Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, Tiger Edition

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 Tiger onto a drive that doesn't have a version of Mac OS X on it already:

1. Insert the Mac OS X DVD (or Cd). Double-click the Install Mac OS X icon in the Cd's main window. When the Restart button appears, click it.

   POWER USERS' CLINIC: Installing From an iPod

   All right, so you want to install Tiger onto a Mac that doesn't have a DVD drive.

   One option is to pay Apple $10 for a set of Tiger Cds. Wait until they come in the mail. Watch a lot of TV and eat a lot of frozen dinners.

   But if you have another Mac that does have a DVD drive (and can start up from an external drive), and you have an iPod too, here's a sweeter way.

   First, back up your iPod, if necessary; you're about to erase it. (You can skip this step if you use your iPod just for music. In theory, it's already a backup—of your iTunes music library! After you're finished with this little exercise, hook the iPod back up to the first Mac, and let iTunes sync all your tunes right back onto it.)

   Open disk Utility (in your Applications→Utilities folder). On the Erase tab, erase the iPod.

   Now click the Restore tab in Disk Utility. From the Source list at the left side of the window (shown here), drag the Tiger DVD into the top box, ...