[DM-MUG] Snow Leopard

[Jon Thompson]

I thought I was the preacher of backups ;P

Actually, I rarely worry about backups before an update (except on servers)
because I am already confident the data is regularly backed up anyhow. If
you are only backing up just before you update the OS, give CW a call (or
me, but I charge a premium.) One of us will get you on a regular backup
regimen that isn't a backup every year and a half to two years. On servers,
I want to be able to revert easily if I find a dead end bug like I did in
10.5.0-2 and Apple fixed on my behest in 10.5.3. (It's lots of fun when
everyone's files appear to disappear.)

It is handy to have a SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner (my choice, it's
free) copy on a second drive, as you can always revert if things go bad. For
me, this usually means that I get to delve into the depths of an OS and see
_what_ went bad, but that is me.

Anyhow, once you are confident you can recover, go ahead and run the upgrade
install. Don't pay attention to the crap on the internet about clean
installs, not using automatic updates (a couple days after the updates are
available), or repairing permissions.

I have _never_ done a nuke and pave, archive and install, or the like, with
the exception of once, and that turned out to be bad ram. It's unnecessary.
If it wasn't, Apple would quit spending resources on it and commit them to
something more fulfilling.

-- 
Jon Thompson
Evolve
www.dmevolve.com


On Tue, Dec 1, 2009 at 9:10 PM, CW Smith <cwsmith7 at gmail.com> wrote:

> My best advice: BACK UP FIRST !!!
>
> Start with an external FireWire hard drive and format it for GUID
> partition table. This drive should be as large or (preferably) larger
> than the drive in your Mac.
>
> Download the trial version of SuperDuper at http://www.shirt-
> pocket.com (if you really like it you can purchse it later). Use
> SuperDuper to make a bootable clone of your hard drive to the external
> drive we talked about earlier.
>
> At this point it would be wise to boot to the backup drive and make
> sure everything is kosher before proceeding to the SL (Snow Leopard)
> install.
>
> Now you can boot to the Snow Leopard disk and either (a) upgrade-
> install SL (the default option) or (b) erase-install SL, then use the
> Migration Assistant to migrate your Applications and user folder(s)
> from the backup you made in step 2.
>
> Once you're certain everything is working properly on the new system,
> you can use the external hard drive as your new Time Machine backup
> drive.
>
> Don't hesitate to call or email Jon or myself, or email back to the
> list, if you're at all uncertain about the process. Better to take a
> step back and be really sure, than to misstep and wind up losing data.
>
> Peace,
> CW
>
> ---------------------------------------------
> CW Smith
> Windows & Macintosh repair
> Apple Certified Mac Technician
>
> (515) 577-1716
> cwsmith7 at gmail.com
>
> "Guitar, bass, percussion, Mac"
> www.cwsmith.fm
> ---------------------------------------------
>
> On Dec 1, 2009, at 6:14 PM, mauri booton <woohoowoohoo at me.com> wrote:
>
> > I just received my Snow Leopard upgrade discs. Any tips or hints about
> > doing the upgrade installation?
> >
> > Thanks!!
> >
> > ~~ mauri ~~
> >
> > The presentation at the last meeting spurred me on to do this.
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