on 9/22/02 11:02 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > I have a Power Center Pro 180 with a G3 processor upgrade. Now I want to > upgrade my system from the original bundled 7.6.1 to 8.6 (I am afraid to go > to 9.x or X because most of my software is old). I was told that I had to > upgrade FWB Hard Disk Toolkit from the original bundled 2.0.5 to the > current 4.5 to do the system upgrade, so I purchased and dowloaded it > online.
Hmmm. I upgraded from OS 7.6.1 to 8.5, then to 8.5.1 (can't remember whether I then went to 8.6 when the rest of the office did) without upgrading FWB Hard Disk Toolkit. That may be necessary when going to 8.6, but it wasn't the case for me going to 8.5. > Originally tech support at FWB told my I could just update my > drivers and leave the hard disk data intact; now they say that because the > original version was earlier than 2.0.6, I will have to reformat my entire > hard drive., which I definitely do not want to do. Is it only because of the hassle of backing everything up that you don't want to reformat? A good backup is a good thing to have anyway. And some believe that a reformat is the best way to reduce woes when upgrading to a new OS, regardless of disk driver issues. Indeed, a backup would be recommended advice. > They also told me that > the driver updates included on the new System installation disk will not > work because Apple does not support non-Apple drives (this drive is an IBM > DCAS-32160 S565A). Is that true? I think it depends on the drive and the version of Apple Drive Setup. For example, the Drive Setup that came with OS 9.0.4 worked just fine on two Seagate 9 GB ST39216N SCSI drives I installed. But I believe the OS 9.x Drive Setup is more forgiving of non-Apple branded drives than previous versions, much as Apple CD-ROM driver 5.3.1 that came with OS 7.6 (not 7.6.1) is more forgiving of non-Apple CD drives. If I were to bet, I would bet that the 8.6 Drive Setup won't recognize the IBM drive. > To complicate matters, my removable media drive is a Nomai 540, > which is not supported by HD Toolkit. It came with its own driver disk, > but I am worried that once I install system 8.6, it may not work any more > and I would lose all my files. (Unless I put everything on floppies.) > I am sure a lot of Power Computing owners must have put on later > Mac systems. Not familiar with this device. However, you obviously will want to locate the driver (and perhaps the Nomai Preferences file, if any) and save them to a floppy, unless you have the original software installer handy. > I want to know the easiest and most reliable way of > proceeding. I have the System 8.5 install CD and the 8.6 update CD, but I > apparently cannot install them until I update my driver. Are you certain about this driver matter? Have you tried to do a clean install? Here's a link to a shareware tool, Clean-Install Assistant, that I haven't used, but have heard recommended: http://www.versiontracker.com/moreinfo.fcgi?id=922&db=mac Here's the product description: "Upgrading a System Folder to a new version of Mac OS often takes a lot of time, because you need to figure out which files (extensions, control panels, printer drivers, application-specific items, special folders, etc ) to move to the new system and which ones to leave behind. "Clean-Install Assistant makes the process easier and faster because it does the sorting automatically (using its list of factory-issue Mac OS files). It'll carefully collect your additions and move them to a separate folder while you update the System Folder, then move them back to the right places inside the new one with a single click! " > I have HD Toolkit > 4.5 (compressed on my hard drive), but when I tried to de-compress it I got > a message saying it requires system 8.1. It seems like a chicken-egg > problem, even if I didn't have to re-format my hard drive and back up my > data! Would it possibly be a solution if I used an earlier version of Hard > Disk Toolkit that supports 8.6, but would not require re-formatting the > drive and can be installed under 7.6.1? Is there such an animal? If it were me, I would do a complete backup, then either: 1. Reformat the drive and install 8.5 (then 8.6). or 2. Try a clean install of 8.5 without updating the FWB disk driver, using Clean Install Assistant to help you, then upgrade to 8.6. Let us know how it works out. -- Chuck -- Power Computing is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... 123Inkjets.com <http://lowendmac.com/ad/123inkjets.html> Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> Power Computing list info: <http://lowendmac.com/power/list.html> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> List archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/powercomputing%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
