General diagnostics help

I just got Logic Studio and it's big program with lots of parts to it and before I install it I wanted to make sure things are cool with my iMac. It's been crashing a fair amount recently. I called Apple and the girl (really nice) in the general section said it's probably good to take the imac to an apple store or apple authorized tecnhnician (and she gave me several in the area) and have them give it a once over. Then I spoke with a guy in the pro apps department (nasty and bored) who said the thing to do is:

1) Try running disk utility from a system bootup disk (Leopard, wchih I have around here somewhere)
2) Do an Archive and Install from the Leopard Disk (and then get all the updates etc). which will just replace the system, not anything else.
3) Do an erase and install from the Leopard disk, which will mean having to reinstall any third party apps.

Whadaya think?

 

My system currently is Leopard, 10.5.8. Can I do these processes with a Snow Leopard disk? Or should it be the same system I currently have?

 

What if I only have a Snow Leopard Disk, and no Leopard disk? Do it anyway? Or see it I can borrow a Leopard Disk from someone?

 

The only install disks I can find are 10.4.7., and I'm running 10.5.8. Can I do it with those? Or do I need to find Leopard install disks?

 

Someone is sending me a snow leopard disk. But I'm reading that Leopard may be a little more stable with Logic just yet, so I was thinking of staying with Leopard for the moment. The only install disks I can find here are 10.4.7.

 

Found the leopard disk , never mind

 

Now I'm trying to run Disk Utility from the Leopard install disk, but the only thing I can seem to do with it is Archive and Install, or Erase and Install, which is installing the system. Do you know how to just boot up from the install disk and use that system? thanks!

 

Figured it out. I think. There is a Disk Utility on the install disk, and I'm using that now.

 

Yup, that's what I did, thanks. I had a basic Disk Utility question. When I do verify disk permissions, and then repair disk permissions, how do I know if everything's okay? there's generally a long list of files in the scrollable window, some of which say, xxxxx file has been modified and will not be repaired... as well as others. But once I run Repair Disk Permissions, it ends up saying 'Repair Disk Permissions Complete.' Does this mean everything's ok, or does it suggest things are not well, and I should do an Archive and Install?

thanks!

 

Thanks for that, appreciate it. I've installed Logic now and will see how it goes. Fingers crossed!