What did you use to create the clone? I had problems using CCC but none so far using SuperDuper!.

vacation? what is this word you speak of?

Tell me about it. I had to dig thru 10 boxes to find my photoshop disc. what saved me is that i have been very good in the last year about putting all my reg codes in an app like "Password Master"...its a little long in the tooth but still does the job.

Not trying to highjack the thread, but...

Clone that was unstable was made with CCC -- a program I've had nothing but success with in the past, both for backups and cloning my machine when it was sent out to repair at Apple.

One of the reasons I replaced the HD was out of concern that the problems we were experiencing were hardware-related. All it would take would be a poor disc sector, and the OS would be irreversibly corrupted.

Nevetherless, I have moved to SuperDuper, as that utility is Tiger-compliant. It's good to know that it's at least as high a quality at CCC.

I would venture to guess that the troublesome clone can be linked to CCC; check out the trouble-shooting section at the CCC Web site to see how things can go wrong because of minor differences in machines, the OS, etc.

SuperDuper! appears to be updated on a more regular basis than CCC and the developer is very responsive to e-mail questions and suggestions. So I would say that SD! is a better quality cloning utility than CCC, albeit more expensive if you want to do more than the basic cloning function.

I've installed OSX in every single way since 10.0 and this was by far the easiest. I decided that I would zero the drive, so this is what I did.

1. Use CCC to clone my 10.3.9 onto an external firewire drive. (I also backed up an a seperate firewire drive using Synchronize plus)
2. Boot from the external firewire drive for 2 reasons: a. make sure the back up worked and b. zeroing the drive from the firewire drive is faster than from the DVD
3. Zeroed internal HD
4. Installed Tiger
5. Used Migration Assistant to move all my documents and settings from the firewire drive.

I've used archive & install several times and the Migration Assistant was by far the easiest way. It copied over all my applications, all their preferences, AND all the application support components that are scattered among the library folders. It also copied internet plug-ins and quicktime plug-ins. The only thing I had to re-install was my mouse drivers. The entire process took only 3 hours and would have gone faster if my primary focus was the installation.

Tiger is running well. It is faster than Panther and I like (and use) most of the new features. My 15" PB definitely runs cooler than it used to, but I can't compare it to what an archive and install would have been like.

After having a weird kernel panic issue after doing an Archive and Install of Tiger on my PowerBook 1.25, I found the culprit to be a bad memory stick with Apple Hardware Test. I pulled the stick but I didn't do a reinstall yet. Today I did the same as everyone here, zeroed my drive, clean fresh install, migrate from a firewire external and I am blown away! My PB is amazingly faster now and I feel like I have my stability back too. Seems to run cooler even though I haven't had a chance to really push it yet. The overall feel and responsiveness was great before but now it's an amazing difference. I would recommend the time investment to anyone with a PB using Tiger.

The way I see it, there are three ways to install Tiger:

1. Erase Disk & Install Tiger
2. Archive & Install Tiger
3. Upgrade older OS (say 10.3.9) to Tiger

What I'm really curious to know is if anyone has done a comparison (for speed, responsiveness, battery power, etc.) between number 3 (Upgrade) and number 1 (Erase & Install)?

TIA,

CVB

Does anyone partition their drive in this day and age? Maybe I'm old school or something, but my 60GB laptop drive is in 3 partitions: Home (20GB), Scratch (5GB for PS), and Data (35 GB). My thinking (aside from being anally retentive on the organisation front) is that I can do a comple wipe on reinstall on 'Home' while not having to touch all of my data (Music, Photos, Film Scans, etc.) if I was so inclined.

Any thoughts on the right upgrade strategy here?

jon

Partitioning is a waste of time for 95% of OSX users.

I did an archive and install on my mini the first day Tiger came out. Things were pretty stable so I went ahead and did the same thing with my PB17. No problems either and I'm just now a couple of hours short of 24 days of uptime since that initial install. No kernal panics, no problems (other than some apps defaulting Shapeshifter to Aqua) and all is running fine on both machines. Easiest upgrade I've ever done.

SEkker: My original install of Tiger was an Archive & Install (sorry for the confusion - the original post has been corrected). Your point stating "the install option does 99% of what you need from a fresh install" reflects my understanding of the Archive & Install process as well. That is why I was so surprised by the difference that the fresh install made.

I always do a clean install. First I move any important data to a back up drive then do a clean install. After I set up mty services I then use superduper to do a disk image of the clean install and save that on a firewire drive. If for some reason I need to redo a clean install it takes only minutes to restore from a disk image, great time saver. Then I install my apps and copy back my data. In this case I'm no going to use Tiger until X.4.1 comes out...just a few weeks I hear. To many things are broken in this new Tiger for me right now. I'm still using X.3.9. And even after I'll keep both systems usable for a couple of months before I put a Tigers in my tank. I make money with my mac and can't afford downtime due to mysterious QuickTime failings.

What are these backups you talk about?

My upgrade to Tiger went well, but after about a week I noticed several problems.

So I did an archive and re-install of Tiger, but no luck. Same problems persisted (on a stock iMac).

Then I did an erase and Clean install, and copied in the user data from a backup firewire clone. What an improvement - faster, no glitches, no more system problems or errors.

I'm a new convert to clean installs.

Wierd. I wonder what the 'leak' is in Tiger that's due to some 'residue' from Panther.

I was just saying that Most people I talk t do not have a backup of anything. If there HD went Belly Up then they would be screwed. I was talking about backups that are not done.

I do them now and then. Since I'm still using an XP box, I should do them more often.

Indeed, and it's TRULY scary. I have a sister who runs a small internet business from her Toshiba laptop, and I subsequently learned she TWICE send it in for repairs WITHOUT a backup of her site! I promptly gave her a zip drive; not sure if she uses it...

And I know a graduate student who recently sent HER iBook in to Apple for repair without a backup. During their regular servicing, Apple did a clean install on the hard drive...

The BIG negative with notebooks is people carry them EVERYWHERE. That means they are subject to theft, loss (like at airport security), and physical damage due to wear and tear (and the occasional bounce).

My wife will spend HOURS on a project (photoshop, etc) using her OS X machine without even SAVING her file. I back her machine up whether she wants it done or not.

The faith people have in their machines is truly beyond reason.

[QUOTE=SEkker]Indeed, and it's TRULY scary. I have a sister who runs a small internet business from her Toshiba laptop, and I subsequently learned she TWICE send it in for repairs WITHOUT a backup of her site! I promptly gave her a zip drive; not sure if she uses it...

And I know a graduate student who recently sent HER iBook in to Apple for repair without a backup. During their regular servicing, Apple did a clean install on the hard drive...

The BIG negative with notebooks is people carry them EVERYWHERE. That means they are subject to theft, loss (like at airport security), and physical damage due to wear and tear (and the occasional bounce).

My wife will spend HOURS on a project (photoshop, etc) using her OS X machine without even SAVING her file. I back her machine up whether she wants it done or not.

/QUOTE]

Hasn't she ever lost a project that way? I am always after myh kids to save, save, save, so that if something happens -- and of course it can -- they at least will only lose a little bit. I cannot believe people are so foolish.

My 2 cents......just did a clean install and 15" 1.25ghz PB is much cooler and a tad faster. The speed is not that much more noticeable but when I run intensive CPU apps such as Logic Pro 7 with the softsynths blazing away it is def cooler .

I didn't realise Tiger didn't come with iPhoto and iMovie