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lintait68

Q: Should I upgrade to OS X Yosemite 10.10.3?

I just got a new hard drive. It's OS x. Should I upgrade to Yosemite or El Capitan?

MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2012), iOS 9.1

Posted on Dec 28, 2015 7:12 PM

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Q: Should I upgrade to OS X Yosemite 10.10.3?

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  • by Kappy,

    Kappy Kappy Dec 28, 2015 7:13 PM in response to lintait68
    Level 10 (270,942 points)
    Desktops
    Dec 28, 2015 7:13 PM in response to lintait68

    You may only upgrade to El Capitan:

     

    Upgrading to El Capitan

     

    You can upgrade to El Capitan from Lion or directly from Snow Leopard. El Capitan can be downloaded from the Mac App Store for FREE.

     

    Upgrading to El Capitan

     

    To upgrade to El Capitan you must have Snow Leopard 10.6.8 or Lion installed. Download El Capitan from the App Store. Sign in using your Apple ID. El Capitan is free. The file is quite large, over 5 GBs, so allow some time to download. It would be preferable to use Ethernet because it is nearly four times faster than wireless.

     

          Macs that can be upgraded to OS X El Capitan

     

     

             1. iMac (Mid 2007 or newer) - Model Identifier 7,1 or later

             2. MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer) - Model Identifier 5,1 or later

             3. MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later

             4. MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer) - Model Identifier 2,1 or later

             5. Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later

             6. Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later

             7. Xserve (Early 2009) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later

     

    To find the model identifier open System Profiler in the Utilities folder. It's displayed in the panel on the right.

     

         Are my applications compatible?

     

             See App Compatibility Table - RoaringApps

  • by lintait68,

    lintait68 lintait68 Dec 28, 2015 7:32 PM in response to Kappy
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Notebooks
    Dec 28, 2015 7:32 PM in response to Kappy

    I don't think I have Lion or Snow Leopard. It only says OS X 10.9.5. I'm starting from scratch after losing my hard drive. I want to be able to load Photos. I'm hesitant to download something that I don't know about. If El Capitan is safe I'll do it. 

  • by Kappy,

    Kappy Kappy Dec 28, 2015 7:52 PM in response to lintait68
    Level 10 (270,942 points)
    Desktops
    Dec 28, 2015 7:52 PM in response to lintait68

    10.9.5 can be upgraded to El Capitan. If you had Lion or later pre-installed when the computer was new, then do this:

     

    Install or Reinstall OS X from Scratch

     

    Be sure you have backed up your files because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.

     

    Boot to the Recovery HD:

     

    Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears.

     

    Erase the hard drive:

     

      1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.

     

      2. After DU loads select your startup volume (usually Macintosh HD) from the

          left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.

     

      3. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Optionally, click on

          the Security button and set the Zero Data option to one-pass. Click on

          the Erase button and wait until the process has completed.

     

      4. Quit DU and return to the main menu.

     

    Reinstall OS X: Select Reinstall OS X and click on the Install button.

     

    Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible

               because it is three times faster than wireless.

     

    This should install the version of OS X that you had installed.

  • by Eric Root,

    Eric Root Eric Root Dec 29, 2015 12:09 PM in response to lintait68
    Level 9 (71,210 points)
    iTunes
    Dec 29, 2015 12:09 PM in response to lintait68

    I have no problems with El Capitan.

     

    One option is to create a new partition (~30- 50 GB), install the new OS, and ‘test drive’ it. If you like/don’t like it it, you can then remove the partition. Do a backup before you do anything. By doing this, if you don’t like it you won’t have to go though the revert process.

     

    Check to make sure your applications are compatible.

     

    Application Compatibility

     

    Applications Compatibility (2)


     

    El Capitan 10.11 Compatibility information

    Open Disk Utility, select your hard drive (step 1), then the Partition tab (step 2), and select the partition. Using the /// at the bottom move it up (step 3) until the size box decrease by about 50 GB. Select the newly created space and hit the + button (step 4). Name it something and select Mac OS Extended (Journaled) as the format (step 5). Then hit the Apply button(step 6). Download the installer from the App Store and when it starts, point it at the new partition. You might want to make a copy of the installer outside the Applications folder to avoid having to re-download it in the future. Once installed, go to System Preferences/Startup Disk, select the new partition and reboot. Test away.