Thankfully, on our end here at Mactropolis the Leopard upgrade went without a hitch. However, that hasn’t been the case for everyone. There have been some nasty installation problems, one of note right here.
To sidestep these issues and put you on the path to ‘Leopard Bliss’ I’ve put together this brief guide to (hopefully) around any potential problems that might arise.
Again, my experience with the upgrade has been flawless, but after some reading and research here are the things you’ll need to keep in mind and do to make sure your data is safe.
Getting Started
Did you backup your data? This isn’t 100% necessary, but how would you feel if you lost all of your important files? Pretty bad huh? If your life would end and crumble should you lose your files, BACKUP your data. End of story.
You can use the Disk Utility, or any other backup software.
Things to Check Before You Start
- Once you’ve created the backup, check it and double check it again to make sure it is in place.
- Will your current software work with Leopard? Check vendor websites to ensure all of your software will work after the OS upgrade.
Installation
Installing OS X Leopard is actually a walk in the park. Follow the instructions given to you by the installer. It will walk you through the process. In 1.5 to 2 hours your OS X should be shiny and new and have leopard spots all over it (ok, maybe there won’t be any leopard spots, but you know what I mean).
Step 1: Select a Destination: Choose the drive where you want to install Leopard, and click ‘Options’. From here you can choose the install method (upgrade, archive and install, or erase and install).
Step 2: Select What NOT to Install. You may want to leave some items out of the install to save on hard drive space. Some items you may want to leave out of the installation:
- Fonts can be a huge space hog. If you don’t need the fonts listed simply deselect them.
- Language Translations. If you’re going to run OS X in english-only, you can deselect this item. Or open it up to deselect individual languages.
- Printer Drivers. Open this up and deselect all but the brand of printer you own.
When Installation is Complete
With a little luck, once installation is done you should be good to go. The first thing I did was check to make sure my programs were functioning properly. Thankfully they all were and I was ‘good to go’. Again, if a program isn’t working properly check with the vendor to see what the issue might be, and how to resolve it. You will also want to make sure that all of your data transferred properly. If you used ‘archive and install’ go to the /previous systems/previous system 1 folder and look through the subfolders to check that everything was transferred.
Getting Back to Business
Hopefully the process was a smooth and easy one for you. If so, just pick up where you left off! If you’re still having issues feel free to contact me (mayor AT mactropolis.com) for support. There are also numerous other guides and forums out there to help with issues. So if you’re stuck there are more than a few resources out there to tap into!
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