Avoiding Trouble in the Move to Mac OS X, Part 2

by Adam C. Engst <ace@tidbits.com>

Mac OS X may be the future of the Macintosh, but for many people, it still isn't part of the present. Unless you purchase a new computer with Mac OS X pre-installed, moving up from Mac OS 9 isn't as simple as installing the software and getting back to work. In last week's issue, I offered a number of considerations for determining whether or not you should upgrade to Mac OS X and how to get ready for the move. In this installment, I want to cover some steps for making the move as painless as possible.

<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06848>

Prepare Your Hard Disk

Before you start installing Mac OS X, you need to spend a moment thinking about your hard disk. Many people recommend partitioning your hard disk into two volumes, one for Mac OS 9 and another for Mac OS X to simplify the process of reinstalling Mac OS X should something go horribly wrong. Some people prefer even more partitions. It's a personal choice, but my take on the subject is that for most people, partitioning is unnecessary and will cause more annoyance in the end.

Until I got my Power Mac G4 with its 10 GB hard disk, formatted with HFS+, I always partitioned my hard disk into three volumes: one for the operating system, one for applications, and one for documents. I'd kept that partitioning scheme since my first 30 MB hard disk because it worked around the block size inefficiencies of HFS and reduced backup needs somewhat. But it also increased the complexity of navigating the Finder and Open dialogs, cluttered the Desktop, and complicated my backup strategy. I didn't mind it too much until I switched to a single partition, which turned out to be far less stressful to use.

Plus, when Apple ships a new Mac with Mac OS X, it comes as a single partition. That says to me that Apple considers a single partition the default setup and has thus devoted more testing resources to that approach. In short, if you want to partition your hard disk for separate Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X volumes, feel free, but I consider it optional. If you choose to do so, be very careful about your backup strategy to make sure you're backing the necessary data on all partitions. Also, it's easier to set up multiple partitions if you have a large external hard disk around to hold your data while you're reformatting and repartitioning the disk (plus, it provides a secondary backup for added peace of mind).

Although the Mac OS X installer does check your disk before installing, I still recommend running Disk First Aid (or Alsoft's DiskWarrior, if you have it) manually before installing to make sure you're clearing up any disk corruption. Another potentially useful thing to do would be to defragment the hard disk first so all of Mac OS X's tens of thousands of files are laid down contiguously - you can use a tool such as PlusOptimizer or Tech Tool Pro, or you can back up your data, reformat the drive, and restore everything from the backup. No matter what, make at least one full backup of your entire hard disk, just in case. I know we say that frequently, but it's truly important with such a major operating system upgrade.

<http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/> <http://www.alsoft.com/PlusOptimizer/> <http://www.micromat.com/>

If, like me, you've decided to pop a new hard disk in your Mac before upgrading to Mac OS X, you'll get the advantage of a nice clean hard disk with no fragmentation, since restoring from backup or duplicating one hard disk to another also eliminates fragmentation. Even better, this approach gives you an automatic backup, since you could always put the old drive back in if necessary.

Install in Order

It's finally time to install. If you're lucky, you have a Mac OS X 10.1 CD-ROM. I wasn't so lucky - although I had a 10.1 upgrade CD-ROM, that would only update an existing 10.0 installation. I spent hours installing 10.0, letting Software Update bring that copy up to snuff, installing the 10.1 upgrade, and letting Software Update do its thing again. I might have been able to skip some of the intermediate 10.0 steps, but frankly, because I don't know exactly how everything works inside Mac OS X, I didn't dare, and I don't recommend you do either. Let's give Apple the benefit of the doubt here and assume they know what they're doing when they say that updates to Mac OS X must be applied in a certain order. Be sure to read the following two articles from Apple's Knowledge Base before starting the installation process.

<http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106718> <http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106692>

If you have only a slow modem connection to the Internet, relying on Software Update to download all these updates could extend the upgrade time over several days. As I noted in the first part of this article last week, a better approach would be to download the various updates manually when convenient, and then apply them yourself. The only trick here is making sure you get the order right - I don't know if the installers for each update are smart enough to prevent you from making a mistake. The Knowledge Base article below provides links to all the necessary installers and tells you the order in which they should be installed.

<http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106713>

The main Mac OS X installers and Software Update offer to let you install a number of optional components, most notably the BSD subsystem and developer tools, but also additional printer drivers and updates for Apple devices like AirPort hardware and the iPod. Assuming that you're not trying to cram Mac OS X into a too-small hard disk, I recommend you install most of these optional bits (it's safe to skip language kits for languages you don't understand) because it's not entirely clear that you can install some of this stuff after the fact. Disk space is cheap, and Mac OS X is still too much of a black box to second guess Apple's installers.

In the end, you should have a stock Mac OS X installation. Go ahead and explore a bit and try things out, but remember that things will feel different once you finish your configuration.

Install Applications & Utilities

The next step is to install the Mac OS X-specific applications and utilities that you've downloaded. I don't recommend dragging programs from your Applications (Mac OS 9) folder over to your Applications folder unless the application in question is already carbonized, such iView MediaPro. It's better to build up your Mac OS X collection of applications more slowly and consciously to avoid confusion about what's new and what's old. Plus, if you do need to switch back to Mac OS 9, all your Mac OS 9 applications will be ready and waiting where you expect them to be.

I do recommend that you install all Mac OS X programs into your Applications folder. Some programs simply won't work properly unless they're in the Applications folder - for instance, if you move the Retrospect Client folder out of your Applications folder, the Retrospect Client application will turn itself off (that's a bug that Dantz knows about and will be fixing). In short, for now, take it easy on custom hierarchies. With time, it shouldn't be a big issue, but unless an application claims explicitly that you can place it anywhere, stick with the Applications folder. (And that includes the default Utilities folder inside the Applications folder.)

During this installation phase, you'll probably get sick of typing your administrator password (a good reason to keep it short and easy to type unless you're seriously concerned about crackers). Sorry, but there's no way around it, and as consolation, note that you don't have to restart your Mac after every installation or worry about what extensions were loaded when you're running the installers, as would have been necessary under Mac OS 9.

Once you've installed utilities, take a moment to configure them as you expect. For me, the most important step involved configuring MouseWorks properly for my Kensington Turbo Mouse's extra buttons, setting up QuicKeys X so I could switch to applications using my function keys, and entering the text shortcuts I rely on heavily. Until you've done this, Mac OS X will feel clumsy and foreign, but bringing back familiar interfaces makes all the difference.

<http://www.kensington.com/support/sup_1170.html> <http://www.cesoft.com/products/qkx.html>

Also take a few moments to familiarize yourself with the options available in the Finder's Preferences window (open it from the Finder application menu). The options surrounding window usage are perhaps the most important for those switching from Mac OS 9 - you will likely want folders to open in new windows all the time. The freeware ASM utility is extremely useful for bringing back the Mac OS 9 approach of tying all of an application's windows together when you switch to that application by clicking any of its windows.

<http://asm.vercruesse.de/>

Move Documents

Up to this point, nothing we've done is irreversible (though it's tricky, if not impossible, to remove Mac OS X from your hard disk should you decide you don't want to use it - manual deletion won't work, so reformatting and restoring from backup is probably your best bet). However, when it comes to arranging your documents, you have two options. You can move everything into your Mac OS X user folder, distributing it among the Documents folder and the other top-level folders that Apple provides by default, or you can create aliases to the appropriate folders so your files are equally as accessible in Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X. For instance, so I could read email in Mac OS 9 if I booted back into it, I moved my Eudora Folder into Mac OS X's Documents folder and made an alias to it in my Mac OS 9 Documents folder under the top level of your hard disk. I haven't had to use it under Mac OS 9 after the first few days, but it was nice not to have to worry about losing any email during that time. More generally, you could try aliasing the Documents folders to one another. (I couldn't find a simple way of using aliases to link the Mac OS 9 invisible Desktop Folder with the Mac OS X Desktop folder.) When in doubt, though, I recommend leaving the original in the place Mac OS X expects it and putting the alias where Mac OS 9 expects it - Mac OS X is pickier and more likely to squawk.

I'm sure that those of you with highly specific filing systems are already chafing at the default folders Apple provides. Ignore them if you want, but don't delete them. Apple and other companies are already assuming their presence, such as with iPhoto, which stores its iPhoto Library in the Pictures folder. Creating new top-level folders is up to you, though.

Use and Reassess

At this point, you're basically done with your installation and configuration, and it's time to start using your Mac as normally as possible. Obviously, some things are just different, such as the Finder column views and Dock, and you'll need to decide whether you like using those things or not. Don't write them off as a matter of course - the fact that they're different doesn't mean they're bad. Since I test lots of new utilities all the time, I treated Mac OS X's new approaches as though I'd just installed a new utility - some, such as the column view, I've decided I like using, whereas others, such as using the Dock as a launcher, I find to be a waste of time.

Give yourself a few days using Mac OS X, and take notes about what bothers you, what you find mystifying, and what gets in your way. I see a lot of generalized anger at Mac OS X for changing the way things were done in Mac OS 9, but a lot of the time when I ask people for details, it turns out that the problems are easily solved or explained. For instance, when my father first upgraded, he had lots of stuff stored on his Mac OS 9 Desktop. Since he didn't realize that's accessible only via the Desktop (Mac OS 9) folder alias in Mac OS X, he was furious that his files seemed to have disappeared. Once I realized what was going on, we solved the problem by moving everything from his old Mac OS 9 Desktop either into appropriate folders or to his Mac OS X Desktop.

Realistically, this process of usage and reassessment will go on for a while as you become comfortable with Mac OS X. Don't assume just because you're using roughly the same applications that you'll be zipping around in Mac OS X as fluently as you were in Mac OS 9 for some time. Even after using Mac OS X on my iBook since launch and using it non-stop on my Power Mac G4 for the last few months, I still occasionally run up against a brick wall. Then I have to stop, poke around a bit, ask questions of friends, and try to figure out a workaround. So far, I haven't been stumped by anything that matters, though Mac OS X's windowing logic (and I use the term "logic" extremely loosely) continues to irritate me on a regular basis - there's no good reason that a window belonging to a background application should ever appear over the front-most application, for example.

The upside of this process, at least from my point of view, is that every time I figure out something that wasn't obvious, such as how to delete a user completely, why files in my Sites folder aren't accessible via Web Sharing, or how Mac OS X uses some of those default folders, I want to write an article about it. We'll be publishing some of these how-to articles in the coming months, and if you have suggestions or requests for other short how-to articles, send them along to TidBITS Talk and we'll see what we can do.