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Ruthless

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 26, 2003
13
0
I was wondering if there would be a differnce between upgrading to panther as opposed to reformatting then installing it

thanks,
Ruthless
 

colinet

macrumors 6502
Sep 5, 2003
304
0
Australia
I just upgraded from 10.2.8 on my dual G5 and so far everything is working fine - and a lot faster - expose is v. cool and fast.
 

Doctor Q

Administrator
Staff member
Sep 19, 2002
39,858
7,725
Los Angeles
The advantage of reformatting is that you set your system up in the cleanest state possible, but that is merely insurance against glitches that may or may not ever occur. There is a big difference in how much work is involved in these two methods of installation, however. So, unless you have had trouble with your system, Ruthless, I don't see why you can't simply do an update. Also, if you do have trouble with Panther for some reason, you will still have the option of reformatting and installing it new later.
 

pimentoLoaf

macrumors 68000
Dec 30, 2001
1,988
21
The SimCity Deli
When I upgraded my ol' iBook to Jaguar, I didn't have an external drive to back anything up on, so I couldn't erase first before installing.

With my three-week-old 17book, I'll back-up, reformat, and then install. Seems some programs (like Photoshop) run better when reinstalled under X.3.
 

colinet

macrumors 6502
Sep 5, 2003
304
0
Australia
Originally posted by pimentoLoaf
Seems some programs (like Photoshop) run better when reinstalled under X.3.

Is this just rumour or do you hace real evidence. I've noticed some funnies with the cursor changing since I upgraded. I might try re-installing PS7 and see if that makesd any difference,
 

pbooktebo

macrumors member
Aug 12, 2003
68
0
SF Bay Area
Archive and Install

Several folks at the Apple Store (employees) recommended the "Archive and Install" option. A few reasons:
1. This is a fairly clean install, giving you a decent new system with less worries than an Upgrade.
2. Your previous system is stored in the "Previous Systems" folder (delete after a while if you don't feel you need anything from there).
3. Users and Apps, and their preferences, are brought over. No need to reinstall the system.

Don't forget that you also can choose a custom installation (I chose not to install Asian Fonts and Asian Languages, but did choose to add X11).
 

yadmonkey

macrumors 65816
Aug 13, 2002
1,308
838
Western Spiral
Re: Archive and Install

Originally posted by pbooktebo
Users and Apps, and their preferences, are brought over. No need to reinstall the system.

pbooktebo, I hadn't realized that or I would have done an archive install. However, I upgraded and it went swimmingly. Everything on my MDD dual 1ghz is faster and I have operated without a glitch so far. I have a felling the format/reinstall was more important back in the days of OS 9 and early 10.
 

Ruthless

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 26, 2003
13
0
apple store account gone

okay i finally got the guts to backup my itunes library, my adress book, and some other random stuff then i clean installed....one problem my apple store account has no previous knowlege of me ever purchasing anything in the music store or any other purchases so i cant listen to some music. what should i do
thanks,
ruthless
p.s - i bencmarked on my jaguar system (upgraded) and scored a 98.7 and on my clean install i scored a 103.8 :)
 
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