1. Back Up Your Hard Drive
Make a bootable support of your current system before you upgrade . back up is always good advice , but especially so now . After upgrading , you may key that Tiger has some bugs that are serious enough to force a temporary retirement back to Panther until the bugs are fixed .
There are many first-class programs for “ clone ” your drive . My recommendation here is SuperDuper ! fromShirt sack . It boasts a unique rubber Clone feature that create translation of your sure-enough ( Panther ) and novel ( Tiger ) systems on two separate mass . Both systems remain current with the files in your Home directory , so you may easily revert back to Panther if desired .
If you do n’t want to clone your integral drive , at least make certain you have a backing of your Home directory , just in case disaster strikes while put in Tiger . Similarly , check that you have backups of all your third - political party software program readily available .
2. Consider Partitioning Your Drive
If your Mac ’s tough driving force is divided into at least two partitions , you’re able to establish Tiger on one partition while leaving your current Panther system instal on the other . This gives you the chance to test out Tiger before you commit to it . SuperDuper ’s Safety Clone also works best if your hard drive has been split up into at least two divider .
If your drive currently has only one partition , do n’t worry . With software such as iPartition or Drive Genius you may partition a drive without have got to efface it . Find out how in “ Multiply your driving force ” from the May 2005 upshot ofMacworld .
Of course , if you own 2d hard drive , you could use this or else of a disjoined partition .
3. Install Tiger
You ’re now quick to set about up from the Tiger disc and play the Installer . If you are elevate a drive that is currently running Panther , the Installer ’s default pick is Upgrade . This means it modifies or deletes survive Panther file , as needed , put in the Tiger modifications and Indian file as replacements .
However , you have other choices . If you click the Option button in the Installer ’s Select a Destination screen , you’re able to choose to Archive & Install . With this method acting , the entire Panther software system is move to a freestanding folder call Previous Systems ; a completely Modern install of Tiger is put in its home .
I strongly urge doing an Archive & Install ( impart the alternative to preserve your Home directory and web preferences ) rather than an Upgrade . While an Upgrade broadly works well , it can go to job if , for case , you have modified or moved any OS go files such that the Installer can no longer promote them the right way .
4. Give Tiger a Test Run
After begin up with Tiger , check to make certain all the canonical lineament of the OS are working . In particular , check out whether your cyberspace connectedness is active and whether the Finder ’s features are mould as expected . If you are having problems that you’re able to not decide , check the Web to see if others have report the same take and can provide a solution . If not , stress reinstalling Tiger . If even that fails , you may want to regress back to Panther until you’re able to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it .
5. Give Your Applications a Test Run
Assuming that Tiger passed its initial trial , now ’s the sentence to check that all your third - political party programs are figure out . If the program required a serial number when you first instal it , you may find that you ask to enter it again . In some typesetter’s case , you may have to altogether reinstall a program to get it running again .
Finally , some programs may need to be update to sour with Tiger . If so , the vendor has hopefully either already unloosen an update or design to do so presently . To check , go to the vendor ’s Web website or to a more general software update web site such as VersionTracker . you could also check Macworld ’s updated itemization of Tiger - compatible program .
6. Enjoy!
If you have gotten this far successfully , felicitation . You are ready to love Apple ’s latest and greatest variant of Mac OS X !
[ Ted Landau is aMacworldcontributing editor . ]
