> In article <Help.Needed-70D370.12133623012008@news.TITANnews.com>, > Help Needed <Help.Needed@hotmail.com> wrote: > > > HOW DO I SWITCH TO INTEL? > > The first thing you would have to do is buy an Intel Mac. > > > My current OS is 10.4.11 on the PowerPC. > > > > Will my current set-up run on a new INTEL, do I need to do some major > > re-installing, do I need to simply upgrade to 10.5? > > You will get 10.5 with the Intel Mac; by now, I'm sure that all stocks > of Macs with 10.4 installed have been sold. > > > I have no clue how to make the transfer from PowerPC to Intel, and > > keep everything working on my external HDs, including the external > > bootable OS on the HD. > > I think that you would have to reformat the external drives with the > GUID partitioning system. To do this, you would have to back up the > drive, reformat it, and restore the data, then install Leopard.
No, that isn't necessary. In fact, if the OP wants to continue booting his external hard drive on a PowerPC Mac, it must retain its current partition system (Apple Partition Map).
An Intel Mac can boot from APM, but it won't let you install the OS onto that drive.
Probably the best solution (given the peculiar requirement of booting a shared external drive) is to buy a retail copy of 10.5 and use a PowerPC computer to upgrade the OS on the external drive (after taking a complete backup for safety).
The resulting system will be able to boot both an Intel Mac and PowerPC Mac, but there are some problems that will be encountered:
1. You can't install firmware updates on an Intel Mac if you are booting from an external APM drive. You must have the interal drive partitioned as GUID (standard) and it must have a 10.5 system on it. You will have to boot from that system in order to install any firmware updates.
2. If you buy an Intel Mac which is "too new" then the retail 10.5 DVD won't support it, and you will have to update the system to a later version before it can boot the new computer.
Apple are already supplying 10.5.1 on new Leopard DVDs, and my observation is that this edition appears to be new enough to support the late 2007 MacBook model, but probably not the early 2008 Mac Pro (or any future releases).
If you buy a newly released model, you might have to wait until Apple releases an updated retail Leopard package before you can proceed with setting up the shared drive.
If you buy a model which existed before Leopard was released (e.g. current MacBook Pro, which is rumoured to be upgraded very soon) then the retail Leopard will work with it.
As far as licencing is concerned, you should be buying the Leopard retail pack anyway, as the copy of 10.5 included with a new Intel Mac is only licenced for use on that computer. I'd go as far as saying you should have a family pack, since you are using the system to boot at least two computers that didn't come with 10.5, even if it is only one physical installation of the operating system.
