New PowerMacs

Dual 2.0, 2.3 and 2.7 GHz Models, Not Dual core

www.apple.com—powermac

Double Layer Super Drives, 512MB RAM, ATI Radeon 9600 and 9650 GFX

$1,999, $2,499 and $2,999 USD

Reduced Pricing on Apple Cinema Displays

20" $799

23" HD $1,499

30" HD $2,999 and the 17" Powerbook now has built-in support for the 30" display.

Rumor: New International iTunes Music Stores

Music.ch claims (German) that Apple will be launching the iTunes Music Store for Switzerland as well as Denmark, Sweden and Norway on April 28th (Thursday).

Australia is also expected to open April 28th.

Flag images for Australia, Switzerland, Sweden, Norwary, and Denmark are now accessible on Apple's "Phobos" server

Rumor: .Mac 3.0

Maybe also announced Friday

Backup. backup. backup

Save files to a second hard drive, DVDs or CDs

At least backup your Users folders.

Programs

Apple's Backup 2, free with .Mac

Dantz Retrospect Desktop

www.dantz.com—index.dtml

Carbon Copy Cloner

www.bombich.com—ccc.html

List of what each OS X folder is. This may help some of you determine what to backup.

www.onebutan.com—Special_Folders

Verify System Requirements and Compatability

System requirements

* Macintosh computer with a PowerPC G3, G4 or G5 processor
* Built-in FireWire
* 256MB of RAM
* 3GB of available hard disk space (4GB if you install the developer tools)
* DVD drive, can exchange for CDs for $9.95

Apple Media Exchange Program

Apple Media Exchange Form (PDF)

Check Compatibility

Both hardware and software

Make sure software is up to date and that hardware has the all the latest firmware.

Make sure you Mac's firmware is up to date.

Check the manufacturer's web site.

Prep for Install

Do Housecleaning

Boot from current OS X CD and use Disk Utility to perform maintenance

Check Disk and Repair Permissions

Disconnect any non-Apple peripherals, including hard drives.

Choose Type of install

In the third phase of Setup ("Select Destination"), there is an Options button that's quite easy to miss. However, if you want to do a clean install, you'll need to click that button first, and not the Continue button. Otherwise, you'll simply upgrade your existing install by mistake.

Upgrade

Archive and Install

Format and Install

Play comment from Dave

Upgrade

Insert the install DVD, run the installer and follow the instructions. When prompted choose Upgrade. And let it fly.

Archive and Install

Insert install DVD and run the installer. Follow the instructions and when prompted select Archive and Install.

Most users will just want the default installation, but advanced users may want to customize to leave out Languages they don't need.

This is where the old OS X system is moved to a folder in the root level of the hard drive called "Previous System" and the new System is installed. Most settings, etc. are copied over. Remember to check the "Copy over Users and Settings" checkbox (or something to that effect). That way your old data is in its place. If you don't, just remember: Don't Panic!. Your old data is in that Previous System folder. Delete it after a couple of weeks of not using it... that way you regain your hard drive space.

Format and Install

Make sure you have a full backup.

Make sure all users have done this.

Deauthorize iTunes.

If you use iSync do a final sync.

Make sure you have all your install disks, download copies and serial numbers for all your software handy as you will be reinstalling those as well.

Format the drive using Disk Utility. If you really want to erase you can zero all data, but that is not necessary. Don't need to do 8 way write. If you are just going to do a simple erase you can do this step during installation.

Power user tip, partitioning

How to move your home folders to another partition (only Jaguar tested)

www.bombich.com—homedir.html

Post Installation

Run Disk Utility and do a repair permissions

Spotlight will slow you down at first

Will be indexing in the background for an hour or more, so don't worry if system seems slow the first few hours.