Need advice on migrating from 10.4 to 10.6

[admo]

Just picked up 10.6 today, and am ready to update my Mac Pro(2006) which still has 10.4.

I also bought a 1TB drive. So this is what I have:

250 GB internal drive, in two partitions: 32GB for Win XP, and the rest for 10.4
250 GB external drive, in two partitions, one as a clone of the internal mac partition, the other for some extra storage for Windows apps.

I want to install the 1TB drive, and put 10.6 on that fresh, and keep is solely for 10.6. Ideally I'd like to make my current 250GB internal drive dedicated to windows.

I'm a dad, and have limited chunks of time to do all of this, so I'd like to install 10.6 on the 1TB drive, but for now keep everything else the same, and I'd move documents and apps over to the new drive in small chunks to see what I can get rid of and such. Will I still be able to boot into 10.4? I imagine my wife would want to primarily work in that until I can make sure everything is good on the 10.6 side of things.

Will this work? Any tips?

 

[Mugwumper]

Should be fine . . .

Just picked up 10.6 today, and am ready to update my Mac Pro(2006) which still has 10.4.

I also bought a 1TB drive. So this is what I have:

250 GB internal drive, in two partitions: 32GB for Win XP, and the rest for 10.4
250 GB external drive, in two partitions, one as a clone of the internal mac partition, the other for some extra storage for Windows apps.

I want to install the 1TB drive, and put 10.6 on that fresh, and keep is solely for 10.6. Ideally I'd like to make my current 250GB internal drive dedicated to windows.

I'm a dad, and have limited chunks of time to do all of this, so I'd like to install 10.6 on the 1TB drive, but for now keep everything else the same, and I'd move documents and apps over to the new drive in small chunks to see what I can get rid of and such. Will I still be able to boot into 10.4? I imagine my wife would want to primarily work in that until I can make sure everything is good on the 10.6 side of things.

Will this work? Any tips?

I'm assuming you're going to install the 1TB as an internal drive? And I'll
assume this particular drive is compatible with your Mac Pro . . .

If so, then you'd just install 10.6.0/.1 on the 1TB from scratch. This then
leaves you with a 10.6 and a 10.4 disk as Mac OS Startup options.

I'd raise 2 questions: 1) how do you plan to backup this new 1TB drive,
and 2) can you use VMware or Parallels for your XP world, so you don't
have to have a separate partition for it on your 250GB internal? I'd suggest
putting the XP VM on your new, spacious 1TB drive . . . ;^)

Hope this helps . . .

 

[admo]

I'm assuming you're going to install the 1TB as an internal drive? And I'll
assume this particular drive is compatible with your Mac Pro . . .

If so, then you'd just install 10.6.0/.1 on the 1TB from scratch. This then
leaves you with a 10.6 and a 10.4 disk as Mac OS Startup options.

I'd raise 2 questions: 1) how do you plan to backup this new 1TB drive,
and 2) can you use VMware or Parallels for your XP world, so you don't
have to have a separate partition for it on your 250GB internal? I'd suggest
putting the XP VM on your new, spacious 1TB drive . . . ;^)

Hope this helps . . .

It does help. You are correct that the 1TB is an internal drive, and is compatible.

Basically, in the end, I'd like:

250GB internal: Win XP
1TB internal: 10.6
250GB external: backup of 10.6

I'm not too interested in VMware or parallels. I'd like to do away with partitions. I'm not too concerned backing up the XP disc. Eventually, I'll get a 1TB external to back up the mac side once I grow past 250GB.

I suppose my biggest logistical problem is moving all this stuff around, without leaving myself exposed to a large data loss. I think I'll clone my 10.4 drive to the external, and once I'm confident that all is good, I'll move apps over to the 10.6 disk, clone the 10.6 disk to the 250GB internal, then clone it to the 250GB external, then completely wipe the 250GB internal, and reinstall XP from scratch.

 

[Mugwumper]

Seems a bit risky . . .

It does help. You are correct that the 1TB is an internal drive, and is compatible.

Basically, in the end, I'd like:

250GB internal: Win XP
1TB internal: 10.6
250GB external: backup of 10.6

I'm not too interested in VMware or parallels. I'd like to do away with partitions. I'm not too concerned backing up the XP disc. Eventually, I'll get a 1TB external to back up the mac side once I grow past 250GB.

I suppose my biggest logistical problem is moving all this stuff around, without leaving myself exposed to a large data loss. I think I'll clone my 10.4 drive to the external, and once I'm confident that all is good, I'll move apps over to the 10.6 disk, clone the 10.6 disk to the 250GB internal, then clone it to the 250GB external, then completely wipe the 250GB internal, and reinstall XP from scratch.

I suggested VMware or Parallels so you can have XP and 10.x coexist on
the same drive, and neither requires a reboot to get into PC land.

But I'm more concerned about having a 1TB drive backed up by a 250GB.
So let me spend some of your money ;^) - get another 500GB, 750GB or
1TB drive. Make that an internal, and make the 1TB an external drive (you
can get an enclosure) for backups (either Time Machine or SuperDuper).

If you don't want to do that, then make your other 250GB external into an
internal, and put 10.6 on that. Then you can backup both 250GB internals
to the 1TB (still an internal, with 2 or 3 partitions). It's still risky, but it'll do
until you have 2 external drives. I'm making a big assumption you have
enough drive bays to support this approach.

Here's what I have: a 500GB internal that has VMware with both XP Pro and
Win7 VMs. With all my apps, photos, videos, music and the VMs, this only
takes up 350GB (so far). I do a clone backup to an external USB 750GB,
and TimeMachine backups to an external FW800 1.5TB that has 2 partitions
(1TB for TM and 500GB for other "stuff").

Not sure if this will do what you want, but I think it protects you a bit better.

 

[admo]

Thanks. I have 4 internal bays (two are used now). The 250GB external drive is just my backup for now. I do plan on getting second 1TB drive to act as a backup drive. I am quite familiar with adding an enclosure, as I did that with my old laptop drives.

My scare this morning was I opened up the computer and blew out the dust with forced air. Installed the new drive, and booted up again. Monitor dead. Turns on and says no signal. I worried I somehow fried the video card (an aging geforce 7300). Got my old monitor that I still have from when I got my Centris 610 back in 1993. Fired up and worked like a charm. Long story short, the DVI on my monitor stopped working, and may be unrelated to opening up the mac and installing the HD. Hooking up the monitor via VGA works just dandy.

Can't wait to install SL.

Thanks for all your info. It'll be a great reference until I figure out how capacity and how many drives I am going to use. Thanks!