Upgrade Install a bad idea?

I've upgrade/installed 10.5 on 5 machines (PowerBook G4, iMac G5, Intel MacBook (white) and 2 Intel minis) and had no problems other than a few widgets that look weird.

The "blue screen" lasted no more than a couple of minutes on any of the installs.

No issues with any apps I've tried yet, my HP scanner even works!

I would advise running disk utility repair from the 10.5 disk before installing, it found minor problems on 4 of the 5 disks that my Tiger disk didn't.

If, when you clicked on the Instal Mac OS X icon, entered your username/password, clicked on Install, restarting your computer, selecting your language, selecting the Macbook's HD, etc., had the machine restart, went through the welcome opening movie, verified your information, connected to Apple, and continued, then you installed Leopard using the default upgrade previous version option. Calm down and verify this by clicking on the apple icon (screen's top left-hand corner), select About this Mac, and report back with the Version information that shows under Mac OS X.

Thanks...I did everything you wrote up to the welcome opening movie....but maybe i missed that at some frantic moment...About this mac does say: Mac OS X version 10.5 2.16 GH z.........it sounds like you probably know the rest....So does this mean I am now with Leopard? and what did happen to the Tiger stuff? and have I used up all my space? I am still not clicking on anything. Just because...as I said..I am brand new at this... thank you so much for your time and knowledge.

If About this Mac shows Version 10.5, you're running Leopard. All your stuff should still be there—Tiger's is gone, the installer deletes it. Now, your job is to first make a bootable backup/clone to an external, bootable HD, check it out, and then start launching apps to ensure they work as well or better than they did under Tiger. Start with Safari (which I'm assuming you've already done, since you're posting here), your e-mail app, iTunes (if you have downloaded music), and any other Apple apps. Once, ascertaining those are OK, start with the installed 3rd party apps.

Since you're new to this, see these (ignore anything that deals with Windows if it's not applicable):

Switching from Windows to Mac OS X,
Basic Tutorials on using a Mac,
MacFixIt Tutorials, and
MacTips Learning Centre.

Additionally, *Texas Mac Man* recommends:

Quick Assist.
Welcome to the Switch To A Mac Guides, and
A guide for switching to a Mac.

Thanks, I'm going to start playing...i feel a little better...i will get back with you...

I have just erased and installed Leo onto my G4 1.2 MacMini, re-installed my software, and data and it now works very well. Would appear that is your best option for now rather than upgrading. Just make sure you have everything acked up onto external drives or DVD etc before doing so.

Regards,

Andy

Appearances can be wrong. There is no best option. FWIW, the upgrade previous version is the default installation option, as described in http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306517 Note the default section. Further information at http://www.apple.com/support/leopard/install/

When installing, you missed the point to do a clean format install, because that had to be accessed by pressing an OPTIONS button. My view is that, if you're able to do a complete backup of important data (do it anyway), then you could do a clean format/install of Leopard.

The reason I favor this is because of all the problems we're hearing about (and I experienced first hand -- my Mac died too). Hence, even if it is working now, you never know if your previous system data could cause disaster late.

Best time to do a clean install is now.

I just upgraded on an iMac and a MacBook Pro tonite - took a couple of hours, maybe - and did a straight upgrade install and so far... so good.

I, of course, made backups of both in case things went south. But happy to report it's all fine! Really enjoying Leopard so far.

Performed the upgrade install on my MacBook. No muss, no fuss, took all of 40 minutes to complete (I deselected all but the Canon printer drivers).