Snow Leopard 101: For Smart People Only

[Jay Soriano]

is there a difference between creating a disk image and just duplicating the disc(apple+D)?

[Alexander Kallas]

Not to add to this controversy, but the SL installer (unlike previous systems), does not have the “clean install” option. Does Apple consider this unnecessary?
Could it be that 3rd party software is what causes the eventual problems from an overwrite?

Cheers
Alexander

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Jay Soriano] “is there a difference between creating a disk image and just duplicating the disc(apple+D)?”

Oh yes. Don’t duplicate as that won’t make a bootable clone. A disk image is an okay idea, but then you have to restore that disk image to another disk. It’s best to just clone your system to another disk as then you can actually use it right away (simply choose it as a start up disk) in case the other disk goes bad.

Jeremy

[Jan Bliddal]

Do you mean that American cars comes with out a ugly red light on the dashbord when it needs an Oilchange?

Back on topic I did not clone my drive first and it works perfectly in the 2 hour test I had time to make yesteday. The drive I did the install on was a less than one week old fresh Install of Leopard with FCP Studio 3 and nothing else no plug ins zip nada. My old FCP Studio 2 that works perfectly is sitting on an other harddrive in my editing machine.

Let the machine work for you. Not you for the machine

[Marshall Colley]

” Changing the oil” is an interesting analogy but a bit too simplistic and not really accurate….maybe comes close if you’re using synthetic oil and changing the filter every month. There’s no doubt doing a clean install and wiping the drive is the safe way to go, but reinstalling all your other apps including endless updates and the reorganization of your computer where you have already spent countless hours….will only take more time then most of us have.

Digits aren’t like used oil and aren’t always clogging up your system, especially if you do periodic computer maintenance. I did a simple SL 10.6 upgrade on my Mac Pro workstation with it’s 28 Gig of applications: FCS3, CS4 Suite, Office apps, including many graphic and audio apps, some of which are still PowerPC (I custom installed Rosetta) and everything works except for a few apps, some of which are on the Apple incompatibility list such as Director MX 2004.

Everything went as smooth as a baby’s butt with the system as rock solid as before. Of course, I’m not a heavy user like many of the pros here and haven’t put the system through the “stress test” that the banks supposedly went through 🙂 but things look good and it only took a little time compared to what a clean install would require. Of course, BEING SMART, I used Super Duper to clone the 10.5.8 system to another hard drive which I will keep for a while until the stress test is over.

My advise if you have a ton of apps, and fret at starting from scratch again, is try the update first, if your system seems tight and everything’s working to specs you’ve saved your self whole lot of headaches and time reinstalling everything. On the other hand, if it chokes and performance is down and problems start popping up, change the oil or boot from your back-up until you have to time to deal with it.

[Mark Slocombe]

I have a Snow Leopard ‘Upgrade DVD’, because we bought a MBPro recently; would I be right to think I need another Full DVD to do a clean install?

Mark Slocombe
CreationVideo Ltd
https://www.creationvideo.co.uk

[Jeremy Garchow]

I doubt it. All of my fcp disks have been upgrades, but they are full installers. If you have a clean disk, I am sure Snow Leopard will install. Haven’t tried for myself yet as all my devices aren’t ready for Snow Leopard.

Jeremy

[Mark Slocombe]

Cheers – is a ‘clean’ disk in this case one which is completely erased, then install OS then apps from scratch?

Mark Slocombe
CreationVideo Ltd
https://www.creationvideo.co.uk

[David Roth weiss]

[Mark Slocombe] “I have a Snow Leopard ‘Upgrade DVD’, because we bought a MBPro recently; would I be right to think I need another Full DVD to do a clean install? “

Not if you have the serial number from your previous version of FCS. At the start of installation it will request the older serial number and will not proceed without a one.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.

[Jeremy Garchow]

[David Roth Weiss] “At the start of installation it will request the older serial number and will not proceed without a one. “

Not for Snow Leopard.