Powerbook G4 Going Slow, update it and speed it up...

[BinderGang]

I just used Carbon Copy Cloner to backup my G4 PowerBook hard drive.

I'm down to just a few gigs and it's been going really slow. I'm still running 10.3.9 too.

Basically, I want to get this computer running as new with all the necessary updates. It's a 1.33 GHz PowerPC G4 with 768 ram.

Should I reformat the drive and then install a more recent OSX? Any recommendations?

Also, a quick question about my backup. I noticed all the files that are backed up to the external drive are about a gig short from the amount of space used on my Mac's hard drive. Is that right?

I've gotten this far with backing up another drive and my mac's drive to my new external hard drive with all your help, so thanks!

 

[ant-macyourself]

When you say you're "down to just a few gigs" do you mean hard drive space? If that's the case, permanently archiving some of your data to another external drive or buying a larger internal drive would definitely help your speed problems. Generally it's recommended that you keep at least 10-15% of your hard drive's capacity empty. A RAM upgrade would help speed things up a bit too. You'd see a noticeable difference with 1.25GB or 1.5GB.

Update: I just read the posts you made a few weeks ago regarding your situation. If you've already moved everything to another drive and want to keep it there, reformatting your internal drive and starting fresh sounds like a good idea. If you're happy with 10.3, there's no problem staying with that. I would only go to Leopard if you're definitely going to upgrade the RAM too.

 

[BinderGang]

Hey,

Thanks for your help! Yeah, I'm talking about hard drive space when I mention "down to just a few gigs".

You suggested "permanently archiving some of the data to an external drive". Is that the same as what I did with Carbon Copy Cloner? If not, how would I do that?

Also, I was just planning on upgrading to Tiger, as I can't even use my iPhone with 10.3. Is Tiger fine? I believe it requires less than Leopard.

 

[ant-macyourself]

If you plan on keeping everything you backed up using CCC on the external drive and not overwriting it, then yes that's the same as when I recommended permanently archiving it.

You can certainly upgrade to Tiger but if you plan on keeping your Powerbook for a while and putting any money into it, it might be a good investment to get the extra RAM and go to Leopard. Your 768MB is above Leopard's minimum requirement of 512MB anyway... maybe you could try it out and see how it goes first before deciding if you need the RAM.