Upgrading to Leopard and CS3 question

[diazj3]

Hi.

I'm fairly new to mac. I bought my first one about 7 months ago, and it came with Tiger - now running 10.4.11, no problems at all so far. I received the free leopard upgrade disk, but now I realize I can't put the upgrade off much longer (with more and more apps being leopard based, the intro of me.com (I'm a .mac user), etc.

My main concern is this: I have Adobe CS3 Premium Design installed. I teach in a university, and they installed it for me as a professor using one of the university's licences. To do so, I had to take my 24'/2.4Ghz/4GB intel imac to the IT department, and leave it there until they have time to install - which means being 2-3 day without my computer, plus the risk of taking it out of my house, etc... I dont wanto to go through that again...


I'd like to do the upgrade, but I have read that a "clean upgrade" is the best way to go to avoid future problems. If so, or if there is any risk with the normal upgrade, this is my question:

How can I...

a) have an application/bootable backup in case something goes wrong, to go back to Tiger and my apps as they are now and reinstall them.

b) Somehow to copy/backup my bigger applications (CS3, Logic 8, etc) before doing a clean install and then migrating or copying them back to my computer, now running leopard, without any problems?

Is this possible? How? Will SuperDuper help me? WHat are my chances that the Adobe suite gets affected and I have to reinstall everything? is there other possibility?

Thank you all for your comments...

jcd

 

[louishen]

do you have an external drive to back-up to?

Assuming you have one, you can use superduper to clone your tigr drive. This will provide you with a back-up in case Leopard doesn't turn out to be ideal and a back-up for all your applications mail, music etc.

With the back-up nice and safe do a clean install of leopard on your mac. Once that's done you can use Migration Assistant (in Utilities) to migrate all your stuff back on to the new leopard installation from the external back-up you did.

You will now have a leopard machine with all your stuff, and a back-up with tiger still on it just in case, and you will not have to wait days for the IT department to do it

 

[Alexis]

To do so, I had to take my 24'/2.4Ghz/4GB intel imac to the IT department, and leave it there until they have time to install - which means being 2-3 day without my computer, plus the risk of taking it out of my house, etc... I dont wanto to go through that again...

They sound like numpties to me!

Can't you take your machine, set it up yourself in the corner and they give you the disc to install it there and then? It only involves putting a DVD in, typing in the serial and waiting 30 mins for it to install.

 

[diazj3]

Thanks Alexis

 

[diazj3]

Thanks louishen... one question: I have read mixed opinions about the migration assistant. Have you ever done something like this? has it worked, having the apps functional after the migration from tiger to leopard?
Thanks for your advice!

 

[louishen]

you need to get an external drive and do the proceedure I outlined above

numpties is english for idiot or fool, I think it is Scottish slang

 

[diazj3]

They sound like numpties to me!

Can't you take your machine, set it up yourself in the corner and they give you the disc to install it there and then? It only involves putting a DVD in, typing in the serial and waiting 30 mins for it to install.

Hi Alexis... I'm not sure what "numpties" means (english is not my first language)... but if by it you mean that it's unreasonable or stupid, I'm there with you!. Each time I have brought the computer it's been the same story: the first time they installed it for me it took them 3 days, and no flexibility on it ('cause, they argue, it's a big and complicated SW). Smaller stuff, two whole days. Plus, no one is allowed into the IT office - except, of course IT guys - and they do installation via intranet, so no DVD's... and even when I'm part of the faculty, no one is allowed to have the installation codes for updates. Their manuals say a SW install response time is allowed up to 72 hours... and they have the right to use them, 'cause they are "way too busy". I have asked them to bear with my needs for my computer: no way. And you should see how they treat the students!... for every university's SW I have done through the same routine, and I just had it... so if I can avoid it, I'll try it. ¿Any ideas (other than how this IT dept is "not good")?

 

[diazj3]

I have a FW external HDD... so, great... I'll give it a try.

And if for some reason the apps go numb, I can always go to IT **** (dark, hot, painful place).

thanks for your help!