[G4] Back up G3/G4

[Tony Johansen]

On 21/7/2006 8:37 AM, "Philip J Robar" <philip.robar at gmail.com> wrote:

> 
> For example, say the current release of 10.3 is 10.3.3. It supports
> all Macs of type 1, 2, and 3 so a boot disk containing 10.3.3 can be
> moved to any of these three types of Macs and it will run. You can
> even make an internal disk external or vice versa and it will work.
> Then Apples comes out with the Mac 4 and it comes with OS X 10.3.3
> m4. 10.3.3 m4 has everything that was in 10.3.3 plus some stuff to
> support the new Mac 4's hardware so it will also install and run on
> the Mac 1, 2, or 3 - including moving that disk around between the
> four types. (But, 10.3.3 will not install or run on the Mac 4.)
> 
> Some time later Apples releases OS X 10.3.4. 10.3.4 has some
> combination of bug fixes and new features and all of the new hardware
> support that was added via machine specific releases of 10.3.3 so it
> install and run on any Mac 1, 2, 3, or 4 and you will be able to move
> a 10.3.4 disk between any of these machines and it will work.
> 
> Since 10.3 development has stopped, as long as your G3 has the latest
> version of 10.3.9 installed on it your backup will run on any G4 that
> 10.3 ever supported. (I'm assuming that the 10.3.9 update available
> for download from Apple will at this point have had all the machine
> specific releases of 10.3.9, if there were any, rolled up into it.)

Firstly thank you to Harry John and Phil. I am slowly getting a handle on
this. As both my machines and Harry's all have the same build code I am
assuming that all 10.3.9 is labelled 7W98 and that all computers made during
the time that Panther was available will run this irrespective of processor.

I also presume that any machine made during the time prior to Panther or
subsequently (during Tiger) will not run Panther.

It leads to the question of how can I tell from model numbers when a machine
was made? Important to know if I have to buy a replacement machine to put
the back up onto.

Tony
http://www.tonyjohansen.com
A Life Of Art