the differences are here. I'll be getting the $69 education discount on Monday at school. I have alot of music and photos that are my prized files. I currently have everything backed up on a Dell PC via a home network. If I erase and install will I lose all my software such as MS Office 04, Firefox, etc etc? Will I see improved performance with a erase/install? Why would I do archive? Why would I do upgrade?

I guess I just have no clue what the effects of each are.

And I'm running on a 24" iMac/2.16 Ghz/2Gb Ram if it matters at all...
 
ItsAddison said:
If I erase and install will I lose all my software such as MS Office 04, Firefox, etc etc?
Click to expand...
Yes.

Will I see improved performance with a erase/install?
Click to expand...
Not unless you've been having problems with Tiger.

Why would I do archive? Why would I do upgrade?
Click to expand...
I wouldn't really recommend an upgrade, all this does is copy over the Leopard system on top of the existing Tiger one. Archive on the other hand moves the old Tiger system to a different folder before copying itself in. All non-Apple apps (as well as the iWork/iLife ones) are not touched and neither is any of the data in your home directory. Archive also minimises any problems as it's essentially a clean install that does not destroy your data.
 
I did clean install and have been really happy. It is a pain having to set everything back up though...:p
 
Hmm I followed The instruction manual which suggested upgrade...how badly am I fawked now?
 
i wasn't paying attention during install..what i get for rushing, and upgraded. alls working fine for me.
 
noj said:
i wasn't paying attention during install..what i get for rushing, and upgraded. alls working fine for me.
Click to expand...

So upgrade means that you lose gigs due to moving tiger somehwere else? I still don't understand what's so bad about upgrade.
 
I had to use the archive and install to get it to work properly, just upgrade doesn't work. Question, can you delete the previous system folders that is created when done?
 
I think this deserves a little bit more discussion from those that would know. Please educate us in this time of celebration.:) All it takes is one person to adequately explain all this to us/me.
 
I thought edu discounts for Leopard was only like $15 off regular price... did they already decrease, or is your school bookstore sticking with the $69 price even though apple isn't?
 
$69 has always been the *on-campus* student discount (with ID) and I've read other posts by college students on here confirming that. But it also seems that all college campuses have had their shipments delayed until Monday.

I don't want this topic derailed though.
 
Another confusion of mine: Will an erase/install erase all my data files, essentially reformatting the harddrive? Or will it simply erase all software? I like the idea of a clean install, but dislike the idea of setting everything up again.
 
ItsAddison said:
Another confusion of mine: Will an erase/install erase all my data files, essentially reformatting the harddrive? Or will it simply erase all software? I like the idea of a clean install, but dislike the idea of setting everything up again.
Click to expand...
Backup everything before an erase/install. It wipes the drive clean and everything on it then reinstalls just the OS.

Archiving wipes the OS but keeps the files.

Upgrade just installs the new OS on top of the old one.
 
Please forgive my lack of education on this...but I really need to be walked through the process.

How I "back up" everything? Is it dragging every file on my computer onto an external? Or is there an actual backup process? My external firewire harddrive is also formatted to work with PC's (I don't know if that's fully accurate). I can drag files from the external onto my Mac, but it won't let me modify the contents of the harddrive at all. It all works fine in conjunction with my PC which is why I think it is formatted improperly. So given those details, how do I back everything up?

Again, thank you very much for your assistance!:eek:
 
If you do a clean install you have a few options to backup data. You can download everything to DVD's or external hard drives. You only need to back up personal files not programs themselves as you can just reinstall those later.

If you archive and install, you don't need to backup anything, it will save the files for you.

It is always a good idea to backup anyways for safe keeping if something goes horrible wrong.

Archiving is just saving the old system folder. Just grab the files you want to save over to the new folder.
 
I did an Archive & Install, and it kept most of my settings from Tiger. Once I was secure that the 10.5 install went fine, I deleted the "Previous system" folder.
 
If you haven't installed OSX before (which I never had) its easy to miss the Options Button. If you want to Archive and Install or Erase and Install, you need to select the Options Button. The default is Upgrade. If Archive and Install, make sure that the Keep Your Preferences is selected. Mine worked like a charm.



ItsAddison said:
I need to fully understand what the differences are here. I'll be getting the $69 education discount on Monday at school. I have alot of music and photos that are my prized files. I currently have everything backed up on a Dell PC via a home network. If I erase and install will I lose all my software such as MS Office 04, Firefox, etc etc? Will I see improved performance with a erase/install? Why would I do archive? Why would I do upgrade?

I guess I just have no clue what the effects of each are.

And I'm running on a 24" iMac/2.16 Ghz/2Gb Ram if it matters at all...
Click to expand...
 
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