help-iMac 333 (revD) upgrade to 10.3?

[elephanttrainer]

I would like to upgrade my aunt's iMac to Panther? Can it handle it?

It is currently running 8.6. Can you upgrade directly to Panther. Will running Panther increase it's performance any, or slow it?

 

[Dont Hurt Me]

load up with memory and watch out for those dam foreign languages, why we need everylanguage in the world in the Os is beyond me . just dont think i need a osx version of chinese. they should default the os to the language of your choice instead of pushing every darn language, even now i am in the middle of this language crap on my wifes machine. all i wanted was english os 10 jag for her but what do i get a million languages and 2 hrs to wait! what a bunch of apple crap!

 

[Horrortaxi]

It will run it just fine provided you have enough RAM. I suggest no less than 256MB. Panther runs a lot faster on that computer than Jaguar did. I assume that if your aunt is still running 8.6 that she's not doing anything cutting edge with the computer so she'll be fine. For email, web browsing, word processing, etc it'll be great. Stay away from Photoshop and iMovie and there will be no complaints.

As for classic support--I think it's going to want 9.2. I have never tried to use a different classic OS with OS X. Can you download upgrades all the way from 8.6 to 9.2? I know you can get from 9.0 to 9.22 for free but 8.6 to 9 was a big jump. Maybe somebody else knows more about this than I do.

 

[Horrortaxi]

If you have at least 256MB RAM then you'll have a good email/web/word processing computer running Panther. It's quicker than Jaguar was but you're still not dealing with a speedy processor. Let's say it would be a good computer for the right person.

 

[eyelikeart]

Please don't post the same thread/question in multiple forums.

 

[elephanttrainer]

thanks Horrotaxi,

Yes, that sounds great. How much hard drive space should she have free? How about a USB external drive, would you have any to recommend to back up here existing files to before I upgrade? I saw a couple less than $100, but don't know about compatibility!

 

[K12MacTech]

Firmware update

In our elementary schools we have iMac 333's running OSX 10.2.6, so you should be able to load Panther. One thing you need to make sure of is that the iMac has the latest firmware upgrade. Search Apple downloads for the latest firmware update for that model. I agree with all the other comments about loading up with RAM - our school machines have 160 (32MB original chip, plus 128MB in expansion slot). Getting to the factory installed RAM chip is a little more difficult, but it is accessible if you know how to get there. You may be better off getting 256MB chip and installing it in the expansion slot, rather than trying to get to the other one as well.

 

[Horrortaxi]

I think that computer has a 6gb hard drive. Panther will take up less than half of that. If there aren't/won't be a lot of big files on the compuer then it's probably fine. Best replacement suggestion is a new hard drive. Get whateve size you like, then partition it and install Panther on a partition less than 8gb in size.

As far as backup is concerned, I wouldn't worry about it unless you're swapping drives. Panther won't touch your old OS. If the Panther install went totally wrong your old OS would not be effected.

With that computer I'd say take what you can get in terms of external storage. You're limited to USB, which is slow and (I've found) unrelaible for transferring lots of data. But it's all you've got so make it work.

Do you have another Mac? If so you could figure something out to back up data. Swap drives from computer to computer, network them and transfer files. A little creativity might do the trick here.