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Step by Step How to Install OS X Leopard

So you went out and purchased Leopard to “make your mac into a new mac” but you want the low down from somebody who has already done the process. Below I go through the step by step process from unpackaging the Leopard Install DVD to the First Login Screen. This tutorial is for Mac owners who are upgrading from OS X Tiger 10.4 to OS X 10.5 Leopard.

Looking for a way to install Leopard from an External Firewire Hard Drive?

Unpackage Leopard

This is simply the most impressive packaging I’ve ever opened from Apple, Inc.

The front of the OS X 10.5 Leopard Packaging

The back of the box illustrates the new Finder, Spaces, Time Machine, Mail, and iChat features

The box slides open from the right revealing the usual “Designed and Engineered by Apple in California”

The OS X 10.5 Leopard Install DVD

Unfold the top to reveal Apple stickers and the Leopard Booklet.

Backup OS X Tiger 10.4 Before You Install

Before you install any new Operating System on a Mac it is highly recommended you backup your entire hard drive first to another hard drive, usually an external hard drive. This means we will take all our files and duplicate them onto another drive. It is really handy to own an external hard drive, mainly for this purpose and also if we want to take advantages of the instant backup nature of Time Machine in Leopard. So, before you install Leopard go out and purchase a Lacie or similar External Firewire hard drive. If you have a Mac Pro, G5 or MacBook Pro 17″ or most 15″ and 17″ PowerBooks, you should be shopping for an external hard drive with Firewire 800 connectivity. All other Macs should be connected to a Firewire 400 Hard Drive.

I used an Application called SuperDuper! to backup all the files on the internal hard drive running OS X Tiger 10.4 onto an external hard drive partition of the same size. It is highly recommended you do the same!

Time to Install Leopard!

Insert the OS X Leopard Install DVD into the Mac.

A window will automatically appear. Double Click on the Install Mac OS X.app icon.

Another window appears, click Restart.

Type in the username and password for an administrator of the computer.

The Mac will now restart. Do not be alarmed if the initial grey screen takes a couple minutes.

Choose your native language from the list.

Click Agree.

Select a Hard Drive to install Leopard onto. If you are upgrading, the installer will have already selected the previous version of OS X Tiger. If you wish to install onto a blank hard drive or are overwriting a previous Leopard install (Archive and Install), click the Options button. If you are upgrading from OS X 10.4 Tiger, click Continue and disregard the next step.

* Skip this step if you are just Upgrading from OS X Tiger.

If you are upgrading from OS X Tiger, make sure the first Option is selected. If you wish to fix something wrong with a previous OS X Leopard Install, select Archive and Install. This will reinstall the system files without changing the User accounts. Erase and Install will delete all your files on the Hard Drive and install a fresh version of OS X Leopard.

After you select the drive to install Leopard onto, this screen appears. Double check the destination drive is correct. If you click the Customize button, a window will appear that allows you to uncheck printer drivers and languages that are not necessary for your system. If you do not include all the languages, for instance, you can save a little more than 1 gigabyte of space. Click Install to begin the installation process.

The first step is to check the Installation DVD, this can be skipped (will save time) but is not advisable. The next two steps took my 15″ MacBook Pro Intel Core Duo around 1 hour 15 minutes to complete the entire install. So walk away from the computer and allow it to process the install.

My MacBook Pro took around 15 minutes to actually calculate the time necessary for the install. It was never correct. At first, the installer told me it would take 2 hours 43 minutes. It actually took about 1 hour and 15 minutes altogether.

Install Successful!

Click Restart or wait for the Mac to automatically Restart. After the computer restarts, enjoy the new Welcome Screen!

Wait for the Apple ID screen to appear (not pictured here). Enter your Apple ID and Password if you want or just skip this step because you can enter it manually in iTunes later. I was forced to skip this step on my MacBook Pro since my AirPort Card could not be turned on during this menu. The follow error message appeared because my AirPort was not on:

Register Leopard on the next screen, or skip the process entirely, your choice.

Again, my AirPort was not on so I could not Register. The following error appeared. It may go smoothly for you.

Answer the quick survey.

A small window appears asking if I would like to connect Time Machine to a certain hard drive (not pictured here). Time Machine allows me to back up my Mac on the fly. Well worth it now to go out and purchase an external hard drive for this task. I happened to have a drive set aside for Time Machine so I selected it and the Time Machine Preferences appeared. You can also place the backup alongside other folders on an external drive or another partition.

Select Software Update… from the Apple Menu. If there is anything listed, install any updates.

That’s all there is to it. Enjoy OS X Leopard!