Mac upgrade

[Wntr]

How do I update a Mac with Mac OS X v10.3.9 to v10.4.8?

[Buenchico]

Mac OS X 10.3 and 10.4 are separate 'reference releases'. You can't upgrade from one to another without purchasing the newer release. See 'A note on reference releases', here:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum =106704

Chris

[Gromit]

You are trying to upgrade from OSX v3 called Panther to 10.4 which is called Tiger. You will need to acquire Tiger on Disk ( you cannot go from 3 to 4 by using downloads). Once you have installed from disk, you will have to have broadband and do a software update to get absolutelu up to date.

However, the very latest version OSX 10.5 called Leopard is out on Friday. It has lots of wonderful new features. It can be purchased from Apple's on-line shops or Apple Stores.

[fo3nix]

As Gromit says, if your system support Leopard then wait a week and get that.

If it doesn't support Leopard (basically, G4 with processor less than 887MHz and less than 521MB RAM if I remember correctly), then buy Tiger from the Apple store, if you haven't already.

Once you've got it, with your Mac running, put the disc in and it'll get you to restart. Then, it'll upgrade the drive for you, hopefully leaving all your personal documents etc. intact.

Make sure you make a backup of at least your personal files (ideally the entire drive) before trying to do this!!

[Gromit]

If you do install Tiger from Disk, as fo3nix describes, to not forget to go to software update. The disks will probably install 10.4.1 and to get to the final version (10.4.10) you will have to download software.