Upgrade and Backup Questions

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Level 1

5 points

Upgrade and Backup Questions

I'd like to upgrade my 2008 MacBook Pro from OS 10.5.8 to 10.6. My MacBook Pro meets the requirements. My understanding is that although 10.6 isn't available at an Apple store, I can purchase it for $20 from Apple, by calling 1-800-MY-APPLE.

Obviously, I don't want to lose any of the documents, applications, music files, browser bookmarks, network settings, emails, preferences, and so forth, that I've saved with 10.5. In addition, I have a lot of music plug-ins installed, which I REALLY don't want to lose, since this is the main thing I'm using my MBP for (recording music).

So I have a few questions:

1. When installing 10.6, are all the previous files saved to the new OS? (Or are you given an option to save them to the new OS?)

2. Would it be better or safer to back up everything to an external hard drive, using a program such as Time Machine, Carbon Copy Cloner, SuperDuper, etc., before installing 10.6?

3. If I do the backup, is it essentially a clone of the previous drive, including the old OS?

Thanks in advance for any tips or advice.

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Oct 24, 2012 4:49 PM

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Answer 1

Oct 24, 2012 4:53 PM in response to motc

If everything works perfectly during the upgrade, you should not lose any of your data.

Having said that I don't know about you but I would never trust my data to everything working perfectly. So I backup my data first before updates and upgrades. In fact I back the data up twice using different software for each backup. One of my backups is done with Time Machine and the other is a clone.

Allan

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Answer 2

Niel

Level 10

726,869 points

Oct 24, 2012 4:53 PM in response to motc

1. This happens automatically unless you tell the installer not to.

2. Yes.

3. SuperDuper and Carbon Copy Cloner create clones. Time Machine keeps a journal; this enables recovery of different versions of the same file, but prevents the backup from being bootable prior to restoration.

(71081)

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