When leopard hits...

No. Thought it's never a bad idea.

Upgrading your OS is simple. Click install and sit back!

 

Always a good idea to back up your data.
Always a good idea to back up your data.
Always a good idea to back up your data.

OS X installs give you several options, many of which will leave all your files / preferences in place, and does not require a reformat of your hard drive.

 

perhaps with time machine, the first option will be BACK UP! then lets install

 

Yeah, it's not technically a necessity but to be honest, it almost is. I tried upgrading to Tiger without reformatting and ended up going back a month later, reformatting and reinstalling from scratch. I think major OS updates such as this are one time when a reformat and install is a good thing.

 

What disastrous upgrade? I upgraded 11 computers without a single issue. They included PB's, Mini's, iMacs and PM's.

 

when you do reformat, how do you ensure that all of your data and preferences get put back in place after you install

 

It is, actually, in the preview screen shots I've seen of Leopard.

 

if you do a clean install does the install discs of tiger for intel let you reload all the software that originally came on say my macbook?

if so how would i go about putting them on there?

 

Reformat the hard drive before I upgrade to Leopard. This gives me the opportunity to re-evaluate which programs I install so I don't clutter up my hard drive with rarely used apps.

 

That depends how have everything backed up. I actually find it quite therapeutic to reconfigure all my apps and settings manually but some people prefer to just dump their old preferences back in the equivalent spot on the new install. Of course, then you run the risk that the preferences won't be compatible with the newer OS.

In short, I reload my data (music, movies, documents et cetera) from backup and then use .Mac to resync my iCal, Address Book and Mail.

Nah, you have to reload the other software from the bundled discs because they're not included with regular retail versions of the OS. Usually this is simply a case of inserting the disc and doing a custom install of some of the apps but sometimes you need an app like Pacifist to find certain app's installer packages.

 

if apple completely replaces ufs+ with zfs (which they might do) then yes, unless they give the option of either non-destructively converting the user's filesystem from ufs+ to zfs or allowing the user to use ufs+

 

If Leopard fully supports ZFS, I'm 100% backing up my drive and reformatting with ZFS.

 

Just out of interest, what are the main benefits of ZFS?

 

ZFS: Ten reasons to reformat your hard drives

 

A quick search yielded this result: http://www.sun.com/2004-0914/feature/ I think that may be what you're looking for.

Edit: Previous link looks better.

 

Perfect, thanks to both of you. It'll be sad to see fsck go though...

 

Wow.

Technology sometimes gives me goosebumps...

ZFS = one of those times.

 

I always backup and format when installing a new system, just to avoid any possible conflict. It also helps me clean some old files that I no longer need or want.

 

Is this a sign of ZFS in Leopard (Time Machine)?

Do you think this is how Time Machine is going to be implemented?

 

isn't ZFS' snapshot just a better backend for time machine?

 

God, that looks sweet. How likely are we to get ZFS in Leopard?

 

I wouldn't be surprised. I bet at least some part of Time Machine uses ZFS.

 

You install then time machine takes you back in time to the point before the upgrade to back everything up before you install Leopard, genius.