I took some time this weekend to upgrade my OS from OS X 10.5 (Leopard) to 10.6 (Snow Leopard). It’s been pretty well discussed that 10.6 doesn’t offer much in the way of new features for most end-users, but there are a couple of things that may make it worth your time. Most people gain about 7GB of hard drive space, and most people see a performance improvement. Most of the changes in 10.6 from 10.5 are under the hood. They’re things that make the OS run smoother. The focus is certainly on behind-the-scenes components, rather than ground-breaking eye-candy most OS updates are known for.
I look at OS upgrades as a time to do a little all-around system maintenance. As long as I’m taking time out of my day to upgrade my OS, I may as go all out, and upgrade what software & hardware that makes sense to upgrade. I originally bought this laptop (MacBook Pro) in the first half of 2007. It had a 160GB drive, of which, I’m using 150GB. At 93% full, I think it’s time to add more hard drive space. I’ve been wanting to do this for a while and the opportunity to do a fresh, clean install of the new OS was the perfect excuse.
First things first. The best way to go about making any major changes to your system is to first develop a plan. I create a check list that I can print out and physically mark off items as they’re completed. I like this, because it keeps me focused, I can review it several times before executing, and I can better ensure that I don’t miss a critical step.
Here’s my plan:
- Update any software that’s not compatible with 10.6. I was running Parallels 2.x, so I updated it to 4.0.
- Clean out old junk
I take this opportunity to get rid of any old or temporary files that I know I won’t need. I uninstall any applications I won’t be using or haven’t used in the past 6 months or so. The more junk you can clean out here, the better off you’ll be. There’s no need to bring over things you won’t need in the new installation. - Backup the hard drive
I’m paranoid. I backed-up my drive with SuperDuper, Carbon Copy Cloner, and Time Machine, and I verified I could boot to the SuperDuper and CCC drives. Overkill? Maybe. - Install the new drive
Now I was ready to install the new drive (500GB, Western Digital). Not all Mac notebooks have the same process to swap out the drive, so check the official Apple documentation for your machine. I have a MacBook Pro, and the process is quite involved, including the removal of about 25 screws. Jason Cross at Extreme Tech has put together a nice set of instructions for upgrading your hard drive on the MacBook Pro (2007) (this is my vintage of laptop).When opening your machine, be sure that you’ve got yourself properly grounded. The slightest static electricity can destroy your computer.
- Install the OS
After the hard drive upgrade, I popped in the 10.6 DVD, held the C key to boot the disc, and followed the on-screen instructions to install the OS. I came back an hour later to find the process complete.Because I planned to migrate my old information (user accounts, applications, documents, settings, etc.) from the backups, I created a temporary user account that did not match any of the accounts that existed on the old installation. You can’t migrate an account from the old installation, to the new, if the new installation has an account with the same name. In other words, the OS X migration assistant isn’t smart enough to think you might want to import everything from the old “User_Bob” into the new “User_Bob” account. After the migration completed, I deleted this temporary account. I chose to use Carbon Copy Cloner for my source of data, but the Migration Assistant could have used the Time Machine or SuperDuper data as well.
That’s it! All told, it took about 4 hours to complete everything. All my data came over nicely. Applications are running smoothly. The OS is much more responsive than before. And with a 500GB hard drive I’ve improved my storage capacity from 7% free space to about 70% free space. Not bad. The hardest part was upgrading Parallels. Due to some incomplete information in their documentation I hit a few snags, but they have a pretty good online support site that I was able to use to get passed the few problems.
Overall, the process was very smooth. I can certainly notice a difference in the responsiveness of the OS, and I feel better having much more drive space available.
Next upgrade will be to crank up the RAM from the current 2GB to 3 or 4GB.
