Issues with upgrading from Mac OSX Tiger to Snow Leopard?

Unclepetey

I have a MacBook running OSX Tiger 10.5 and am considering upgrading to Snow Leopard. At the same time I'm thinking it might be a good idea to upgrade to iLife '09 as well (I think Apple will be offering a good value upgrade for this when Snow Leopard arrives).

The thing I'm concerned about is what happens - for example to my current iTunes and iPhoto libraries - when I upgrade.

For example, doesn't iPhoto '09 organise photos differently to the previous version? My current iPhoto library has over 5,000 photos in it so I don't want to have to reorganise all of these again if it can be avoided.

Apologies if it's a daft question.

Thanks

macman

OSX Tiger is 10.4, not 10.5. Leopard is 10.5. If you are running Tiger you cannot upgrade straight to Snow Leopard. Snow Leopard can only be installed on an Intel based machine (not a G5).
If you can clarify what software you are runing on what hardware then more advice can be given.

Unclepetey

I'm sorry - typo.

I am running Tiger 10.4 on an Intel MacBook with iLife '06 and iWork '08.

Thanks

macman

Then you can't use the Snow Leopard upgrade, you have to purchase the full edn of Snow Leopard, or upgrade via Leopard and then the Snow Leopard upgrade
Look at post 23 for more info on these options.
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1891713&page=2

Unclepetey

Thanks - yes, I expected to have to purchase the full upgrade.

The other post doesn't explain what happens to iPhoto and iTunes libraries, though, which was my main concern.

Leopard

Unclepetey,

What you need is this.

For just £129 (with free shipping) it will enable you to leapfrog straight from Mac OS 10.4 Tiger to Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard - and it will also upgrade you from your current iLife '06 and iWork '08 to both their respective '09 versions.

In your situation, that's a remarkably good bargain (unless you should ever actually want Mac OS 10.5 for some reason) and you will have no problems with your libraries and the newer versions of iLife and iWork - they're very useful improvements on what you have.

You will, I assume, be backing up your present system anyway, before carrying out the upgrade, so you have nothing to worry about. You could always revert to it. But you won't want to!

Go for it! :money:

While you are about it, budget also for a new external hard drive on which to make automatic back-ups using Time Machine - a brilliant feature that was incorporated into Mac OS 10.5 and which is something which you've never had.


(Note that the five-user licensed version of the Box Set costs £50 more - namely, £179 - but you have not indicated any need for that.)

almillar

1. Back your data up. Could be as simple as copying your 'Home' folder (MacintoshHD/Users/Your Name) onto an external drive, then copying back after installation.
2. Your libraries will update fine.
3. Make sure you do number 1 FIRST!