Forums | MacLife

Upgrade FAQ:

1. Backup methods outline

How to prepare before backup
ZIP, SIT, DMG

What to backup
any serial numbers you've purchase
keychains in user library
preferences in user library
application support in user library
safari folder in user library
mail folder in user library

Where to backup

CD, DVD, tape, online at Google.

Personally I also keep a hard copy of all codes as well. (You can't trust upgrades especially after that problem with 10.3 deleting stuff randomly.)

What about explaining install options? Clean, Archive and Install, etc.?

Thanks, NAG. Good points. I usually do Archive and Install, but maybe I'll own up to a Clean Install this time out.

I have an external firewire hard drive that I do daily backups to via Retrospect Express, but my plan for Tiger is to clone my main system to the external drive using the "Restore" feature in Disk Utility.  Once I verify that the clone is valid, bootable, and fully functional, I'm going to do a clean install of Tiger on my internal drive.  Since I'm starting from scratch, I'll probably re-format my internal drive and choose the "Zero All Data" option to force the format process to write over the entire surface of  the disk.  This isn't to remove data, but more to do better health check of my hard drive.  One other thing I've been doing for a while now is creating a second small partition on my internal drive for diagnostic purposes so I always have an alternate boot partition containing basic diagnostic tools (DiskWarrior, etc.) even if my external drive is unavailable for some reason.  I do a clean install on that partition and use it only for running those diagnostic tools.  Once Tiger is installed on my main partition, I'm going to be careful that I use the same long and short names for the first account I create (my user account) to help avoid any ownership problems.  I expect the default UID of the first account will continue to be 501, but I'm going to verify that as well.  If it's not, I'll deal with that in whatever way seems most appropriate.  One new feature in Tiger is Access Control Lists for file permissions in addition to the old *NIX user/group/world scheme, but I don't know if it's on by default or if there are any compatibility issues with it.  I'm going to try to learn more about that between now and 4/29 just in case.  I don't expect problems, but one never knows.  Because of the drive format process, this phase will probably take two or three hours, assuming the format goes about an hour (in the past I think it's taken only about 45 minutes).

Once Tiger is installed, I'll reinstall all my apps and copy over my files from the cloned system.  Until I get everything moved over and things all seem to be working, I avoid doing things that would be a problem if it had to be re-done.  For example, I avoid buying songs from iTunes, I'll probably not actually download email right away and use my ISP's web mail instead (though I don't get a lot of important email at home), and I won't create or edit any important documents.  I've found that not all preferences transfer well between systems, so while this can be a bit tedious, it can also avoid odd problems and in the long run leads to a more stable system.  Some apps keep important information in their Preferences files, so having the cloned versions of them allows me to selectively try copying them over and verifying that they work.  I save electronic and printed copies of all my license codes, so I don't need to worry about moving over whatever files they may be stored in.  This phase is the longest one, and can take place over the course of several days depending on the issues that come up with individual applications.  However, since my list of gotta-have apps is relatively small, I can usually live without them for a little while if I have to.

So that's my plan.  Obviously things can come up that will force changes to it, but this is what I'm starting with.

Last edited by djdawson (2005-04-18 8:24 am)

For the curious, here's a follow-up on the topic of the new ACL feature in Tiger.  I found these three sites that talk about file Access Control Lists (see below).  They're actually pretty simple in that they're like per-user extensions of the existing file permission bits, along with a way to set default settings per folder for the files created in that folder.  I don't know what the Tiger interface to ACL might be, but I'd expect it to look very much like the existing "Ownership & Permissions" section of the "Get Info" window for a file or folder, just with more pull-downs for individual user settings.  Anyway, for the underlying concepts I found these pages to be reasonably handy, ranked roughly from most useful to least useful:

http://ezine.daemonnews.org/200310/acl.html

http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/bsd/2003/08 … _acls.html

http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO885 … s-acl.html

Two words: Migration Assistant.

I usually use the yearly $129 upgrade to clean my system out:

backup all your data
reformat your hard drive, using zero all data
install the OS
install all other programs from their original CD's (web downloads I backup on CD)
and finally, restore your data from the backups

This makes sure there are no upgrade problems, and besides, you should really do a clean install one in a while as routine maintenance (Thanks Apple, for giving me an excuse).

jalpuna wrote:

Personally, I'd love to see tips on re-importing data after a backup, reformat and clean install.

OK - here's a first cut at it:

Last edited by djdawson (2005-04-21 9:04 am)

I backed up my most important files and my entire library folder onto my iPod (which will of course be unplugged during the update). I have hard copies of all my serial numbers. Anything I'm forgetting?

-Max (anxiously awaiting UPS truck to bring him stripy goodness)

To backup all my stuff I would first make a dmg image on a lacie drive using carbon copy cloner by bombich. It is a easy and usful way to backup information and create a image. I then would boot from my drive(holding down option at startup for those who didn't know) then i would use system restore to put my image on any computer you wish. If upgrading to tiger and wishing to backup files. I would simple drag my library folder to my lacie drive and save all my install files to the drive as well so in case you lose the programs or notice they dont work right, it will be simpler to install them from the drives then popping in the CD. After I do all that and i get it the way i want it, i then would use carbon copy cloner to make an updated image of tiger to make sure you don't lose anything in the future.

That is a easy solution

Zombie thread?