Mac Lab Report

Problems Upgrading to 10.1 to Jaguar

- 2002.11.11

I've been experimenting with OS X ever since 10.1 came out. If SASIxp would run in Classic properly, we could switch over right now at school. We have hundreds of OS X installers sitting around not being used because of that single fact.

Being cautious, I formatted an iBook 500 hard drive last year with two partitions. The partitions were supposed to keep the dual boot OSes I was using (9 and 10.1) separate from each other. I installed OS X in a small partition (2 GB) and kept most of my work files on the larger partition.

I've reported elsewhere on my mostly positive success with OS X, and in a nutshell I like it so much that as soon as I can afford to switch over all my mission critical software (in particular Network Assistant), I plan to go all OS X. I found OS 9 comfortable and familiar, but OS X 10.1.5, while far from perfect, is interesting and exciting to work with. Round 1 of my adventure was pretty much a draw, based on my desire to switch to OS X but my practical requirements to stay in OS 9.

This summer I bought a brand-new CRT iMac for my sons, and along with it I got an OS X up-to-date certificate that I used to purchase a Jaguar upgrade disk for $20. Since my sons' computer is going to be running OS 9 for some time, I decided to install the Jaguar update on my laptop.

The installer required 1.2 GB of hard drive space. I deleted all the apps, preserving only some settings files and my iPhoto libraries on the main partition. I deleted the user I created when experimenting with IRAF, a Unix-based image processing program. I deleted all my user documents after copying them. I deleted everything I could, and I still needed hundreds of more megs free.

I finally decided to delete the system folder itself, since everything else was gone. Blank, my 2 GB partition only showed 1.6 GB free, meaning there must be many invisible files still taking up space. Initializing the partition took care of that.

Then I found out why they call it an upgrade disk - you have to have OS X installed first.

I suspect if I do a minimal install of OS X on the partition, there won't be enough hard drive space left to install Jaguar on top of it. If you're going to upgrade, make sure you have at least 1.2 extra GB free and clear before beginning. I would recommend 2-3 GB free as an absolute minimum if you can swing it, due to the way those extra invisible files seem to be multiplying.

In the meantime, it's OS 9, 2; Jaguar, 1. If I'm going to do this, I may have to reformat the drive and reset it to one partition. You know what they say . . . nothing is ever as simple as it ought to be.

Recent Mac Lab Reports

Microsoft Word 2004 vs. iWork Pages 1.0 for writing a book, 2008.01.10. Microsoft Word is great for technical writing, powerful yet slow, while Pages lets you concentrate on just writing, making it great for novels.
iWeb a great tool for quickly creating an attractive website, 2007.09.11. Apple's iWeb software isn't just easy to use, it also integrates nicely with .mac and other programs in the iLife bundle.
Use your Bluetooth phone to control your Mac? Maybe, 2007.02.27. Salling Clicker software turns many Bluetooth phones into remote controls for Bluetooth-equipped Macs.
More in the Mac Lab Report index.

Links for the Day

Mac of the Day: Macintosh Portable, introduced 1989.09.20. The nearly 16 lb. behemoth was innovative but not a smashing success.
February 13 in LEM history: 01: Layoffs may hurt Mac market - 02: Unix for the Mac - Rage against the Macintosh - 03: Options to move data from PCs to Macs - 04: Low cost RAM for older 'Books - 06: Apple, IBM, and Intel - 07: Picking the right cheap computer, new or used - 08: I needed to find an older Mac
Support Low End Mac

Recent Deals

About LEM Support Usage Privacy Contact

Mac Lab Report copyright © 2000-08 by Jeff Adkins. Low End Mac is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. Entire Low End Mac website copyright ©1997-2012 by Cobweb Publishing, Inc. unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iPad iPhone, iMac, iPod, MacBook, MagSafe, Mac Pro, Apple TV, and AirPort are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.
Advice is presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work for all. Please report errors to .
LINKS: We allow and encourage links to any public page as long as the linked page does not appear within a frame that prevents bookmarking it.
Email may be published at our discretion unless marked "not for publication"; email addresses will not be published without permission, and we will encrypt them in hopes of avoiding spammers. Letters may be edited for length, context, and to match house style.
PRIVACY: We don't collect personal information unless you explicitly provide it. For more details, see our Terms of Use.

Custom Search

Follow Low End Mac on Twitter
Join Low End Mac on Facebook

Low End Mac Reader Specials

TypeStyler 11 is now in the Mac App Store!! -- Special Introductory Price of $59.95!! -- To Buy From The Mac App Store Click Here Now!! Or buy direct from Strider Software.

Don't install Parallels to play poker online! Poker Mac will show you how to download and install a native Mac poker and Mac Casino applications in minutes.

Affiliates

Amazon.com
The Apple Store
The iTunes Store
PC Connection Express
GainSaver
Parallels Desktop for Mac
eBay