Upgrade from Tiger to Leopard Questions

I'm new to the Mac world. Just bought a used Powerbook G4 1.67ghz. It currently has Tiger 10.4.x installed. I want to upgrade to Leopard but have some questions.

Where can I get the Leopard install media at a good price? I'm going to borrow a friends media but it might be the grey disks and I heard they may not work.

Can I do a fresh clean install of Leopard and still keep the MS Office 2004 currently on the machine? If not where can I find MS Office install media at a good price?

TIA

Just found out that the Leopard install disk is black with a big X, so I assume that one will work, correct?

toclimbk2 said:

Where can I get the Leopard install media at a good price?

Click to expand...

Firstly...you should NOT use anyone else's "media" on your computer. 1 install /computer.

2nd, if you want your own copy of 10.5...go to eBay. Currently prices are $100+.

3rd...you should have no problem keeping/using Office 2004 after the 10.5 install.

I hope this helps,

- Nick

toclimbk2 said:

Just found out that the Leopard install disk is black with a big X, so I assume that one will work, correct?

Click to expand...

Yes that is correct...and it will work even better if it's your own personal copy (not a friend's)!

- Nick

Can I do a clean install of Leopard and only keep MS Office? I don't want to keep anything the previous owner had installed on the machine except for Office.

Can I by the media on eBay for version 10.5.1+ or do I have to start at the base 10.5.0 version then do upgrades through the OS?

toclimbk2 said:

Can I do a clean install of Leopard and only keep MS Office? I don't want to keep anything the previous owner had installed on the machine except for Office.

Can I by the media on eBay for version 10.5.1+ or do I have to start at the base 10.5.0 version then do upgrades through the OS?

Click to expand...

No...you cannot do a clean install of Leopard...and selectively keep Office 2004...and get rid of the rest during the install.

If you want to do a clean install of 10.5 & keep Office 2004...but don't want the rest of the previous owner's stuff...you need to delete the other stuff yourself.

If you plan on buying 10.5 on eBay you are pretty much limited to what is available. There really is no major difference between 10.5.0 & 10.5.1...especially when the last version of 10.5 you can update to is 10.5.8 (which is free via "Software Update").

HTH,

- Nick