[SteveClark]

G'day all
I am proposing to install Tiger over Panther on my eMac. I've never installed OS X before and would welcome comments and suggestions.
My plan is as follows:
1. Use Carbon Copy to backup my entire system drive (80gb)to an external firewire drive (250gb).
2. Partition my system drive into OS and data partitions
3. Do an clean install of Tiger
4. Copy required files and apps back from the external drive to the system drive
5. Reformat the external drive into a backup partition and a data partition
6. Backup my system drive to the backup partition on the external drive
7. Exhale
Any problems lurking here? What have I forgotten? How big should the OS partition be on my system drive? Does Carbon Copy handle multiple users or will it only copy the active one's files?
I'd appreciate your thoughts.
Cheers
Steve Clark
Hamilton, Victoria, Australia

[macnuke]

1.. good plan
2 waste of time.. OS X does a great job of taking care of your disk. and many apps need to be on the boot volume.. so one day, you will run out of room. and at 80G, that will be sooner than later.
3. that works.. i did Archive&Install under the option tab.. didn't want to redo all my keychain/passwords/prefs/etc. and copy everything back to my boot drive.
4. if you clean install.. that would be a need to do thing. but remember, some apps need to be installed, not copied around. so have your app CD/DVDs around.
5. 1 partition the same size as your boot drive (80).. no smaller and never use it for anything but CCC backup. throw what you want on the rest.
6.makes sense.
7.good plan there too.
m

[car1son]

Carbon Copy Cloner will clone your entire hard disk, all users and everything else. After you do it, make sure you can boot.
Personally, I think you're working too hard. I don't understand this fascination with "Clean install". It seems to me some strange, semi-religious belief that "It's harder, therefore it must be better." I did the simple Upgrade install, worked fine, two different Macs. I installed Panther, Jaguar, and 10.1 exactly that way, too. I've never had any problems with any of them. Besides, what's the worst that could happen? You'd have to erase the disk and do a clean install!
Oh, and one bad thing about "Clean install". The Tiger DVD won't include the extra software that Apple bundles with your eMac. So any extras, such as AppleWorks, iDVD, iLife will be gone.

[doggdamac]

Clean install only gives you a new system folder for the OS that is already installed. You want to "upgrade" from Panther to Tiger, so:
1. Make sure you repair permissions before AND after the clone. If you have DiskWarrior or TectToolPro, run them too. No point in cloning bad/fragmented directories
2. Boot from the cloned OS a few times to make sure it works ok before upgrading the internal drive.
3. Dont waste time partitioning the internal drive, for the reasons already mentioned
4. If you gotta partition, go ahead & do it on the external.
And of course, b r e a t h i n g slowly helps too /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

[gabriel1425]

You don't completely lose your software that came with the eMac. You just have to reinstall them. At least that's what I've had to do with my G5 tower.

[dougster]

-eh M8,
If your eMac is running sweet you could save some time and just do an A & I install + Preserve User settings. Already mentioned, but this would be the same as the older 'Clean Install' method where you get a new System Folder, and a Previous System Folder is left behind to snag prefs, and other settings if needed. This saves you having to re-install all your software again. Then when all runs well...just trash the Previous System Folder. I agree with the others NOT to partition your internal HD, but not a bad idea for the external HD. Just a thought...

[itou]

here's what i'd do.
take your mac to an apple store. book a spot with a mac genius. tell him what you want. have it done whilst you shop. if anything goes wrong, bark like a mad man.
i'm serious. when i upgraded to Tiger with that "upgrade" option, it wiped out my entire iTunes list and most importantly, my Address Book and my all my E-mails. I've vowed never to do it myself again. that way, if anything goes wrong, there's someone to take the heat.
cheers,

[SteveClark]

G'day all
Thanks for all the suggestions. My upgrade (archive and install) went without trouble. OS X Help was missing but easily fixed. I haven't been able to get iSynch working with my Palm Pilot via bluetooth but haven't tried too hard yet either. Our new Lacie Porche 250 gb external drive works as advertised and is now storing regular backups as well as hours of video being edited.
Cheers
Steve