[X4U] clean install

[John Baltutis]

On 10/31/04, spoonbender <chronos326 at earthlink.net> wrote:
>
> Have a question about performing a clean install on my mac. I have a G4
> powermac (2002 quicksilver). I have purchased a new internal harddrive.
> I have my entire system backed up onto an external firewire drive, so
> Im not worried about data loss.

Depends on how you backed up the entire system. How did you back it up? Is
the FWHD system bootable? Did you ensure that it works just like the
original? Why do you want to do a clean install? If the backed up system is
bootable and a reflects the current system, why not just copy it to the new
HD using something such as Carbon Copy Cloner?  (See
<http://www.bombich.com/mactips/image.html> for more details.)

> I have all the panther install discs as
> well. Question is when I install the new drive and boot from the first
> panther install disc and run disk utility to format the drive, do I
> need to use the original 'software restore' discs that came with my mac
> originally ? Or can I just run the install of panther and be good to go?

Depends on what your really trying to accomplish. Are you replacing the
current HD with the new one or are you adding an additional HD?

> Obviously I intend to install a fresh system and then just drag everything
> back over. I guess Im wondering if Im missing anything here or not.

Why? What do you mean by everything? Are you just going to copy the Users
folder? If you mean more than that, then you may be asking for problems.
When you drag stuff, you leave behind a lot of necessary hidden/invisible
components. I think you need to rethink what you're doing and why.