Ticket Options

Question Details

TICKET ARCHIVE -> Upgrade to OSX Tiger

sammykay - Dec 21, 2005 - 7:59 pm

I would like to upgrade from my OSX Jaguar version 10.2.8 to the new Tiger OS, but I am concerned about all my 3rd party software. I have versions of Quicken, Retrospect, Photoshop/Illustrator etc. suite, Microsoft Office for OSX and I am concerned they will not operate once I upgrade. Do I need to worry about this or is there a mechanism in place that will allow these to run even if they have not been written to work with 10.4 (like some software that still works in the Classic environment?).

ishan - Dec 21, 2005 - 8:43 pm

I suspect you will have some problems with your third party software with the upgrade. I don't what versions of your Adobe apps you're using, some versions are compatible, while others are not. Your best bet is to check the websites for the apps in question and see whether they are compatible. Alternatively, you could ask a question in the forum here, or at macnn.com for an answer. Your applications which depend on Classic (OS 9) should work fine, but if you are planning to buy an Intel-powered Macintosh in the foreseeable future, you know that Classic will disappear at that point.

I am pretty sure that the latest Microsoft Office version (with all the patches, etc. from Microsoft) will run fine. In any event, after you upgrade to 10.4, if you have problems, an uninstall/reinstall of the major third party apps you use will probably be a good idea.

If I were doing this, I would clone my current boot drive to a second bootable drive. That way, if you have major problems post upgrade, you can always use your Macintosh with the cloned internal or external (FW only) hard drive as your boot drive while you troubleshoot your system. This is also an excellent way to have a complete backup. Carbon Copy Cloner (available at macupdate.com and versiontracker.com) is a freeware cloner that works well. Superduper 2.0 ($20) has a far better interface and also does incremental backups.

HTH and please let us know what happens. Have a safe and happy Holiday.

sammykay - Dec 29, 2005 - 8:02 pm

Thanks for your help. Could you give me just a little more guidance on cloning boot drive you mentioned? Do I need to get this extra software or is there a way to do it just using the operating system functionality? (in other words, can I just copy of entire hard drive onto the Lacie Firewire drive I already use for my backups?)

Thanks

ishan - Dec 30, 2005 - 8:48 am

No, you can't do a direct copy and have a bootable, identical drive. Either use Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper 2.0 ($20 and worth every penny). SuperDuper is exceptionally easy to use and can also be set to run automatically on whatever schedule your prefer. A demo version is available for download from versiontracker.com and macupdate.com.

sammykay - Dec 31, 2005 - 12:45 pm

Great. Thanks so much for the info and help. I will look into this!
Happy New Year!