Upgrading A G4 to Tiger

I have a purchased a Tiger installation disk, but I hesitate to use it because I've heard rumors that some of these disks may cause a stall near the end of installation that requires erasing & reformatting the hard drive. (I'm using OS 10.3.9 now.) Is the rumor true? Is there a way to test the disk without risking failure?

Is this a retail disc? (Does it have a big X on it?)

Or is this a disc that came with someone's new Mac? (Is it grey?)

Reply toMacsh

It's a retail disk.

It should work fine. Just do a Backup of your Mac before you start, just in case.

loopguy said:

I have a purchased a Tiger installation disk, but I hesitate to use it because I've heard rumors that some of these disks may cause a stall near the end of installation that requires erasing & reformatting the hard drive. (I'm using OS 10.3.9 now.) Is the rumor true? Is there a way to test the disk without risking failure?

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I fail to understand why this is a concern. You OF COURSE have backups, so what difference would it make if the install (for some strange reason) didn't complete and you had to wipe and install the drive?

I don't mean to be blunt, but the idea that some people actually do major upgrades on their boot drive without a backup ... it's just ... anathema to my whole way of thinking about computers. Make a backup if you haven't already so you'll have one less thing to worry about. For a machine of your vintage, I'd suggest a clone backup using either SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner.

chas_m said:

I fail to understand why this is a concern. You OF COURSE have backups, so what difference would it make if the install (for some strange reason) didn't complete and you had to wipe and install the drive?

I don't mean to be blunt, but the idea that some people actually do major upgrades on their boot drive without a backup ... it's just ... anathema to my whole way of thinking about computers. Make a backup if you haven't already so you'll have one less thing to worry about. For a machine of your vintage, I'd suggest a clone backup using either SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner.

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Actually its an anathema to me that any mission critical data is on a boot drive period, this would be especially true if it a notebook..

If you need the data for work or precious memories it should reside on another drive, not the one that spins all the time. Drive corruption or failure means plug the drive into another computer and move on. This is even more true if like me you work in multiple operating systems..

Germany_chris said:

If you need the data for work or precious memories it should reside on another drive, not the one that spins all the time. Drive corruption or failure means plug the drive into another computer and move on. This is even more true if like me you work in multiple operating systems..

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I'm not sure I see what the difference is.

If data is backed up, then it's backed up. Whether it's on a boot drive or not becomes immaterial, the backup drive(s) aren't on 24/7 so the data is still safe. I keep two backups (a TM and a clone) on separate drives, along with an offsite of really precious data. So I don't really care if the boot drive fails other than the momentary inconvenience.

chas_m said:

I'm not sure I see what the difference is.

If data is backed up, then it's backed up. Whether it's on a boot drive or not becomes immaterial, the backup drive(s) aren't on 24/7 so the data is still safe. I keep two backups (a TM and a clone) on separate drives, along with an offsite of really precious data. So I don't really care if the boot drive fails other than the momentary inconvenience.

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its the couple hours of putting it can together along with the need to go get another HD.

Edit: in context, but not relevant to the OP. If you use time machine and you back up your 10.7 computer that back up will not be usable on a computer with any previous generation OS. It will also not work with any other OS. In my home we have computers with 10.4 to 10.8 plus my Linux installs. that second HD with the pictures and work on it is cross platform, a 10.7 time machine is useless to anything but my wifes MBP. I have a couple drives with movies on them I can pop that drive out of the big Mac and put it in the G5 to watch them, I can take the HD that is my home folder pop it in also and use the DMG's that are there. I can put them in an external enclosure and use them on any of my Macs or Linux machines. Flexability, why keep your music only in an iTunes library when you can keep them in .MP3 in you drive and use them when and where you want.