Upgrade or Archive and Install????

FWIW, I did the Archive and Install on my wife's MacBook. No problems and I REALLY didn't need to reinstall anything, except for VirusBarrier X4.

So, after checking the Previous System folder and I deleted it.

Message was edited by: Fabian Ramirez

Agreed - many folks report problems with just the upgrade. I tried it on my MacBook with no success; archive/install worked on it as well as my 3 other macs. Go for it and good luck. Just remember to have all of your date backed up before proceeding, just in case.

Archive and Install!
Doing an "Upgrade Install" is just asking for problems.

Also, before you install anything go to the 'Utilities' menu in the Leopard installer and select 'Disk Utility' and in Disk Utility do a Repair Permissions as well as a Repair Disk to make sure your hard drive is in top shape before you throw a new OS onto it.

I tried upgrade on 4 machines, iMac G5, iMac intel, mini G4, and mini intel. Failed on all. Went to archive and install. Worked first time on all. Other hitches...Unplug ALL firewire and USB devices except the keyboard and mouse. Make sure you are using a corded keyboard and mouse, bluetooth fails during install. Had problems with the following non apple apps.. Indigo home automation. Patch for leopard on there web site fixed server problem and also had to to a reinstall of the usb drivers from the original install package.. Parallels will fail. I downloaded the new version 3.0 and installed. fixed that. All apple apps worked, iLife, iWork, Appleworks. Time machine found external firewire drives and did a backup all by itself. Have done 7 machines now. Have three that will not upgrade due to too slow of a processor and two with memory too low. Have three more to go and one I have to wait on because it is running a database server app that has no patch for leopard yet.

The archive is stored on your main HD under the name Previous System, I believe.
It's compressed so it does not take up as much room as it originally did, but all the files are there, intact. If and when you don't want/need them, you can simply trash the archive.

Basically the installer creates a brand new system folder and moves over all your old stuff into it. It then "archives" the old system into a "Previous Systems" folder. After the install is done you can go through the "Previous Systems" folder to make sure nothing was missed, and once you've done that you can delete it. This provides a much cleaner overall install than just doing an "upgrade"

I have upgraded my iMac to Leopard, and ran into problems. I called Apple Tech Support and they told me to re-install as an Archive and Install but not to preserve my user info, etc. I questioned this but was assured I would not lose anything. I did as told and lost everything: my address book, calendar, itunes music, etc. I called back to Apple and sat on hold for another 30 minutes. Someone finally answered and then disconnected me when they went to check something. I called back again and after another 1+ hours am still trying to resolve this with them. I am on hold as I type this.

My fault for going against my instincts and trusting Apple Tech support?

Jay

Does an "Upgrade" take up much more space on the HD than an "Archive and Install"? Does any body know how many GBs each one takes? And if I was to do a total format then "install" how much less space would that take?
Thanks for your information guys!