Upgrade A Mac

[shanenin]

I just got a job to upgrade a g4 800 mhz imac with a dvd drive. It currently has 10.2.8 . I am ugrading it to 10.4.6. I already added 512mbs of memory to bring it up to 768mbs. I am going to do a clean install. Any hints or pitfalls I should be aware of?

I also told her I would back up her photos and itunes library. I am not sure on the best way to do this, but I will start researching that now.

I am kind of excited to do this. I am completely lost to where things are, but it is interesting :-)

Is iphoto incuded with the basic OS X.4.6 install?

[isteve]

You can do a archive and install that will make a backup of all users data, preferences and settings then rip out the old os and replace it with the new one. When you start up everything should be working with the new os. If there is something missing there is a folder called something like old system that has the original data. If everything is fine the folder can be deleted.

But a good clean install is what I do. I just drag the user folder to a external hard drive and format and install. Then drag the user folder back to the new system. This works great and you have a good backup of everything.

If it's just the data you want and would like to start fresh with everything else just back up the music, picture, documents, movies and anything else you need.

Also I like to do a custom install leave out any language's and printer drivers you don't think you will need.

[shanenin]

I tried a bunch of different time to backup the user directory without luck. I kept geting strange errors about missing files. I used the gui to drag and drop, I used the terminal, I even used windows to try and copy the directory using smb protocol.

By the way, I am not completely certain this imac has firewire. I won't know till I go back to the shop in the morning. Do all 800 mhz g4s have it?

I have not found anything conclusive, is iphoto included with 10.4.6?

[isteve]

All mac have firewire sense the 400mhz imac g3. If the ilife apps came with the imac "I'm sure it did" you can reinstall from the original disk.

To make things easier you may want to just archive and install. This will replace the os completely and keep all the apps and data safe, and it's easy to do.

I know a lot of people like to do clean installs because of disk fragments but the archive and install will put the os all together and os x auto defrages all files under 20mb on the fly.

[isteve]

I just checked I still have my old iLife 06 dvd. If you need it or just want to have a newer version in case she still has 04 or 05 I can send it to you.

I was also just thinking about having trouble moving the user directory. She may have file vault turned on, this is a auto encryption like true-crypt if turned on it may cause errors trying to move it and could cause problems putting the data back on a new os. You can disable File Vault in system preferences > security. Also do a repair permissions just in case you can do it in the terminal or use Disk utility.

[shanenin]

Thanks for all the help :-)