Trying to upgrade from 10.5.8 to 10.6 ... help!

I'm having no luck attempting to install OSX Snow Leopard onto my iMac, please help!

Ok, I currently have 10.5.8 installed, and I only want to UPGRADE to 10.6, not completely erase everything by doing a clean install or anything.
Here's what happens (pics below too) :

1/ insert the OSX Snow Leopard dvd.
2/It asks me to partition my hard disk.
I try doing that, but it fails, with the message "Filesystem verify or repair failed"

..!? What can I do?

It would appear you have a PPC Mac since you are booting from an "Apple Partition Map".

You are not going to be able to install Snow Leopard on that machine.
Snow Leopard only runs on Intel processors.

(And I deleted your 2nd thread, there is no need for posting it multiple times - thanks)

bobtomay said:

It would appear you have a PPC Mac since you are booting from an "Apple Partition Map".

You are not going to be able to install Snow Leopard on that machine.
Snow Leopard only runs on Intel processors.

(And I deleted your 2nd thread, there is no need for posting it multiple times - thanks)

Click to expand...

Hadn't realized it was a multiple post, sorry 'bout that!
But it says here I've the aluminum model which is 10.6 compatible...? :

iMac - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

bobtomay said:

It would appear you have a PPC Mac since you are booting from an "Apple Partition Map".

You are not going to be able to install Snow Leopard on that machine.
Snow Leopard only runs on Intel processors.

Click to expand...

No, definitely Intel! :

Then what Tom is saying is that your hard drive may have been transferred from a PPC machine. In any event, you will need to reformat it using GUID before you can upgrade.

You have another issue that is much more serious: you have a seriously full hard drive and are risking big problems. I would solve that problem first before upgrading -- a good rule of thumb for a drive that size is to keep a minimum of five percent (50GB) free at all times. OS X needs *lots* of temp space free to work well.

Well, am a little surprised that your partition map is APM as all Intel machines shipped with a GUID partition scheme. According to my understanding GUID is required for an Intel machine to be able to boot from that disk. Don't remember back that far and it looks like 10.5 must have been able to boot from either.

With 10.6, you are not going to be able to install it unless the disk is using GUID. As you've seen it's just going to refuse. If you look at the bottom line in your shots of Disk Utility, you'll notice it has Apple Partition Map. That is going to have to be changed to GUID.

To do that, is going to require repartitioning the entire drive with GUID and consequently "losing all the data on the drive". Creating a 2nd partition is not going to help you install 10.6 and is not going to "upgrade" your current installation of 10.5. Even if it would work, you would simply have 2 separate versions of OS X installed.

You will also not be able to do it while booted into 10.5.
This will need to be done from Disk Utility while booted from the 10.6 disk.

You have another (what I consider to be) really big issue to consider also, and that is the fact you are running your boot drive with <2% free space. That is dangerously low. I'd be totally surprised if you're not already seeing the spinning beach ball quite often, wondering why your machine is running so slow and possibly seeing it freeze on occasion.

looks like we were both typing away at the same time.
chas and I are at the opposite ends of the how much free space is enough debate - my recommendation to have a machine that is working as well as possible is a minimum 25% which would be 250GB free on your 1 TB drive. But his 50GB recommendation should keep you out of trouble and prevent freezing issues.

bobtomay said:

With 10.6, you are not going to be able to install it unless the disk is using GUID. As you've seen it's just going to refuse. If you look at the bottom line in your shots of Disk Utility, you'll notice it has Apple Partition Map. That is going to have to be changed to GUID.

To do that, is going to require repartitioning the entire drive with GUID and consequently "losing all the data on the drive".

Click to expand...

Thanks Guys! Well, that's given me food for thought..... I've an extra 1tb external drive on the way, I can shift a lot of junk on to that.

As for wiping the drive .. argh! I think what I'll do is hang on until I sell the iMac before I do that, as I've also a Macbook Pro which I can use for any 10.6 or above shenanigans.
I like to upgrade (never to new, but to as new as possible) my macs every 3 or 4 years ish, and the 4 year mark is fast approaching.....

One option you do have - and depending on how much of the content on that drive can actually just be deleted.

If you can free up enough space by eliminating data you no longer need, you could then create a bootable backup (or clone) of your existing drive on the new drive you have coming - Try SuperDuper! or CarbonCopyCloner. If that's what you're using already to create the backup drive you have pictured, you're one step ahead of the game.

Once you have the backup, have booted to the external drive, verified it works and everything is there - at that point you could repartition your internal drive, making sure to head into options and Select the GUID partition scheme, then install 10.6.

On first boot up after installation, it's going to ask if you want to restore from another Mac or a TM backup - at that time, point it to the cloned backup to have it pull your user account and data back onto it.

bobtomay said:

One option you do have - and depending on how much of the content on that drive can actually just be deleted.

If you can free up enough space by eliminating data you no longer need, you could then create a bootable backup (or clone) of your existing drive on the new drive you have coming - Try SuperDuper! or CarbonCopyCloner. If that's what you're using already to create the backup drive you have pictured, you're one step ahead of the game.

Once you have the backup, have booted to the external drive, verified it works and everything is there - at that point you could repartition your internal drive, making sure to head into options and Select the GUID partition scheme, then install 10.6.

On first boot up after installation, it's going to ask if you want to restore from another Mac or a TM backup - at that time, point it to the cloned backup to have it pull your user account and data back onto it.

Click to expand...

I like the sound of this plan, though nervous about screwing it up!
Will this keep my applications/vsts, etc? And it'll simply allow me to go from 10.5 to 10.6 from the cloned drive?

If you like experimentation or just want to make sure - when you get the new drive - install 10.6 on that one - when you boot to it for first time, point it at your internal drive and have it pull everything over. That will give you time to go in with the new OS, play with it, make sure everything is there...

Then when you're satisfied, repartition your internal drive and clone back to it.

bobtomay said:

If you like experimentation or just want to make sure - when you get the new drive - install 10.6 on that one - when you boot to it for first time, point it at your internal drive and have it pull everything over. That will give you time to go in with the new OS, play with it, make sure everything is there...

Then when you're satisfied, repartition your internal drive and clone back to it.

Click to expand...

Is all of this straightforward/idiot proof...?

lolalola said:

Is all of this straightforward/idiot proof...?

Click to expand...

Unfortunately nothing is idiot or failure proof, which is why you should ALWAYS have backups of your data and important files.

But, yes, it is relatively straightforward. If you feel challenged by it, it may be a good idea to grab a techie friend to standby while you do it.