Morning Driver,
A couple comments on your procedure. You didn't mentioned if you have read thru the "Taking Contol" ebook, so here's some additional thoughts for step 5: It's not as automatic as you write, you must activate the assistant. Re-writing step 5: After the install is completed, a screen will appear asking "Do you already own a Mac?" And at the bottom it asks "Would you like to transfer your information?" Select the radio button that reads "from another volume on the mac" then push "Continue". If you skip this step, you lose the setup assistant option.
(There are some important steps prior to "erase/install" from the eBook, I'll just list some of them: Repair permissions (using Disk Utility), Verify Hard Disk (again from Disk Utility), Remove any applications you no longer use, and very important: Update all you OSX applications before upgrading to Leopard.)
The setup assistant next brings up an options page: You can opt to transfer USERS, NETWORK and OTHER SETTINGS, APPLICATIONS, and one mystery option "FILES and FOLDERS on VOLUMENAME". Go ahead and check them all, including the "FILES..." option. It (FILES and FOLDERS...) refers to root level files, library files and stuff your applications need to run properly. Why it is an option is the mystery. A very last option "OTHER HARD DISKS" may appear if you have other volumes connected, and the answer is likely to NOT transfer this data.
The eBook also cautions that some /system files will not be transferred, such as some drivers and some kernal extensions. This may cause some applications to fail if they depend on these things. The eBook has a procedure for restoring these things at a later point, after the Leopard install. Third party keyboards and mice are effected.
New Step 5b: After Leopard installs and releases the unit back to you AND prior to installing parallels, test the Leopard install and all your OSX apps and devices and make any necessary tweaks. You want your OSX volume up and running with no issues before you install parallels, otherwise IT GETS COMPLICATED. For mine, I had to unplug and replug my keyboard and mouse before they worked properly. It turned out later that my HP Officejet had issues with Leopard with regard to scanning, but at this point the printer worked. At this step, I would go online and install any outstanding OSX upgrades such as Itunes, Quicktime and upgrade Leopard itself up to 10.5.2. Make sure at this point that your /DOCUMENTS/PARALLELS folder is in it's proper place. Compare the folder with your backup, check file names or the like. Get all of that working, then
New Step 5c: Make a bootable copy of your tested/debugged/tweaked/up-to-date Leopard install. This protects you in the remote case that the parallels install in step 6 goes haywire. It will save you going all the way back to Tiger world and starting over.
Step 6: Install Parallels. At this point, a piece of cake.
To your questions:
Build 5584: I installed directly from the downloaded build 5584 dmg file without issue, including no request for my ID. It is complete. I believe your license info is kept in the ~/documents/parallels folder and is found by parallels once you start the newly installed app.
Yes, it is the "Install Parallels Tools" option under the "Action" menu. Good question, the parallels update docs always say "be sure to install windows tools after upgrading", but then you can never find anything called windows tools. I guess it's generically named "parallels tools" so it can activate tools for linux and other OS's as well as windows.
Yes, once you install parallels build 5584, you should be able to run windows as before. I'm gonna pitch that eBook one more time, because it does contain procedures for the after-install to help restore any apps that wont operate properly. But at any rate, after installing parallels, start it in the usual manner. Once the windows window appears, DON'T start windows, but go to the Actions menu and click the "install parallels tools" option, then you can start windows. If it asks for license info, OR the windows window does not appear after you first start parallels, it means parallels hasn't found your parallels folder in ~/DOCUMENTS/PARALLELS/. For my install, all my windows applications and devices worked fine, no tweaking was required.
Best build: I dunno. I'm running 5584. I tried asking that same question on the forums and never did get an answer. I would go with the latest version.
Backup Twice? After reading the parallels forums when Leopard first came out, there was so much angst with crashing systems and unbootable units that I got pretty paranoid and embarked on making this very tedious little procedure. It worked. I never had to go back and reload a backup and start over. But stuff happens, no two computers are alike. Having backups staged along the way is just good insurance. The backup prior to the parallels unistall may be a wee bit paranoid.
If you ever visit MacFixIt forums, they have some great tutorials available, and you'll find that the above process is pretty much par for any upgrade. Going with the default "install" option is a crap-shoot. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. The general MacFixIt sequence for any upgrade/update is: Clean up the system. Repair permissions. Make a bootable backup. Upgrade.
Somewhere I read that your Mac is not a refrigerator (runs till it dies), it's a 55 Chevy and you got to open the hood frequently if you want it to run reliable and smooth. Both Apple but especially Microsoft would have us think these are refrigerators. I think that's what makes any windows pc degrade rapidly after two years time: it builds clutter upon clutter until it can only stutter.
The Firewire drive will speed things along considerably. CarbonCopyCloner is a great utility for making a bootable no frills backup, it's freeware, but so good I sent the guy some money. My firewire/carboncopy does one gig per minute making bootable clone. Get the eBook, there's a few pages you want to print out before you embark. Bring some entertainment with you.
And remember, it's only complicated because we're dealing with windows. It's redundant to say complicated and windows in the same breath.