[X-Newbies] Upgrading to Tiger

[Chris Walker]

Hiall,

With the release of 10.4.2 I am ready to upgrade my laptop from its
current 10.3.9.  This recently suffered a serious crash which, although I
have restored it still seems to have left a few peculiarities.  I think
it was my own fault as I tried to delete a file which I didn't realise
was in use at the time.

In view of this, the question is:  do I update, archive and install, or
wipe the disk to zero and reinstall everything - something I'm a bit
reluctant to do unless it is absolutely necessary.  

Archive and install sounds the best compromise, but does this also trash
the prefs, remove any haxies (fruit menu and clear dock) together with
anything else which an application may have installed and which could
have become corrupted.  I'm not clear exactly what archive and install
does/does not do.

Does anyone have any ideas, comments etc?

TIA

cheers,

Chris