Leopard users get 'blue screen of death'

Following its release on Friday, Mac OS X Leopard users have been encountering the dreaded "blue screen" error when trying to install the operating system.

Some Mac users upgrading to Mac OS X Leopard over the weekend have reported their systems becoming frozen on a blue screen while trying to reboot after the initial installation of the software and losing data, such as photos, stored on the machines as a result.

According to the Apple support site, the error may have been caused by a conflict with third party "enhancement" software for previous versions of OS X that some users had installed.

However, according to posts on discussion forums over the weekend, the problem is not confined to users with third party software installed on their systems.

Apple has since posted a fix for the problem on its support website, suggesting users perform an "archive and install" installation of the upgrade, which relocates all existing Mac OS X system files into a folder labelled "previous system".

The issue is currently the top search on Apple's support site, with a link being posted to the solution via its top 10 ranking.

Apple declined to comment on the issue.

Marcus Browne writes for ZDNet Australia