[?] Switching from Tiger to Snow Leopard

[pancakeparty]

Hello!

I just ordered the $29 Snow Leopard upgrade disc from Apple, for I heard that it should upgrade a Tiger Mac. I am going to follow the following steps; could you guys make sure what I'm going to do is correct? You know, before I mess up my entire system somehow (I'm not so tech-savvy!)

1. Clean out my system and back it up onto an external HD with a handy program called SilverKeeper
2. Pop in the Snow Leopard DVD and turn off the computer
3. Start the computer in disc mode (don't know how yet)
4. Use Disk Utility to wipe my HD
5. Install Snow Leopard
6. Use Migration Assistant to get my files from the external HD to my MacBook.

I'm running a late-2006 white Intel Core 2 Duo MacBook, if that helps somehow. Thanks!

 

[SomeSwede]

It sounds like a good plan, but you do not have to turn off the Mac. Just reboot and press the C key until you hear that the Mac has started loading the DVD.

 

[HLdan]

It's highly recommended that you reinstall all of your apps manually rather than use migration assistant and dump all your old stuff back on it. People are having issues and blaming SL over it. I did a clean install and manually installed all of my apps and I have no issues whatsoever on all 3 of my Macs.

 

[pancakeparty]

Hmm.. but what if I have programs that I bought with serial codes.. like Photoshop or Finale? If I reinstall them, won't I have to buy the program again?

 

[superakh]

I agree even I am a bit afraid to loose all my music and stuff while backing up and my purchased softwares, hasn't mac developed a way to just migrate your tiger information to snow leopard by a click of a button?

 

[zombitronic]

These might help:

http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/Snow_Leopard_Installation_Instructions.pdf

http://www.apple.com/support/snowleopard/#installation

 

[superakh]

thanks that was helpful, will still speak with someone in apple genus support and see what they ahve to say.

 

[flanamac]

It's highly recommended that you reinstall all of your apps manually rather than use migration assistant and dump all your old stuff back on it. People are having issues and blaming SL over it. I did a clean install and manually installed all of my apps and I have no issues whatsoever on all 3 of my Macs.

I did this exact thing this past weekend. No problems.

I have Photoshop CS4 extended and Lightroom, etc.... I understand the problems here; however, you should always keep a written log of all your codes to all your important programs in case you have to upload again. What I do is if I have a disk with the program installed, I keep the disk and put a piece of paper with it with all codes I had to enter upon installation and note the type of code (i.e. registration code, access code, permissions code, authentication code, or whatever they are called for your particular application). If I only downloaded the application, then I manually write down the code in my log and keep it with all my computer files and ensure that the email I received (you always get an email with the online download files that has your code) goes into a separate folder in email and I ensure all this is backed up as part of my security protocol.

With regard to Photoshop, there often are brushes, templates, etc... that you might even has paid for. What I was told to do, and have done, is keep all extras in my home folder called "Photoshop extras and stuff" so that when I reinstall Photoshop and go into preferences, I can tell it to look there for all the plugins, etc.... I never have to reinstall all those items because I have them there. I am talking about OnOne plugins, Nik software, etc.... that I have paid for and are a PITA to reinstall. Never again will I have to do this, I hope, using this method of keeping the files away from the Photoshop application and Library areas.

I have a Tiger iMac as well and plan to upgrade the way you are discussing; however, if you want to startup from a disk, just go to System Preferences, choose Startup, and select the disk (you have to have inserted the disk before this step so that it shows as an option in the Startup list). Then, when you are ready, double click the "Install SL" icon from the Disk and when you get the options to the type of installation, just choose erase and install so that it is clean.

I guess my only question is that if you install Snow Leopard over Tiger, then do you automatically get Time Machine, etc.... as comes with Leopard, or is Snow Leopard just an overlay OS?