[HM] Upgrading programmes.

[Jim Norman]

Hi Rosemary,

With a Windoze box I'd always start clean - reformat the hard disk 
drive and perform fresh installations for all software; with a 
Macintosh you can use the upgrade route more successfully.

On 30/11/2004, at 5:24 AM, Rosemary Titterington wrote:

> I am probably being dim and have missed reading some instruction ... 
> somewhere.
> I have worked through MacOS from my first LC11 and now on 10.2.8 and 
> have discs ready for
> next system upgrade when some housekeeping on computer is completed.

I assume you are upgrading to Panther, I have recently upgraded from 
10.2.8 to 10.3.5 by doing it as an upgrade with no problems at all, 
though others have not had such an easy upgrade path. A lot depends 
upon what particular software you have installed already (utilities and 
internet tools can be a bit flakey), plus whether or not Panther likes 
the RAM you have installed, for example.

>
> Over the years I have gradually upgraded my Norton Utilities and now 
> on Systemworks 3.0 installed and working. Also other programmes like  
> Photoshop Elements 3.0 as they offer upgrades to X.

I'd recommend that you leave Norton Utilities on the CD, it's a 
resource hog and can cause more problems than it fixes. OS X performs a 
lot of necessary maintenance on start-up, and you have Disk Utilities 
to repair permissions on a routine basis. I'd recommend DiskWarrior 
over Norton any day - it will run from the CD so you don't need to 
install it, probably better if you don't ;-)

>
> Do I have to remove physically or otherwise uninstall previous 
> programmes, or do they dump unnecessary stuff in the trash when 
> upgrading.

The main thing to keep, from my point of view, is the settings from 
Mail, your Bookmarks, the contents of your Documents folder and any 
downloaded software that you really want to keep. Burn to CD or copy to 
an external disk, even iDisk if there isn't too much to copy. Backup 
and iSync are handy here and are part of your .Mac membership.

As far as removing files goes, Mac OS X has always been elegant, you 
just drag the app or the folder to the trash and the OS does the 
necessary clean up in the background - sure beats Windoze uninstaller 
procedure!

> Does  an upgrade just keeping on adding to a programme, so it is 
> better not to trash anything.

Well, yes and no.  Set up properly, the installer package should check 
for potential conflicting apps and settings; it should replace older 
files with newer versions and should do all this without breaking any 
of your previously installed software.  I've had more upgrade problems 
happen with the classic Macintosh systems (I started with a Mac Plus 
running System 6) than with OS X.
>
> Any one able to educate me please.? I had thought of using Spring 
> Cleaning.

Personally, I'd stick with Disk Utilities and let the OS manage itself. 
  You can get rid of stuff in the internet cache and accumulated 
internet debris from the preferences pane of your preferred web 
browser.  If you have Spring Cleaning and are happy using it, then do 
so - if you don't have it, save your money and do the clean up 
manually.
>
> Rosemary
> Rosemary_t at mac.com
>
>
Make use of Backup, iSync and your iDisk; if you have a suitably sized 
external disk drive you can use Carbon Copy Cloner and make a 
completely working copy of your current system that keeps every setting 
and could be swapped into your Mac and it would appear unchanged.  Now 
that's what I call a backup!

Jim