iMAC 10.4 to 10.6

[Kimbie]

We have 6 iMac 6.1's running 10.4.11 with 3Gb of ram in each, has a host of designing stuff Quark, CS Suite, fireworks etc

Now they want to upgrade them all to 10.6 and new versions of CS, Quark etc.

Now what is the best way to do this?

I was thinking of clean installing the mac with 10.6 then fresh install of the Apps. Does this sound like the best plan or should I look at an in place upgrade?

Kimbie

 

[kylera]

Putting all legal and technical issues aside (1 copy per machine, making DVD image of Lion, having to upgrade to Snow Leopard to get Lion, etc.), I personally would go for a clean install.

 

[electrolux76]

Here's how I would handle it if all 6 machines are supposed to have the same software:

If you have volume licence #s for your software:
1. Get one machine set up the way you like it, apps and all. (I would do a clean OS install)
2. Attach a second machine that is booted into target disk mode (google it if you don't know) and use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the hard drive to the second machine.
3. Repeat until done.

If you do not have volume licence #s for your software:

1. Install just the OS to your master machine

2. On your master machine before cloning, use disk utility to make disk images of the install disks on the desktop. (if you don't know how, google it) This will be kind of time consuming but will still be much faster than an install from optical disks times 6.

3. Clone to other machines as noted above

4. Run installers from the disk images on your desktop, entering the proper serials on each of your machines once you have finished cloning.

Note: Once you have two machines cloned you can then start doing them 2 at once to save your self some time.

I know this seems like a lot but trust me it'll end up being a lot faster than sitting down in front of 6 separate machine with a pile on install disks