Help! Upgrading from 10.3.9 to 10.4.6!

[omgwut]

Hey guys, quick and easy question for one of you I hope.

I just got an Install DVD for 10.4 Tiger (I know I know, Leopard in four days, blah blah...) and I want to upgrade to it from 10.3.9. Problem is I just don't know which install option to select -- Should I do 'Upgrade' or 'Archive and Install'? I want to save my two user accounts, network settings, and particularly all my files and documents -- And I know that Archive and Install will do this if I select the preserve option. So what's the difference between this and 'Upgrade'? What am I missing by picking one over the other? I'm just confused is all.

Thanks, much love!

 

[djnardu]

Just to be clear, u sure you know Leopard is out in 4 days

 

[omgwut]

Argh, I know I know. No giving me s**t, I'm well aware.

And this is a valid question that applies to Leopard too, so help me now and I'll remember later.

 

[Nick12945]

Yes, the preserve option will keep all of your stuff.

 

[nigrunze]

Upgrade is for a simple upgrade. Self explanatory.

Archive and Install keeps your old installation on the hard drive while installing a new installation which it will boot up to from now on. It's sort of like a clean install but it keeps your stuff.

Note: I've never done an Archive And Install so I don't know what files it keeps and what's removed and the like. All I know for sure is that the old files are put into a folder named "Previous System".

 

[wordmunger]

The main difference between "upgrade" and "archive and install" is that upgrade upgrades the system and erases your old system, while archive and install keeps a copy of the old system.

Both types of installation keep all your files, applications, and preferences intact.

In the past, "archive and install" has been much faster than upgrade (1 hour versus 4 hours), though I don't know about Tiger because I never did that upgrade (bought computer with Tiger pre-installed). But upgrade uses less HD space.

 

[Doctor X]

For What it is Worth from an Idiot:

A few weeks ago, I decided to f-around with a firewall program . . . long-story short I must have removed something my OS X needed. Restarted to find my Mac could not find a system folder? What? Panic'd, I found I could start on my OS 9 partition, and my TechTools "Emergency" partition. All diagnostics worked fine . . . yet my Mac could not recognize my OS X.

Backed up everything that needed backing up . . . blah . . . blah . . . I archive and installed. Took less than an hour. Now, being an idiot, I put in my old OS 10.3 disk rather than 10.4.

Everything worked fine save some programs that liked 10.4. Did the diagnostics and stuff--checked what I replaced . . . blah . . . blah.

So I pulled out my OS 10.4 and upgraded. Worked fine. I did not have to reload any other programs other than plug in a code here and there for Cocktail maybe. It did not take more than an hour either. The longest was the updating over the internet of OS 10.4.

So . . . for what it is worth, upgrading should not be a problem. As always, make sure you back-up what you need--make sure you have your original programs and codes, if necessary--handy.

--J.D.