2007-10-29
Got my Leopard (a.k.a. Mac OS 10.5) today, but shortly into the install it stopped with an error message, suggesting I reboot and try again. The second time it told me that all data on the drive was lost, and offered to reformat it so I could start clean.
I booted from another drive, but all attempts to repair the drive failed... it wouldn't even mount.
Fortunately, I had a 100% mirror of the drive taken during the night by SuperDuper. I'm restoring the internal drive now, and then I'll try the upgrade again. If it fails again, I'll have to do a fresh install and then copy stuff over from the backup as I need it. Most application settings and passwords will be gone, so that will be a chore. Better than losing the data, though.
I've done maybe 50 Windows upgrades over the years, with never a problem. For now, I'll just call this a fluke. I'm pretty sure I'll never know what the problem was (is).
(More to come, once the restore is finished and I complete, or fail to complete, the upgrade...)
OK... back now...
After the restore, which took a few hours, the Mac rebooted from its internal disk just fine, and the upgrade to Leopard went without a hitch... So, the lesson is: Do those mirrored backups every night!
Off now to play around with Leopard...