Leopard Upgrade DVD on eBay

[imacericg]

I see lots of eBayers selling their Leopard upgrade DVD and I am thinking of buying one. My question is: Is it a full copy or an "upgrade copy"?

I currently have a PowerBook with 10.4 on it. Will I be able to do a clean install with the upgrade DVD? (will I have to put in my 10.4 disk when installing, like windows upgrade needs)

TIA

 

[admiraldennis]

The Leopard Upgrade DVD will install provided you have a current copy of 10.4 or 10.5 installed on the target computer.

To answer your question: no, you don't need your 10.4 disc, just a pre-installed copy of it.

 

[imacericg]

Thanks, but that answers half my question. Can I do a clean install (format then install) of leopard with an Leopard Upgrade Disk?

Back in the windows days, you could do a clean install with a upgrade disk. When it came time to prove its an upgrade you put in the old windows disk and had it look there, then you took the disk out and put the windows upgrade disk in and continued?

My goal is to do a clean install of Leopard, but if the upgrade disk won't do it, someone tell me!

thanks!

 

[ifonline]

Thanks, but that answers half my question. Can I do a clean install (format then install) of leopard with an Leopard Upgrade Disk?

Back in the windows days, you could do a clean install with a upgrade disk. When it came time to prove its an upgrade you put in the old windows disk and had it look there, then you took the disk out and put the windows upgrade disk in and continued?

My goal is to do a clean install of Leopard, but if the upgrade disk won't do it, someone tell me!

thanks!

Um... wow. Why don't you just go buy a copy of Leopard from Apple? It's really not that expensive, and you don't run the risk of getting a pirated copy. Pretty simple, actually.

 

[Mal]

Thanks, but that answers half my question. Can I do a clean install (format then install) of leopard with an Leopard Upgrade Disk?

Back in the windows days, you could do a clean install with a upgrade disk. When it came time to prove its an upgrade you put in the old windows disk and had it look there, then you took the disk out and put the windows upgrade disk in and continued?

My goal is to do a clean install of Leopard, but if the upgrade disk won't do it, someone tell me!

thanks!

You can do that, but why support all these people selling something they got for free? It's really quite despicable (not to mention against the terms of service, since that copy is licensed to the machine it was sold with, regardless of whether they had to order it with the Up-To-Date program).

jW

 

[crees!]

Thanks, but that answers half my question. Can I do a clean install (format then install) of leopard with an Leopard Upgrade Disk?

No, Tiger must be installed and running on the computer if you're using an "upgrade" disk.

Back in the windows days, you could do a clean install with a upgrade disk. When it came time to prove its an upgrade you put in the old windows disk and had it look there, then you took the disk out and put the windows upgrade disk in and continued?

My goal is to do a clean install of Leopard, but if the upgrade disk won't do it, someone tell me!

thanks!

If you want to do a clean install you need to purchase Leopard. With the upgrades, I believe they are machine specific and only come with new/recent Macs with Tiger installed. So you could not use a Macbook Pro upgrade disk on your Powerbook. My advice, stay away from those upgrade DVD's on eBay and purchase the full blown copy of Leopard wherever you can find it the cheapest.

I have a Powerbook and had bought Leopard directly from Apple online. On that I did a clean install, just because I'm weird like that. On a Macbook Pro and Macbook I just did a straight upgrade and everything is fine on all 3 machines.

So, if you're looking to start fresh and get rid of some of that junk that accumulates over the months, go with a clean install. Otherwise you're best off choosing to upgrade and you'll be running in no time.

 

[HLdan]

My gosh, the utter ignorance on this forum. If people don't know don't make it up. Unlike the restore disc the upgrade discs are NOT computer specific.

Here's what to do. I have the new iMac and it shipped with Tiger. I qualified for the Leopard UTD disc.

It's very easy to do a clean install with UTD since it's exactly the same full OS as buying the retail version, the only difference is it will not install without a copy of OS X installed on your Mac.

Pop in the install disc and click "Install Mac OS X". When the computer reboots to the install screen just go to the menu bar and choose disk utility and highlight the hard drive and select erase. It will erase and reformat your computer. Then click out of it and begin the install. If you accidentally forgot to do something and hit the back button the install disc will check for OS X to be installed and it won't find it since you erased so at this point you would have to pop in Tiger and restore first and start over.
Clean install is the best way and upgrade is the worst way.

 

[OllyW]

No, Tiger must be installed and running on the computer if you're using an "upgrade" disk.



If you want to do a clean install you need to purchase Leopard. With the upgrades, I believe they are machine specific and only come with new/recent Macs with Tiger installed. So you could not use a Macbook Pro upgrade disk on your Powerbook. My advice, stay away from those upgrade DVD's on eBay and purchase the full blown copy of Leopard wherever you can find it the cheapest.

I have a Powerbook and had bought Leopard directly from Apple online. On that I did a clean install, just because I'm weird like that. On a Macbook Pro and Macbook I just did a straight upgrade and everything is fine on all 3 machines.

So, if you're looking to start fresh and get rid of some of that junk that accumulates over the months, go with a clean install. Otherwise you're best off choosing to upgrade and you'll be running in no time.

You are actually totally wrong. It is possible to do a clean install with the upgrade disc. And it is not specific to the computer it was supplied with as all new Macs came with the exact same drop in DVD.

The only difference from the retail disc is Tiger (or Leopard) needs to be loaded when you boot to the upgrade DVD. Once the previous operating system has been detected, you have exactly the same install options as the retail disc.

 

[imacericg]

Thanks everyone! I have decided to just get the full copy from Amazon.

 

[ifonline]

Thanks everyone! I have decided to just get the full copy from Amazon.

Good choice.