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General discussion

OSX advice, please

Jan 2, 2006 7:55PM PST

Dear Mac wizards:

Can anyone advise if I can upgrade an old iBook (600 MHz, Power PC G3, 640 Mb memory, 20 Mb hard drive) running OSX 10.2.8? I want to use an iSight camera, which says on the box 'requires 10.3 or later'. Will this machine run 10.3? Can it handle 10.4.x Tiger?

Any tech help much appreciated, thanks.

Discussion is locked

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I think this has been answered
Jan 2, 2006 9:00PM PST

off forum.

Please advise.

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In case you missed it
Jan 2, 2006 9:00PM PST

The highest OS I would go to with this machine is 10.3.9
With the older G3 processor you would be pushing things to keep up with 10.4 and that is not as things should be.
Every machine has it's limitations and in this case it is the G3 @ 600Mhz.

I should run quite happily with Panther, I have a number of iMacs that are doing just that but on the only one that I experimented with, it choked on Tiger. It did actually run but it was like treacle going uphill on a cold day!

I used the Archive and Install method to move from 10.2 to 10.3 and did not have any trouble whatsoever.

Good luck.

P

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Many thanks
Jan 2, 2006 9:20PM PST

Thank you, P. Sorry, your off-forum reply did turn up in my mailbox. Forgive me being impatient, your help is very welcome.

Now, to chance my arm a little further, can you describe the 'Archive and Install' method? I've plenty of time up on Macs, just don't recognise this.

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Archive and Install
Jan 2, 2006 10:33PM PST

When you start the install process for Panther,or any other Cat, you will find that the default option for the installation is Archive and Install.
This method takes all your personal data, your user folder, along with any other settings your have changed, network for example, and puts them in a safe place. It then installs a brand new system on to the HD. On completion of the install, it goes off and retrieves your old data and puts it in the correct, user, folder and then puts all the settings back to what you had them at. You end up with two System folders and the one marked "Old", or similar, can be deleted.
It's rather like a Clean Install on OS 9 and below.

P

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Thank you.
Jan 3, 2006 3:26AM PST

Understood. Thanks for your patience.

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Small drive
Jan 6, 2006 4:39AM PST

Do you really have a 20mb hard drive or was that mb suposed to be a gb.

Ian

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(NT) (NT) Size isn't everything
Jan 6, 2006 8:01AM PST
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(NT) (NT) But it's 95%! In HDs I mean.
Jan 7, 2006 6:07AM PST