The Basic Installation

The installation process takes about an hour, but for the sake of your own psyche, you’ll probably want to set aside a whole afternoon. Once the installation is over, you’ll want to play around, organize your files, and learn the lay of the land.

Phase 1: The Installer

Here’s how you install Mac OS X 10.3 onto a drive that doesn’t have a version of Mac OS X on it already:

  1. Insert the Mac OS X CD. Double-click the Install Mac OS X icon in the CD’s main window. When the Restart button appears, click it.

    The Mac starts up from the CD and takes you directly to the first Installer screen.

    The installer will soon fall into a pattern: Read the instructions, make a couple choices, and click Continue to advance to the next screen. As you go, the list on the left side of the screen reveals where you are in the overall procedure.

    Tip

    You can back out of the installation at any time before step 6, just by choosing InstallerQuit Installer. When the Quit button appears, click it. Then eject the Mac OS X CD, either by holding down the mouse button while the computer restarts or, if you have a tray-loading CD drive, by pushing its eject button during the moment of darkness during the restart.

  2. Work your way through the Select Language, Welcome, Important Information, and Software License Agreement screens, clicking Continue each time.

    Important Information duplicates the Read Me file. The Software License Agreement requires you to click a button confirming that you agree with whatever ...

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