How to upgrade?

[Raven]

I've always hesitated upgrading. Since OS7, every time I've done so there's been a problem that took me days to fix... software or hardware glitches. Down time is costly when my design business depends on everything running smoothly. When things are stable, as they are now with my 24" iMac, OSX10.5.8, all is wonderful, and I hate to mess with a good thing! BUT sooner or later I know it's time to upgrade again.

So... to go from 10.5.8 to 10.7, how best to do that? Do I have to upgrade in 2 stages - 10.5 to 10.6 to 10.7, or can it be done in one step? Do I purchase Snow Leopard and Lion separately, etc?

And will everything work, or do I have to upgrade applications? I'm using:
Photoshop CS4
InDesign CS4
Illustrator CS4
 Freehand MX (v11)
iPhoto 8.1.2
Keynote 3.0.2
Pages 2.0.2
Appleworks 6 (still the best!)
MS Word 2008 v12
Font Agent Pro 4.14

Anything else I need to check?

Thanks again for your continued good advice!!! :-)

4gb RAM, 2.66 GHz, 600 gb HD, OSX10.5.8

[Xairbusdriver]

You'll have to buy Snow Leopard so you can access the App Store. The only way to get Lion is through the App Store (the software app or the brick & mortar place, if one is nearby). Or, of course, you can simply buy a new Mac, perhaps a mini?

Depending on how old your Mac is, I see no real need to upgrade, frankly. Of course, the longer you wait, the more likely the internal drive is to crash/die. But, you are making backups of everything, several times a day, right? On at least two external drives...

Not sure what you're using Apple Works for, but it definitely is not going to run on Lion, nothing that requires Rosetta will work on Lion. You can easily check your apps by using System Info and selecting "Software"->"Applications" Anything that shows "PPC" in the 'Kind' column will not work on Lion.

But you should seriously update any app that you depend on, anyway, in my humble opinion. Keynote (as well as Pages and Numbers) are available for $20 each (less than they were as a bundle). But when you update, you don't need to completely delete the old version at the same time. If you have a bootable external drive (which I hope you do, anyway) you could install the new version(s) there and exercise them with the files/documents you have. There will certainly be new features that yo'll need to learn and you should see some ways to increase your efficiency and develop a better work flow. Once you determine that the new version is stable, swap the two versions. Keeping the old one around, on the external drive, until absolutely sure you don't need it any longer.

Seriously, if I were running a business with my computers, I would have at least three external drives, two for backups (one of which is off-site while using the other) and the last one as a bootable backup via SuperDuper/CarbonCopyCloner. Their sizes would be at least twice the size of the internal drive(s). Since this hardware is for your business/livelihood, you should be getting some tax relief thus helping pay for them.

Many others here, should be able to discuss all those Adobe apps. My main concern is that you wean yourself off AppleWorks ASAP. It is only prolonging the agony you'll feel if you continue to depend on it. Bite the bullet, preferably not a steel jacketed one! Ouch!

[Texas Mac Man]

You can skip Snow Leopard if you buy, for $69, Lion 10.7 on a USB drive.
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MD256Z/A...mco=MjQ1MzY1NTA

[jchuzi]

I have heard that you can save some money by bringing a USB flash drive to an Apple store and having a tech install 10.7 on it.

[Raven]

Thanks all!

My 24" iMac is 2 years old. I have 2 external HD drives and Time Machine. I feel secure with my back up routine. I know my back up work flow is not as efficient as it could be, but it works. That's not the issue with this post.

I have been weaning myself off AW and using Pages. But Pages is cumbersome to work with fonts. It takes more clicks and palettes than AW. But, sobeit!


jchuzi,
I will try that Flash Drive approach. I will be at an Apple Store (500 miles away) a week from now. How big of a flash drive do I need?
Will that allow me to go from 10.5.8 to 10.7?

[jchuzi]

QUOTE(Raven @ Oct 13 2011, 12:02 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

jchuzi, I will try that Flash Drive approach. I will be at an Apple Store (500 miles away) a week from now. How big of a flash drive do I need? Will that allow me to go from 10.5.8 to 10.7?

It would be best to ask Apple before you do this. I don't want to give you inaccurate information.

[Xairbusdriver]

The Flash drive approach is something that Apple offer since this is the first OS they've ever offers without the DVD media. They are selling a drive with Lion's installer on it at a whopping $65-70! They have been known to put that installer on a customer-supplied flash drive, but I'm not sure there is any company-wide policy on that. I don't know what size their drive might be, but the Installer is less than 4GB in size. You would be well served to call ahead about bringing your own flash drive in. And I would get the name of the person you talk to, if he agrees this service is available (an email reply from him should be great). That person (probably a "Genius") should also be able to tell you the minimum size drive needed and what else they might put on it. Be sure to mention that you do not have Snow Leopard, BTW.

I made my own installer drive and included several non-Apple utility apps. But this requires an install of the actual OS on the drive, not just the Lion installer, so the size needs to be well above the 4GB minimum. Since you have a few days before getting to the store, I'd search for some larger flash drives and find a good price.

[Xairbusdriver]

I'm not sure what you mean by "Pages is cumbersome to work with fonts. It takes more clicks and palettes than AW." While it is easy and sometimes convenient to have the Fonts pallette open, I rarely do, I almost always use the generic Fonts/Style/Size/color/justification/etc. menus on the tool bar.

[attachment=2340:Font_List.jpg]
Fonts list showing a preview of each font.

[attachment=2341:Tool_Bar.jpg]
Basic/generic fonts settings tool bar
as seen in most applications I use...
Frankly, I'd not noticed that even the fonts
built-in styles were also displayed correctly
in this menu! Nice touch, IMHO

Of course, I always keet the Inspector open at all times as the Character/line spacing controls are only in the Text tab, along with the other ~20 text adjustments available! But it is indefensible for all the other controls it provides.

And don't forget the Paragraph and list Style Drawer where you can easily set up your own styles and apply with a simple click! Perhaps you haven't enabled that in the "Views" icon or the "Views" menu? New tools often need new workflows. Having the time to explore the many new features is sometimes a problem, of course. I don't have the pressures of earning a living while "playing" with new apps! Nor am I a 'power-user' of Pages (iWork) but I'm happy to attempt to solve problems you might come up against if you can take the time to explain them.

[Paddy]

You need an 8GB flash drive - the installer is slightly bigger than 4GB (or the formatting of the drive eats enough that 4GB isn't big enough). There is a script that someone developed that lets you use a 4GB drive, but to be on the safe side, take an 8GB one.

You're supposed to have Snow Leopard in order to install Lion - though not impossible to do what amounts to a clean install of Lion if you wish. http://www.macworld.com/article/161087/201...er_leopard.html Note the licensing requirements.

[Raven]

Went out of town and could not get both Snow Leopard and Lion on a USB Drive from the Apple store. So, I received Snow Leopard DVD first to be able to upgrade this weekend.

I followed Xairbusdriver's advice (thank you!) to use  "System Info and selecting "Software"->"Applications" Anything that shows "PPC" in the 'Kind' column will not work on Lion." Seems that will kill my use of Freehand v11 for logo design. Which I used a lot in the past. I will have to learn Illustrator CS4 to take its place. Which may take a while. :-(
So, I will be a while to get to Lion.

Are there any tips for upgrading from OS10.5.8 to 10.6 or just follow on-screen instructions?

I have 2 external back up hard drives. Neither one is bootable or has a System Folder as Xair suggests. I have no idea how to do that. Instructions anywhere?
Maybe that's another discussion.

[Paddy]

Raven, make sure one of the backups has everything you need to have backed up. Check to see how much of your internal drive is currently used - make sure the other hard drive has a greater capacity than that. Then download and install either SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner. My personal fave is SuperDuper - developer Dave Nanian provides terrific support. I'd suggest you get the paid version too - you can schedule your backups so that they're done automatically. Carbon Copy Cloner has a lot of the same capabilities, though tends not to have as good support and has (in the past) lagged badly behind when the OS has been updated.

Then, use SuperDuper to make a bootable clone of your internal hard drive on your external HD. There are instructions with the software.

Then test the clone (boot from it) to make sure that it all works. Boot from it holding down the option key - then select the external drive.

Note: it will take a fair amount of time to make the initial clone, depending on the amount of data to be copied (hours, in all likelihood). Subsequent updates of the cloned drive will go very quickly, since SD will only update the things that have changed.

Once you've got a working, bootable clone, update your internal drive using the DVD of Snow Lion. You can simply follow the instructions.