[G4] installing 10.4

[Al Poulin Lists]

On Mar 26, 2008, at 9:53 PM, aperry at eznet.net wrote:

> Hi, all. I’ve been a subscriber for about a month, and this is my  
> first post. I have a Mac G4 (466 mhz?)  running OS 10.3.9, which has  
> been fine for me; however, I now find I need to run some apps that  
> are not supported, and for which I need 10.4. (TurboTax, for  
> instance) I have a  30GB internal HD almost filled,
>
Aggie:

If this drive has only 10 to 15 percent free space, it is best not to  
do anything new with it, especially with new OS.
> so I installed an 80GB second internal drive. I need to keep OS9/ 
> classic to run an old version of Microsoft Office and other apps no  
> longer available.  I purchased OS 10.4 (Tiger?) and the update  
> 10.4.11. I need to know the order in which I should do things.
>

You purchased an update 10.4.11?  I would go with a free "Combo"  
update, specifically "Mac OS X 10.4.11 Combo Update (PPC)" downloaded  
from the Apple web site, unless you know that your purchase item is  
exactly the same thing.

You have a wide range of options, a lot of good ones and a few bad  
ones.  But you seem to have things well in hand with your system  
configuration.  There is a lot of guidance at:
http://www.apple.com/support/tiger/install/

I went through a similar process for Leopard, and made my own list of  
things to do.
> For instance, should I copy the old internal to the new one and then  
> install the new OS?
>
You can do that, not just copy and drag, but using your SuperDuper.   
But beware of using the "Upgrade" option in going to 10.4 on top of  
10.3, it is not bullet-proof.  It is generally best to use the Archive  
and Install.  Also, just copying OS X applications from the old drive  
to the new one is not bullet proof.  Some OS X applications demand a  
new installation.  And for general good housekeeping, if the number of  
applications permits, I would plan to reinstall as many as I can,  
without copying, on the new drive.  That can eliminate a bunch of  
miscellaneous, now useless software files, but you'd have to reset  
your preferences.  By way of exception to the above, I would go ahead  
and "copy/drag" all the OS 9 System Folder, OS 9 applications, and the  
related data files.  I've had few problems doing that in the past,  
moving from machine to machine and System 7 to OS 8 and then 9; just  
had some old games not running under the newer OSs.
>    What about permissions?
>
Some experts now say that beginning with OS 10.3 and with 10.4, there  
is no need to routinely "Repair Permissions."  Just do it if certain  
applications start behaving badly.  But just yesterday, with a brand  
new Leopard 10.5 on my iBook G4, Repair Permissions gave me a long  
list of file items in my new Epson printer software.  So, just for  
kicks, you might run through the repair permissions routine once or  
twice, even if only for curiosity.
> I don’t know enough to anticipate and avoid problems. (I back up  
> regularly to an external drive using SuperDuper!.)
>
I wish I knew the capacity of your external hard drive.
> Oh, and can I use an external firewire DVD drive to do the install?
>

Yes.  Look for details at Apple's web site or here:
http://www.oreillynet.com/mac/blog/2005/05/the_cats_mustaches_installing.html

If you need to set things up in time for April 15th deadline, the  
simplest thing is to install your 10.4.11 on the 80GB and then install  
your new applications with Tiger.  That leaves things on your 30GB  
untouched for now.  You can easily start up in either 10.3 or 10.4 and  
even OS 9.  You can set up your 10.4 to run Classic off the old drive.

In the long run, you should assess what your hard drive requirements  
will be in a year or so, and after April 15th, you can tailor or  
entirely revamp your system configuration.  If you like the way things  
work with OS 10.4, OS 9, and Classic, you can do without 10.3.

If your external hard drive is 80GB or more, and you can use  
SuperDuper to backup your new hard drive as it fills up, I would make  
the new internal drive my main drive for OS 10.4, OS 9, and for  
Classic, all my applications, and all my data.  After being confident  
that I never again "need" anything from the 30GB drive, I would  
reformat it, making it fresh, and resolving any budding disk  
problems.   You now have a choice of making it a second bootable drive  
with OS 10.4.  Even if your external hard drive can boot your machine  
and run your applications, performance should be better from the  
internal drive.  Or, you can use the 30GB for safeguarding/backup of  
your most critical data.

Good luck,
Al Poulin