Let Snow do it's thing... to upgrade or to "clean" install...

FWIW I thought I'd share my intro to Snow. I've owned macs now for a few years. I've always done a reformat and fresh install... so clean install, or erase and install. Got my copy of Snow Lep today, and I thought to myself am I really going to spend a Friday night messing with everything that I have customized?
If your system is running properly... make a bootable back up of it... and let Snow Lep do it's thing. Done in 32 minutes here and everything seems to be working perfectly here.
Just thought I'd add my 2 cents to the discussions here. Happy upgrading!
John

and I thought to myself am I really going to spend a Friday night messing with everything that I have customized?
Somehow I know this feeling.

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Windows 7 upgrade: discs will include the option for a 32 to 64-bit upgrade via a clean install?

I would like to know whether the Lenovo Windows 7 upgrade discs will include the option for a 32 to 64-bit upgrade via a clean install? I called Mentor today and was told the answer is no, but I was hoping someone here could tell me differently.
If "no" is truly the answer, I would like to voice my complaint: The upgrade discs from Microsoft (i.e. the retail upgrade discs) include both the 32 and 64-bit versions, so I don't completely understand why Lenovo's upgrade program doesn't offer the same thing. I purchased my T500 in August, and back then Vista Ultimate 64 was not offered, so I chose Vista Ultimate 32 thinking that I could later upgrade to Windows 7 Ultimate 64. This assumption was based off of the info. on Microsoft's website indicating that all upgrades would contain the 32 and 64-bit versions. I even customized my computer with 4 gigs of RAM thinking that I could take advantage of the extra gig once I installed Windows 7 64.
I don't understand what Lenovo or Mentor Media have to gain by restricting a 32 to 64-bit install. I voiced this opinion to Mentor Media over the phone, who responded by saying that I should be happy since I am receiving a "free" upgrade. I don't think this is an accurate assessment for two reasons: (1) I had to pay $17.03 for shipping, and I still haven't received the upgrade and (2) The total cost of my computer was almost $3,000, and the purchase was made a mere few weeks before Windows 7 was released. $3,000 is a lot of money. I waited for the details of the Windows 7 Upgrade Program to be announced BEFORE purchasing my machine. When I finally bought my computer I accounted Windows 7 into the price I was paying. In addition, when I bought this computer I did so expecting good customer service as a given. Not providing a 64-bit upgrade without a rational explanation as to why does not qualify as appropriate customer service.
As most of you know, 4 gigs of RAM is useless with a 32-bit OS. Also, NOW Lenovo is building new T500s with the option of having Windows 7 Ultimate 64 (why wasn't Vista Ultimate 64 offered when I bought my computer???).  And the price for choosing Windows 7 Ultimate 32 is EQUAL to the price for choosing Windows 7 Ultimate 64, which proves that there is no cost difference. I just want to know what Lenovo has to gain by denying customers a 64-bit upgrade? There would really be no additional cost since as I mentioned before, Microsoft's retail upgrade includes the 32 and 64-bit OS on one disc. If anything I would think that it's costing Lenovo money to strip the 64-bit install from the upgrade discs.
Can anyone please address my problems? Do you think there is anyone at Lenovo I could contact to voice my opinions? I have been a loyal Thinkpad customer for over 5 years now, and I expect better from Lenovo. Thank you for reading!
moderator note: core question add to title, as stated in the forum rules and it will help others too answer your questions.

Daventry wrote:
Is there any way to request a 64-bit OEM? Why should Lenovo care whether I want a 32-bit or 64-bit as long as it's the same edition (Ultimate edition)?
if your system shipped with a 32-bit version of vista then you will be sent 32-bit windows 7 upgrade media.   the reason for this is two-fold.
first, because this is upgrade media, it's impossible to install a 64-bit version of windows over a 32-bit version.   doing so would require a clean installation and upgrade media simply won't allow this.   this is the case with retail media, too.   if you had 32-bit vista installed and wanted to upgrade it to 64-bit using retail media, you'd have to wipe your system or set up a dual-boot.
second, the COA (certificate of authenticity) on the bottom of your system is for vista.   because of this, your new license is of an upgrade from vista to 7.   this is how microsoft licenses it and it is their policy, not lenovo's.   microsoft's policy with OEMs is that you must install vista first, then upgrade to 7 (unless, of course, you purchased your system native with 7 on or after the 22nd).   since your original lenovo preload is of a 32-bit OS, the issue becomes circular and you'll have to refer again to the first reason.
i understand your frustration and wish this stuff were made easier for everyone.   it's repetative reading post after post of people with 4GB installed who don't understand the limitations of a 32-bit environment. i wish both manufacturers and users switched to 64-bit OSes sooner. the same thing happened when the industry went from 16-bit windows 3.11 to 32-bit windows NT4/95 and limitations went from 16KB all the way up to 4GB (which, in 1995, no one thought we'd ever exceed).   the difference is that people were complaining on BBSes over 14.4k modems instead of on GUI-based forums using broadband connections.   times sure have changed.
ThinkStation C20
ThinkPad X1C · X220 · X60T · s30 · 600

Upgrade media questions, clean installing, 32-bit to 64-bit, etc.

I have a Lenovo T500 in which I installed a trial version of Windows 7 about a month ago. My trial is going to end soon, 4 days to be exact. I've got all my files in a flash drive and plan and reinstalling the trial version one more time, since the shipment for my upgrade media was delayed for months. I am going to get it when I get back home, on the 18th.
With that said, will I have problems using the upgrade media disc, considering that I don't have a genuine windows key/license installed on the laptop right now?
Can I clean install rather than upgrade?
Will I be able to install 64-bit rather than 32-bit? The upgrade media sent to me is 32-bit because my original lenovo T500 was ordered with 32-bit vista (for whatever reason, when I ordered, the only upgrade option was going from home basic to home premium, with no 64-bit option). If not, is there anyway for me to use some other type of media that I can use my license key from Lenovo to clean install 64-bit?

The upgrade is NOT for the trial version of win 7, it is for vista.
Re-install vista, or restore to factory condition, and then
upgrade.
I think you MAY be able to contact Lenovo or Microsoft
and get 64 bit disk. If it was not offered, maybe not.

Will a Performance upgrade occur after clean install?

I currently have a three yr old MBP that had Leopard on it and was upgraded to Snow Leopard. I also upgraded the hard drive. Over the years, I have lots of programs and files and have a complete TM backup. I am thinking its time for some system clean up and was wondering if I do an ease and fresh install of Snow Leopard and then restore the TM data, would I see better performance that would make this excersie worth it? Was also thinking to so this at the time of Lion release. I know its time consuming and would like to get rid of the spinning beach balls that I tend to get and thinking that since its been a machine that has been a workhorse with two upgrades its time.
Thanks
jf

Yes, a fresh install will make your machine perform much better, but you should do a complete fresh install of programs and everything for best results, no TM.
What you should do is use a regular HFS+ Journaled external drive and move your files there for safekeeping.
Then c boot off the installer disk that came with your computer, use Disk Utility to Erase and format your drive HFS+ journaled and reinstall OS X.
Setup the machine with the same user and hard drive name as before (you'll see why later)
Then use the Snow Leopard upgrade, then do a Software update to get to 10.6.8
Doing it this way gets your free iLife that came with the computer on the 10.5 disks.
Next install your applications from fresh sources, then finally your files from backup.
When you replace your entire iTunes Folder, because you used the same user and hard drive name as before, all your playlists and music location in iTunes will work. It's because you matched the pathname.
That's it, it's really not that hard, it's just that you have to maintain the source of all your installed programs and any product keys you have.
Once your done setting this up, consider cloning your entire boot drive (no filevault or bootcamp) to a another, HFS+ journaled formatted drive using Carbon Copy Cloner (donationware) or Superduper (partial payware)
A clone of your boot drive is "hold the option key when booting" selectable as a boot drive.
However, you should ALSO use TimeMachine too, to gain the benefits of that, but each clone/TM/backup shoudl be on their own seperate drive, so you get the protection that your vital data is not all on one drive.
It's more work, but you get a highly clean and optimized system.
When OS X Lion comes out, you upgrade from the MacAppStore and then check for a update for CCC.
Good Luck.

When buying CS5 upgrade, will a clean install be possible?

Hi!
I do own CS4 Design Premium. Afaik some (all?) products have been completely re-coded (cocoa?) to support 64-Bit on OSX. As I would worry about some kind of mismatch when upgrading (I'm a big fan of clean installs) would it be possible to install CS5 from scratch or has CS4 be installed on the system?
Greetings,
J.

You don't need to uninstall CS4. The CS5 apps are totally separate and are not over written in the install process.
Bob

Idiots guide to clean install upgrade to Snow leopard to get lion

Hi- am a total novice and have had my Imac 9,1 (2.93 Ghz Duo core processor with 4GB RAM) for a couple of years and now I am on MAC OS 10.5.8 Leopard and really want to get ready for Lion when it comes. My Imac has an external hard drive (250GB) and a time machine, airport for itunes for music streaming, some Microsoft office suite. I bought the Snow Leopard 10.6.3 yesterday and want to clean install without losing all my docs and settings for all iphones/ipods etc. Anyone got an idea where I can find an idiot proof guide to doing this? I guess I will need to do this all again once Lion is available
Help much appreciated...

first of all, make a backup of your boot drive by cloning it to an external HD using e.g. Carbon Copy Cloner.
then simply pop in the install DVD and click on continue. the SL installer will upgrade OS X and leave everything untouched (unless it's incompatible) - it's that simple.
in case something does go wrong, you have your clone.

HT1338 I currently have Snow Leopard and am thinking of upgrading to Lion but have heard some bad things about it. Should I upgrade or not? What do you like/dislike about Lion?

I currently have Snow Leopard and am thinking of upgrading to Lion but have heard some bad things about it. Should I upgrade or not? What do you like/dislike about Lion?

It is indeed all down to what you need to do with your machine.   Snow leopard is an excellent OS and as Baltwo suggests you have to check out your current apps and programs because PPC won't work on any higher OS than the one you have.
Andy's comment is very interesting and, I suspect, insider knowledge based    Certainly I would wait for Mavericks now it is on the horizon ... and then add six months or so for the bugs to be ironed out.
Good luck, whatever you do.   I'm staying with Snow Leopard.

Upgrade Leopard to Snow Leopard or clean Install?

Hi,
I have a 2 1/2 year old iMac (24").
Recently I spent a lot of time tidying it up and deleting duplicate files to free up a lot of space.
Am I safe to upgrade to Snow Leopard or should I bite the bullet, put aside a lot of free time, and do a clean install and re-install all my programs?
I would appreciate any little advise people can give.
Regards,
Richard.

Hi Richard, if your cetain the Disk structure is OK. themn I've updated bpth Tiger/10.4. & Leopard/10.5 to SL/10.6 without problems, only caveat is if you have some 3rd party Extentions, or things like Safari Add-ons!
1. Insert the Mac OS X 10.6.x Install disc, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu at top of the screen. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
*Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.*
3. Click the First Aid tab.
4. Select your Mac OS X volume.
5. Click Repair Disk, (not Repair Permissions). Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk."
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
Then try a Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, reboot when it completes.
(Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive.)

I have an older mac, i purchased Snow Leopard so that i could upgrade to Yosemite but now it says Snow Leopard is too out of date to update to Yosemite!

So i have an older Macbook that ran Leopard and i was told via Apple that in order to upgrade fully to Yosemite i would first have to purchase Snow Leopard, then i'd be able to update to Yosemite for free. I got the Snow Leopard disc (it was scratched which REALLY ****** me off, since i paid $20, but it seemed to work installing the new OS so whatever), and it's now at version 10.6.3 - i tried to run software updates and it says it's successful, but that i need to restart my computer. Every time i try, the screen just freezes with the desktop image and never restarts. And now i can't update to Yosemite because i need to have 10.6.8! I am very frustrated and not sure where to go from here. Can anyone help?

Don't panic. You can download and install Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1. Then you can access the App Store in order to download Yosemite.
Meanwhile you need to reinstall Snow Leopard properly:
Clean Install of Snow Leopard
     1. Boot the computer using the Snow Leopard Installer Disc or the Disc 1 that came
         with your computer. Insert the disc into the optical drive and restart the computer.
         After the chime press and hold down the "C" key. Release the key when you see
         a small spinning gear appear below the dark gray Apple logo.
     2. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue
         button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
         After DU loads select the hard drive entry from the left side list (mfgr.'s ID and drive
         size.) Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window. Set the number of
         partitions to one (1) from the Partitions drop down menu, click on Options button
         and select GUID, click on OK, then set the format type to MacOS Extended
         (Journaled, if supported), then click on the Apply button.
     3. When the formatting has completed quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed
         with the OS X installation and follow the directions included with the installer.
     4. When the installation has completed your computer will Restart into the Setup
         Assistant. After you finish Setup Assistant will complete the installation after which
         you will be running a fresh install of OS X.
Download and install Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1.

HT1338 I am trying to get my system current. I am now running Mac OS X, version 10.6.8 (I believe this is "Snow Leopard". What should I upgrade to?

I am trying to get my system current. I am now running Mac OS X, version 10.6.8 (I believe this is "Snow Leopard"). What should I upgrade to?

The current system is OS X 10.8 which is downloadable from the App store, which you can upgrade to directly if your system meets the system requirements. Note that starting with OS X 10.7, PowerPC-based programs will no longer run. So, for example, people with Office 2004 got surprised when they upgraded and found that the older Office programs would no longer run. Newer Office programs are OK.

I'm running Snow Leopard, do I have to upgrade to maverick or can I just upgrade to the new one?

I'm running Snow Leopard, do I have to upgrade to maverick or can I just upgrade to the new one?

If your Mac's compatible with Yosemite, you can upgrade directly to it.
(116191)

Need Snow Leopard (in 2013), to then upgrade further. How to get it?

I have Leopard (10.5.8), from 2009. I need to upgrade to Snow Leopard in order to then upgrade to Lion, then Mountain Lion. How can I get / access / purchase / download / install Snow Leopard today, in 2013?
I live in Switzerland (nearly 3 hours away from the nearest Apple Store). I no longer have any guarantee or warranty so cannot get telephone advice without paying a lot. Looking forward to hear your suggestions!

Start by checking if you can run Snow Leopard:
Requirements for OS X 10.6 'Snow Leopard'
http://support.apple.com/kb/SP575
The OS 10.6 Snow Leopard install DVD is available for $19.99 from the Apple Store:
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC573/mac-os-x-106-snow-leopard
and in the UK:
http://store.apple.com/uk/product/MC573/mac-os-x-106-snow-leopard
but nobody knows for how long it will be available.
When you have installed it, run Software Update to download and install the latest updates for Snow Leopard.
You should now see the App Store icon, and you now need to set up your account:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4479
To use iCloud you have to upgrade at least to Lion, but some functions are only available in Mountain Lion:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4759
You can also purchase the code to use to download Lion (Lion requires an Intel-based Mac with a Core 2 Duo, i3, i5, i7 or Xeon processor and 2GB of RAM, running the latest version of Snow Leopard), or you can purchase Mountain Lion from the App Store - if you can run that:
http://www.apple.com/osx/specs/

I currently have OSX 10.4.11 and need to upgrade my software. I do not have Time Machine yet. My processor is an intel Core 2 duo. Do I have to upgrade to snow leopard 10.6.8 before upgrading to Mavericks?

I currently have OSX 10.4.11 and need to upgrade my software. I do not have Time Machine yet. My processor is an intel Core 2 duo. Do I have to upgrade to snow leopard 10.6.8 before upgrading to Mavericks?

Assuming your computer has the minimum system requirements yes, upgrade to 10.6.8 and then open the Mac App Store and upgrade to Mavericks. You can only get SL 10.6.x from Apple's online store, it is $20. Prior to upgrading to 10.6.x get an external HD and use a utility such as Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper and make a bootable clone of your system to safeguard all of your valuable data. In the event you have a problem the backup will be invaluable!!!!!
Considering your computer is at best a 2007 iMac I would STRONGLY recommend upgrading your RAM to 6GB, the maximum a 2007 machine can accommodate. You can buy this from either Crucial or OWC (www.macsales.com).
Another option is due to the age of your computer is considering buying a newer machine.

HT3606 I have Mac OS X version 10.5.8 and so im wondering what is the next step i need to get. i have tried to get snow leopard and other things and not having any lukck . can any one help me out pls.

I have Mac OS X version 10.5.8 and so im wondering what is the next step i need to get. i have tried to get snow leopard and other things and not having any lukck . can any one help me out pls.

If your Mac meets these requirements:
http://support.apple.com/kb/SP575
then you can order a Snow Leopard disk and install it.
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC573Z/A/mac-os-x-106-snow-leopard
Ciao.

Hi, I am trying upgrade to Snow leopard 10.6.8 from 6.3(trying to install Lion). After downloading the software i m getting a message "can not install on the HD, install 6.5 before proceeding further. I coud not understand. Any suggestions, I appreciate.

Hi, I am trying upgrade to Snow leopard 10.6.8 from 6.3(trying to install Lion). After downloading the software i m getting a message "can not install on the HD, install 6.5 before proceeding further. I coud not understand. Any suggestions, I appreciate.

install 6.5 before proceeding further. I coud not understand.
Just what it says - install os 10.6.5 before proceeding further. You can either do so through Software Update or use the Combo update from Apple's download site.
You should repair permissions and restart your computer prior to updating and upgrading.

Let Snow do it's thing... to upgrade or to "clean" install...

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