Section 2.1. Preparing to Install Tiger

2.1. Preparing to Install Tiger

While Apple's installer for Mac OS X is pretty straightforward, there are some things you need to think about (quite seriously) before you gut your system and install Tiger. If you have a new Mac that's fresh out of the box, your slate's pretty clean. However, if you have a Mac that you've been using for some time, you need to think about backing up your existing system, and more important, how you want to reconfigure your system for running Mac OS X in the future.

2.1.1. Backing Up Your Life

When you back up your computer, you're not just backing up raw bits of data; you're backing up your life. Why do I put it that way? Well, think about what's on your computer. Email, bookmarks to your favorite web sites, contacts in your Address Book, your music, pictures, documents, and projects you're working on, and most important, passwords stored in your Keychains file that you use to access everything. If you don't have a regular backup ritual, you should really think good and hard about implementing something now. Not tomorrow or next week. Now. You never know when your Mac is suddenly going to get hit with stray solar radiation and go all wacky like Screwball Squirrel in a Tex Avery cartoon (and that's pretty darn wacky).

2.1.1.1. Where to back up

If you have a .Mac account, you can backup up to 1 GB of data to your iDisk, but this depends on how much storage space you allocate for email usage as well. If needed, you can expand your online storage to 2 GB (for an extra $50 per year), but at that price, you may as well go out and buy an external FireWire drive. Plus, FireWire drives are much faster than uploading all of that data over most Internet connections.

FireWire drives are relatively inexpensive, but do your homework before you run out to pick something up. Things to look for in a drive include:

Size

Because the need for space is insatiable, you should always get the largest drive you can afford.

Portability

Think hard on this one. Do you want or need to take your FireWire drive around with you? Or is a larger drive that sits on your desk but that doesn't fit in your backpack okay? If you want a portable drive, make sure to get a drive that doesn't require an external power source (usually called "bus-powered ").

Speed

For a portable drive, you'll have to settle for a slower disk. If, however, you've opted to get a bigger desktop-sized drive, be sure to get something nice and fast. 5400 rpm is okay, 7200 rpm is much better. When you're storing as much data as modern drives can hold, you'll want to be able to get to it right away. The faster, the better.

Backup software and other utilities

Some FireWire drives come with tools that you can use for backing up data from your Mac to the drive. Frankly, buy a drive for the drive and not for any packaged extras it might come with.

Take the time to read the reviews of various drives, their specs, and any software that might come with them before you make your final decision. The best advice when it comes to buying a backup drive is: don't be cheap. Remember, this is your life you're backing up. Don't end up with a cheap FireWire drive that you'll regret purchasing.

2.1.1.2. What to back up

Okay, so now that it's pretty clear that you need to pay attention to what you're backing up your data to, it's time to look at what you should really back up before you install Tiger.

You don't need to worry about backing up the System folder and all the Unix utilities that came with Mac OS X. The Tiger installer will take care of making sure that stuff ends up in the right place. Just focus on what's most important to you: stuff in your Home folder, any shell scripts or AppleScripts you may have written, configuration files, and application preferences.

If you have a .Mac account, you should consider using it for part of your backup needs. Considering that the .Mac sync services store the contacts in your Address Book, calendar and to-do items from iCal, bookmarks from Safari, your Keychains, Mail settings, etc., you can save a lot of time. As a matter of fact, you can configure your .Mac syncing to back up (that is, sync) your data to the .Mac servers hourly if need be. Also, with Mac OS X Tiger, the libraries that are used for syncing data through .Mac have been made available to developers, so expect to be able to back up more and more data in this manner in the future.

Here is a list of things you should seriously consider backing up before you thrash your system:

• Application data (~/Library/Application Support)

• Safari bookmarks (~/Library/Safari/Bookmarks.plist)

• Preferences (~/Library/Preferences)

• Keychains (~/Library/Keychains)

• Email, message sorting settings, and junk mail database rules from Mail.app (~/Library/Mail)

• Stickies (~/Library/StickiesDatabase)

• Fonts you've added to the system, either in your local domain (~/Library/Fonts) or for global use on your system (/Library/Fonts)

• Any shell scripts you have created

• Any AppleScripts you have created

• Any databases you run and access frequently, including FileMaker Pro and MySQL databases

In addition to these specific items, you'll want to look for anything stored in these folders in your Home folder:

• Documents (files you've created and saved locally)

• Movies (movies you've saved or created with iMovie, Final Cut Express, or Final Cut Pro)

• Music (music stored in iTunes)

• Pictures (pictures stored in iPhoto)

• Sites (any local web site you've created and are serving from your Mac)

• Files saved to your desktop

Also, you'll want to make sure that you have the following information somewhere safe:

• QuickTime Pro 's registration number (you can find this by going into the QuickTime preference panel)

• The registration codes for all your software as well as your install media (or the URLs you need to use to download applications from the Internet)

Again, this is just a rough list. You should use this as a guide, and then look good and hard at all the data stored on your Mac before you back it up. Once you've started installing Mac OS X on your Mac, even if you use one of the archive and install options that you can select, you should assume that there's no going back to recover the data. Make sure you have a good, solid backup before you pop in the Tiger install DVD and restart with the C key held down.

2.1.2. Tips for Upgrading

In addition to making sure you have a good backup of your data, if you're upgrading from a previous version of Mac OS, you'll want to check on a few other things. First, make sure your system meets the Tiger hardware requirements:

• PowerPC G3, G4, or G5 processor

• Built-in FireWire

• At least 256 MB of memory

• A built-in display or one that is connected to an Adle-supplied video card

• A DVD drive

  

  If your Mac doesn't have a DVD drive, you can order CD media from Apple by filling in and mailing out the form available at http://images.apple.com/macosx/pdf/tigermediaexchangev3.pdf.

  
  

Next, you'll want to be sure you have enough free disk space on your system. Mac OS X Tiger requires 3 GB of disk space, plus another gigabyte if you plan on installing the Xcode Tools. Sometimes an installer will use up a bit more space as it writes temp files and moves data around. This is particularly true if you're planning on doing an archive and install. To be safe, you might want about 5 GB of free space, just in case.

Once you're sure your machine meets the hardware and disk space requirements, it's a good idea to run some diagnostics on your existing OS install to help ensure that any existing problems are not propagated onto your new install. A good start is to boot from the Tiger install DVD and use Disk Utility (it's available from within the Tiger installer at Utilities Disk Utility) to verify the disks integrity and its permissions.

It also wouldn't hurt to take a little bit more time and run the hardware diagnostic disc that came with your Mac. If you've purchased AppleCare , you could use the TechTool disc as well. It's imperative that your machine is in healthy condition before you upgrade to Tiger, and every extra little step you take now can help prevent headaches down the road.