Upgrading to Leopard, what will I lose?

Question

Hey guys,
Wanting to give my macbook pro an upgrade, I just ordered a 320gb internal harddrive along a copy of Leopard. What is the best way to install both without losing software and music?
My biggest worry is that I will lose a lot of my programs. I understand the retail copy of Leopard doesn't come with iLife, so will I be able to reinstall it from my Tiger disc? Also, I have legit copies of Microsoft Office Suite and Adobe Creative Premium Suite installed into my computer. However, I managed to lose those CDs... Is there any way to retain those programs without having to repurchase them? This would save me a lot of money....
Thanks guys! Your help is greatly appreciated!

Answer 1

ppshr150 wrote:
What is the best way to install both without losing software and music?
(Please read the entire post before proceeding with my recommendation for this.)
1. Install your original drive in an external enclosure. See for example the discussion at Apple - Support - Discussions - After using Migration Assistant to set up a new MacBook, can I swap disks? for some suggestions about choosing a suitable enclosure.
2. Install your new drive in your MBP.
3. Attach the old drive in the external enclosure to your MBP with a suitable cable & boot from the Leopard installer disk (insert it into your MBP, hold down the "c" key & start it up). Note: you may also wait to attach the old drive until step 10 below.)
4. After selecting your language but before installing anything, go to the "Utilities" menu & select "Disk Utility." (It will launch, replacing the installer application onscreen.)
5. Select the new drive from the list on the left. (This will usually appear as a model number plus a capacity.) You will see a "Partition" tab appear on the right of the window when you select the drive. Click that tab.
6. Select a "Volume scheme" from the popup with that label. (Select "1 partition" unless you have need for more than one volume on the disk.) Optional (recommended): Name the partition(s) with something more meaningful than "Untitled" so you can identify it/them later on. Important: make sure the "Format" choice for the partition to receive Leopard is "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)."
7. Click the "Options..." button & select "GUID Partition Table." Click "OK." Click the "Apply" button. Wait about a minute for this step to complete. (You will be notified when it is.)
Note: steps 4 through 7 are not mandatory but insure that the drive is properly formatted. Some users also recommend "zeroing the drive" (a security feature available in the "Erase" tab) as part of this process. I believe that is a useless extra step that is a waste of time (it takes several hours to complete) & stresses the drive for no good reason (it is several hours of continuous write operations) but if you wish, do that as well at this time.
7. Quit Disk Utility. You will be returned to the Leopard installer automatically.
8. Select the newly formatted partition as the target for the Leopard installation. Be careful not to select your old drive's partition by mistake. (This is why it is a good idea to give the new one a meaningful name in step 6.)
9. The default install option for this partition will be "Install Mac OS X" (since there is no old OS for an "Upgrade Mac OS X" or "Archive & Install" to use). I recommend using this option instead of Erase & Install -- there is nothing to erase. Click the button to allow the install process to run.
10. After the install process is complete, your Mac will restart automatically. You will see the "Welcome" movie & then Setup Assistant will automatically run. After a few basic questions you will see the “Do You Already Own a Mac?” pane, where you will be asked if want to transfer information from another Mac or from another volume attached to this Mac. Select the 'from another volume' choice & Migration Assistant will run. Your old drive, attached to the MBP by Firewire, should show up as a volume for this choice. Choose it.
11. Migration Assistant gives you a choice of migrating User Accounts, Applications, Network and Computer Settings, & Files and Volumes. To insure that your applications & user accounts(s) are migrated, make sure you chose them at this time. Basically, choose everything except possibly any obsolete or unwanted extra user accounts or Files and Volumes (if you don't want other folders you have created at the top level of the drive migrated over.) Note: Migration Assistant will not transfer older versions of your newly installed Leopard apps (like Mail, iCal, etc.) so you don't have to worry about sorting out duplicates.
12. When the process completes, which can take up to a couple of hours if you have very large numbers of files to migrate, it is a good idea to restart your MBP. This is optional but insures that all the components are initialized when you first use them.
13. Note: For a few applications, it will be necessary to reenter license or registration data (like a serial number or registration code) before you can use them on the new drive. Typically, this is because they are keyed to the drive's ID for anti-piracy reasons. Because of this, it is a good idea to write down this info before starting the replacement process, & to refer to the licensing info for them to see if there is any mention of "unregistering" the app or limiting how many times it may be installed. If you don't have the license or registration data because the documentation for it is lost or misplaced, you can usually get it from an "about this app" window when you run the app. If necessary, you can reboot from the old drive to do this but it is more convenient to do it beforehand.
There are other ways to do what you ask, like making clones & transferring them among drives, but the above method is actually quite straightforward & easy to do. Almost every step is accompanied by onscreen instructions or prompts that guide you through the process. It leverages the programming of Migration Assistant that (for instance) won't install old versions of the apps included with Leopard. Very little can go wrong, but if something does, you still have the old drive to fall back on -- the process does not change it in any way -- so you can try again if necessary.
Edit Note: I started writing this before anyone else responded to the original message & did not see the other replies until after I posted my own. (I took some time to research the exact wording of what would be seen onscreen & so forth.) Hopefully, this explains the duplication of some of the info & makes it clear that none of my comments were aimed specifically at any other user's advice.