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Archive and Install
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A lot of geeks swore by the Archive and Install method. With Archive and Install, the installer would copy your System folder to a folder called Previous System folder. The idea was that Mac OS X would leave your old settings around in case you needed them.
The process provided both peace of mind and a certain amount of geeky certitude for users. Peace of mind is worth a lot, and you can get it back with a Snow Leopard installation. The most obvious way to pull off an Archive and Install is to back up your entire drive (such as with Time Machine or a cloning utility such as Super Duper! or Carbon Copy Cloner) to an external drive, then do an upgrade on your target drive.
Backing up your entire drive is a great idea, and it is an especially great idea when you are upgrading to a new version of system software. To be super-safe, back up your entire drive to an external disk. If you have problems later, you can get any files you need from the backup or, in a worst case scenario, boot from the copy of your old drive.
A quick and dirty way to duplicate the functionality of Archive and Install is to make copies of key configuration folders such as the System folder. For this, all you need is a little hard drive space, the Finder, and administrative access to your computer: select the System folder, and then choose FileDuplicate from the Finder, and you've got a local copy of it (you'll probably be prompted for your password or the username and password of an administrative user).
If you duplicate the System folder before you install Snow Leopard, it will be there after you install Snow Leopard. If you have any problems (not likely), you'll be able to crawl through your old System folder to find the solution.
The process provided both peace of mind and a certain amount of geeky certitude for users. Peace of mind is worth a lot, and you can get it back with a Snow Leopard installation. The most obvious way to pull off an Archive and Install is to back up your entire drive (such as with Time Machine or a cloning utility such as Super Duper! or Carbon Copy Cloner) to an external drive, then do an upgrade on your target drive.
Backing up your entire drive is a great idea, and it is an especially great idea when you are upgrading to a new version of system software. To be super-safe, back up your entire drive to an external disk. If you have problems later, you can get any files you need from the backup or, in a worst case scenario, boot from the copy of your old drive.
A quick and dirty way to duplicate the functionality of Archive and Install is to make copies of key configuration folders such as the System folder. For this, all you need is a little hard drive space, the Finder, and administrative access to your computer: select the System folder, and then choose FileDuplicate from the Finder, and you've got a local copy of it (you'll probably be prompted for your password or the username and password of an administrative user).
If you duplicate the System folder before you install Snow Leopard, it will be there after you install Snow Leopard. If you have any problems (not likely), you'll be able to crawl through your old System folder to find the solution.
Erase and Install
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Usually Disk Utility won't let you erase your startup drive; if you try, you'll get an error. But since you booted from the Snow Leopard Install disk, your usual startup drive isn't busy and Disk Utility will happily erase that drive if you tell it to. To erase a drive, select it from the list on the left side of Disk Utility, click the Erase tab and click Erase. You'll get a warning, and when you choose Erase (instead of Cancel), Disk Utility will go about the business of freeing your hard drive of all that precious data you have built up over the years.
