Sandbox and Snow Leopard

[Randy Kahle]

I am using a Sandbox for my OS X updates.

Can I apply the Snow Leopard upgrade to the Sandbox and recover if it doesn't work?

-- Randy

[dnanian]

Although you can sandbox Snow Leopard from Leopard, I'd probably advise against sandboxing a major OS update like that... at the very least, make sure you make a full backup!

[Randy Kahle]

Dave,

Thanks for the reply.

I like to be careful with OS issues, so let me state the steps I think one should take using a Sandbox Leopard to upgrade to Snow Leopard and see if you agree.

* If Sandbox is stable, then Sandbox -> Main image
* Do a full SuperDuper backup of Main image
* Perform Snow Leopard upgrade on Main image
* Use SuperDuper to create a new Sandbox from SL

-- Randy

[dnanian]

That doesn't let you roll back, Randy, no. That would create a Sandbox under Snow Leopard.

[Randy Kahle]

Dave,

Yes - you are right!

Let me try a new sequence then for moving to Snow Leopard with a Leopard Sandbox.

* Confirm that Sandbox is working correctly.
* Update Sandbox -> Main image
* Apply Snow Leopard upgrade to Sandbox

Now you should be able to boot from Sandbox in Snow Leopard and access all of your applications and data. After running Snow Leopard and confirming that all is fine upgrade the whole machine to Snow Leopard. There seems to be two ways to do this.

Option #1:

* Do a SuperDuper backup of Main image (just to be safe!)
* Sandbox -> Main image (replacing Leopard with Snow Leopard)
* Main -> Sandbox to create a new Sandbox based on Snow Leopard)

(If SuperDuper will do this it truly rocks!)

Option #2:

* Do a SuperDuper backup of Main image
* Apply Snow Leopard update to the Main image
* Create a new Sandbox (Main image -> Sandbox)

-- Randy

[dnanian]

You forgot to back up your main image. You have to do this, Randy.

Anyway, if it's OK, I'd then upgrade the main image, rather than clone back. SL is a big change.