Upgrading to Snow Leopard

[smaidment]

Just about to upgrade to Snow Leopard (from Tiger). I have backed up all of my important files using Dropbox. Is this sufficient if I want to just upgrade (rather than clean install), or is it necessary to get hold of an external hard drive and back everything up? I presume most of my applications and software should be downloadable in new formats if the current versions are not compatible with Snow Leopard.

If all fails, will I be able to uninstall Snow Leopard and just revert to Tiger again?

 

[Dave Braine]

It should work ok, but, obviously do a back up first, preferably to an external using something like Carbon Copy Cloner or Superduper

You could do it a couple of ways:

1. Make a bootable backup, then install SL straight on top of Tiger on your Mac. You'll have to update some software and printer drivers afterwards.

2. Make a bootable backup, do a clean install of SL on your Mac, and then use Migration Assistant to transfer everything from the backup.

3. Make a bootable backup, install SL onto that backup on the external drive, play with it, update as required, all the time having your MacBook to work on if you run into problems. When happy just clone the external drive back to your MacBook.

With options 1 and 2 you can revert back to Tiger by just cloning your backup back to your Mac. With option 3 you still have Tiger on your Mac until your happy with SL on the external.

 

[smaidment]

Eek

Please could someone explain this to me in "plain English"? I'm not quite sure what it means to make a "bootable backup". Do I need to buy an external hard-drive in order to do this? And presumably I need to buy Carbon Copy Cloner or Superduper? Are there any other ways of doing this without having to buy these things?

Is it absolutely necessary to make a bootable backup, or is it sufficient just to back up all of the important files (photos, documents etc.)?

What are the chances of things going wrong if I simply just put the CD in and try to upgrade from Tiger to Snow Leopard?

 

[Dave Braine]

I'm not quite sure what it means to make a "bootable backup". Do I need to buy an external hard-drive in order to do this?

A bootable backup is a backup that you can use to start/run your computer on; ie, it will boot up your computer. You will need an external drive that has a capacity at least equal to the amount of information that you have on your Mac.

I take it that you don't have any backup system in place? You should. Your Mac's hard drive will fail one day. If you have a bootable backup and your Mac's hard drive goes kaput, you can run your computer from the backup.

I need to buy Carbon Copy Cloner or Superduper?

You have to buy Superduper. Carbon Copy Cloner used to be free, but now they ask for a donation.
http://www.bombich.com/
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html

Is it absolutely necessary to make a bootable backup

No, but see above.

Are there any other ways of doing this without having to buy these things?

Not if you want a bootable backup.

or is it sufficient just to back up all of the important files (photos, documents etc.)?

That would be the minimum recommendation.

What are the chances of things going wrong if I simply just put the CD in and try to upgrade from Tiger to Snow Leopard?

Very little. I've done it once using Option 3 in my first post, and everything worked fine. All the above is "just in case".