Re-installing the same software on an Apple??

[BentValve]

I got a question. I decided to go ahead and install the ilife disc my iMac came with. While it was installing I saw names that were in the dock, I was like hmm so I called the dealer I bought it from. He confirmed what I thought, I was installing something that was already on my iMac. I was like hmm, why did it not tell me this was already installed? He said don't worry , it will just install it again. This was early yesterday, later in the day I was seeing some buggy things in Safari , I checked for updates and I needed a bunch, so apparanty it installed a clean copy of ilife and erased what was in the PC . Prior to installing ilife my iMac was up to date.

This is not windows kinda stuff.
Id appreciate an explanation of all this and if you can give me ant tips id appreciate it.

thanks guys

 

[TheStu]

Ok, if you run the installer again, you will still only have 1 copy on the system, and all your pictures and home movies shouldn't be touched.

As for an explanation, I am not sure why the installer doesn't tell you that you already have a newer copy installed, or why you didn't notice that they were in the dock, or why the guy that sold it to you didn't tell that you already had iLife installed (for the record it is installed by default on every new mac that ships from Apple).

 

[mugs]

Not sure why the installer wouldn't tell you that you had a newer version installed, but allowing you to overwrite a newer version with an older version is normal behavior. It's not uncommon to want to use an older version of some software. You could also have multiple versions installed and functional at the same time if you want.

 

[TheStu]

I think that with iLife, if you are installing (for example) '09 off of the disk, and you already had a fully updated '09 installed on there then it will just overwrite.

If you have '08 on the disk and you have '09 installed then I think it will warn you. Unfortunately I have no way to test it right now.