How to do back-up hard drive and do a clean install of OS X 10.4

[sanclemente]

I am sure someone has posted answer's to this question, so if you could just point me in the right direction it would be appreciated. My girlfriends Titanium PB, 1ghz is in desperate need of a clean install. I bought her OS X 10.4 today, and I want to back everything up and do a clean install of 10.4 rather than just updating her current set-up. Is there a way to create a clone of her current set-up (similar to Norton Ghost on the PC) in case I screw this up? What is the best way to store it, DVD's or can I copy it to a networked PC with an extra drive in it? When I do a clean install on my PC, I keep two drives in it. I clone eveything to one drive, do a clean install on the other. Boot from the new OS and then after reinstalling the software I just drag over any current files. When I'm sure I've copied everything I needed, I just wipe the old drive and use it as back up. I would like to do something similar to the PB.

I was also thinking of buying a 5400rpm internal drive to replace the 4200rpm that is in it now. I could use the old drive in an external firewire enclosure, but I was hoping to defer that expense until later if at all possible. Thanks for the input.

On a side note, how much RAM is recommended for the PB running 10.4?

 

[leahlee]

I am still using OS 9.2.2. I bought a LaCie external hard drive which does the job. I back up my internal hard drive to the Lacie via Silverkeeper (Silverkeeper came with the Lacie). Than I "zero out" the internal hard drive and reload the files from Lacie. This seems to work well although I am still not 100% sure of the proper way to back up itunes and Entourage.

Leahlee

 

[IJ Reilly]

Why do you think you need to clean install? What are the symptoms? Did you try all of the normal maintenance procedures before you made this decision?

 

[Applespider]

10.4's minimum RAM is 256MB; but I think most would say the sweet spot is 768 or higher.

To clone the hard drive, use Superduper to create an identical back up. Then you can just do a clean install from the Tiger DVD - you can repair the HD from it. Once you've finished, you can either re-install everything from scratch or use the Migration Assistant (if you've got a FW external drive) to let OS X bring information from the cloned disc over.

One thing to consider before spending all the time re-installing everything is to do an Archive & Install (selected from the install Options when you put in the Tiger DVD). Basically, this will keep your user folder and applications but delete the rest of the system. The system will be then be re-installed and then the user folder/settings replaced. It takes far less time and may serve to 'jump start' the Ti-book. If it doesn't work and you need to clean install, you've wasted 40 minutes or so. If it does, then you've saved however long it might take to reinstall all the other applications.

One thing to remember if you do a clean install is that Tiger doesn't come with iLife or Internet Explorere (less of an issue) so you might want to make sure that you've got access to Pacifist and the original restore discs/or the iLife DVD before you start.