Powerbook upgrade questions

[redmac]

I decided to upgrade my last generation 1.67 GHz 15” Powerbook (October 05 model). To do so, I bought a kit from OWC that contains a WD Scorpio 250 GB IDE/ATA hard drive, a Firewire 400 enclosure for 2.5” hard drives and Prosoft Data Backup3 software. I also bought Mac OS X 10.5.6 to finally upgrade to Leopard.

I am currently using a WD MyBook Pro 500GB external HDD to store all my photos, videos and music. I am planning to put my media files back in the computer after changing the internal HD and to use the MyBook Pro as a backup drive. Also, after upgrading to Leopard I want to keep the option of switching back to Tiger if something goes wrong.

So my plan is as follows:

I am going to use the firewire enclosure to make an exact copy of my Powerbook’s HD using the Data Backup software and switch the hard drives. Then I am going to install Leopard and transfer all my media to the PB. The last step will be to make backups on my current external HD using Prosoft Backup3 (for exact copies of my important files) and Time Machine (system backups).

Here are my questions about the whole process:

Currently I have MS Office and Adobe CS2 installed on my computer with no installation disks (they were licensed to me through my ex employer). Do you think I may lose them by using Prosoft or while installing Leopard? Will I need any passwords, serial numbers etc?

As I mentioned before, I want to keep my current internal HD for a while as a backup drive just in case I want to switch back to Tiger. So, I will only have one external drive left for Prosoft backups and Time Machine. Will I be able to use WD MyBookPro for both programs at the same time wirelessly?

For your information, my external HD is connected to a last generation Airport Extreme Base Station.

Thanks

 

[California]

I would make a disk utility clone of your hard drive through the firewire external enclosure. I have never used carbon copy cloner in my whole Mac life, only the basic disk utility.

You might want to first upgrade to leopard and I presume you have the max two gigs of ram installed?

If you make a disk utility clone of your original hard drive and use it in that same powerbook, I think you will preserve your Photoshop settings but I cannot be 100 percent sure. I cloned a hard drive thru disk utility this way and was able to save Photoshop on the new hard drive, but I am a special case, I have never actually used PS. I do know it was working, however, without serial numbers.

 

[redmac]

After asking the same questions at apple support forum, I learned that I won't be able to upgrade to Leopard and keep the installed MS and Adobe software.

I guess I need to return the Leopard disk to Amazon and stick with Tiger for my Powerbook. On the other hand I still don't know if I will be able to change the hard disk and keep using the MS Office and Adobe CS2 Suite.

 

[California]

After asking the same questions at apple support forum, I learned that I won't be able to upgrade to Leopard and keep the installed MS and Adobe software.

I guess I need to return the Leopard disk to Amazon and stick with Tiger for my Powerbook. On the other hand I still don't know if I will be able to change the hard disk and keep using the MS Office and Adobe CS2 Suite.

Office will still work fine, I am not sure if this is actually true about the CS2 as I recall upgrading to Leopard without losing the CS2 on the cloned drive.

 

[redmac]

Office will still work fine, I am not sure if this is actually true about the CS2 as I recall upgrading to Leopard without losing the CS2 on the cloned drive.

I am not sure if I can start those programs once I change the HD since I don't have serial numbers for them.

I learned that I will need serial numbers if I upgrade to Leopard but I don't know about what is going to happen if I simply clone the old HD to the new one, swich them and keep using Tiger on my computer.

 

[California]

I am not sure if I can start those programs once I change the HD since I don't have serial numbers for them.

I learned that I will need serial numbers if I upgrade to Leopard but I don't know about what is going to happen if I simply clone the old HD to the new one, swich them and keep using Tiger on my computer.

I have office mac 2004 and original 2001 for OSX Office.

Never had a problem with the upgrade on a hard drive once it is cloned and you are corresponding with someone who, literally has owned upwards of 30 macs. I get bored and buy new ones truly once every six months.

Just try it. If it doesn't work on the CS2, boot off the hard drive in a firewire enclosure.

Did you answer my question about maxed ram?

 

[redmac]

I have office mac 2004 and original 2001 for OSX Office.

Never had a problem with the upgrade on a hard drive once it is cloned and you are corresponding with someone who, literally has owned upwards of 30 macs. I get bored and buy new ones truly once every six months.

Just try it. If it doesn't work on the CS2, boot off the hard drive in a firewire enclosure.

Did you answer my question about maxed ram?

Thanks for the answers. I am going to change the HDD tonight. I read a lot about how to do it but I'm still a little nervous since it's going to be my first time Hopefully I won't need any further help during or after the process.

By the way, I installed 2 GB ram about 2 years ago.

Thanks again.

 

[redmac]

I tried to clone the HDD last night using Prosoft Data Backup3 software that came with the HD/enclosure package. Everything looked fine at the end, but this morning, when I tried to boot up the computer using the attached external drive, it never started up. I guess I did something wrong. I think I better format the new drive again tonight and use Carbon Copy Cloner this time.