Install new HD, upgrade OS and other questions

[Brownie58]

Hi folks,

I have a 20" iMac, bought it a year before the aluminum models came out. My HD is getting pretty full, and while I'm having no major problems w/ performance, it's about time to replace the HD. I've pretty much decided on using a Hitachi Deskstar 1TB HD. I'm also planning to buy 2 more Deskstars for external storage, using a toaster setup for those.

Since I'm doing all this, I might as well upgrade from Tiger to Snow Leopard. I'm not quite sure of the best way to go about it. First, I plan to copy my entire 250GB HD to the external drives (temporarily). Then I'll install the new Deskstar in the iMac. So far so good.

QUESTION: How best to proceed from here? Can I simply install the Leopard upgrade on the new HD? I'm guessing not. Should I move everything from the original HD over to the new one and then upgrade, or would it be better to just do a clean install of Tiger and run the upgrade?

Thx

 

[simsaladimbamba]

QUESTION: How best to proceed from here?
1. Can I simply install the Leopard upgrade on the new HD? I'm guessing not.
2. Should I move everything from the original HD over to the new one and then upgrade, or would it be better to just do a clean install of Tiger and run the upgrade?

Thx

1. Yes, as the Snow Leopard Upgrade DVD is a fully working Retail version of Mac OS X and does not need a prior version of Mac OS X installed on the HDD you want to install Snow Leopard onto.
2. A clean install might be better, just use Migration or better Setup Assistant to copy your user back onto the iMac with the new HDD.

 

[Brownie58]

1. Yes, as the Snow Leopard Upgrade DVD is a fully working Retail version of Mac OS X and does not need a prior version of Mac OS X installed on the HDD you want to install Snow Leopard onto.
2. A clean install might be better, just use Migration or better Setup Assistant to copy your user back onto the iMac with the new HDD.

Thanks for clearing things up for me, I appreciate it. I guess the only thing I'm wondering about now is...if I do a clean install of Snow Leopard, will the OS see my previous settings from Tiger and re-install them when I move things back? I can always try it one way, and if there's a problem...try it the other way.