Can I upgrade from Tiger to Snow Leopard directly?

Question

Level 1

25 points

Can I upgrade from Tiger to Snow Leopard directly?

Hi, thanks for reading...

This is a very simple question and I apologise, but in my defence I did search for ages trying to find an answer to this question on the apple site...

My sister in law has an Intel iMac that is running Tiger and I need to upgrade it to a newer OS so that I can connect my her iPad and upgrade the iPad to iOS4.2. So what I want to do is to purchase the Snow Leopard upgrade and install this on my Tiger iMac.

Question: will this work?

Or do I have to upgrade to Leopard first (hence buy Leopard) then upgrade from Leopard to Snow Leopard (hence buy Snow Leopard). Obviously, I'd prefer to just upgrade directly to Snow Leopard.

I am not a power user of my Mac and really just use it for photos and iTunes

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

John

iMac Aluminium, Mac OS X (10.6.5)

Posted on Dec 23, 2010 2:09 PM

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Answer 1

thomas_r.

Level 7

32,031 points

Dec 23, 2010 2:14 PM in response to John Simmons

See my response here:

http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=12802727#12802727

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Answer 2

Russa

Level 4

1,343 points

Dec 23, 2010 4:18 PM in response to John Simmons

As long as you have an Intel processor based Mac you may upgrade from Tiger to Snow Leopard for $29.. in the UK it may be 29 BPS. 😉

Just to be sure, since you used the word "upgrade".. you need to buy the Snow Leopard DVD which is version 10.6, then upgrade with the incremental "upgrades" thru Software Upgrade to get the system to v10.6.5. You will not have to upgrade from 10.6.0 to 10.6.1 and so on, to get it to 10.6.5. It will go from 10.6 to 10.6.5 automagically.

Be sure to back up her Mac first though.

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Answer 3

rkaufmann87

Level 10

148,488 points

Dec 23, 2010 4:27 PM in response to Russa

Just to be sure, since you used the word "upgrade".. you need to buy the Snow Leopard DVD which is version 10.6, then upgrade with the incremental "upgrades" thru Software Upgrade to get the system to v10.6.5. You will not have to upgrade from 10.6.0 to 10.6.1 and so on, to get it to 10.6.5. It will go from 10.6 to 10.6.5 automagically.

In other words after you have successfully installed Snow Leopard run 10.6.5 Combo Update, from this link just bookmark it so you can easily locate it again.

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Answer 4

R C-R

Level 6

17,794 points

Dec 24, 2010 4:44 AM in response to Russa

Russa wrote:
As long as you have an Intel processor based Mac you may upgrade from Tiger to Snow Leopard for $29.. in the UK it may be 29 BPS. 😉

The Mac must also meet the minimum system requirements for Snow Leopard. Make sure it has at least 1 GB of installed memory & enough free space on the drive for the installation. Officially, 5 GB of disk space is enough but it is better to have substantially more for the OS to use after installation.

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Answer 5

Russa

Level 4

1,343 points

Dec 24, 2010 7:01 AM in response to rkaufmann87

Yep, the Combo update is the way to go!

P.S. The "Software Update" process only gives you delta-change or incremental updates; the Combo update gives you a complete refresh of the O/S. You'll have to download it to the desktop and run it from there.

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Answer 6

R C-R

Level 6

17,794 points

Dec 24, 2010 7:22 AM in response to Russa

Actually, if the currently installed OS is more than one incremental version behind the latest one, Software Update will automatically download the combo version instead of two or more deltas.

Also, the combos do not do a complete refresh of the OS. They only replace files that have been updated since the first "point zero" version of the OS was released. (To do that they would need to be as large as the original OS installer.) If you need to refresh the OS completely, you must install it again & then apply the updates.

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Answer 7

Dec 24, 2010 9:14 AM in response to John Simmons

I can assure anyone interested that the Snow Leopard disc purchased in the u/k for £25 can be installed on Tiger 0X 10.4.11 with no problems what so ever.

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Answer 8

Jan 7, 2011 2:32 PM in response to Russa

Hi, I'm wanting to go from 10.4.11 on my iMac Intel Core 2 Duo to Snow Leopard. I chatted online today with a Mac Rep and she stated that I need to purchase the Mac Box Set and cannot use the $29 Upgrade. So is she "wrong?"

Also, on Ebay I found Snow Leopard "Full Install" versions for sale versus "Upgrades." Not sure what that's all about...

Any insights would be greatly appreciated 🙂

- Christopher

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Answer 9

rkaufmann87

Level 10

148,488 points

Jan 7, 2011 2:35 PM in response to Macphilia

Yes she is wrong, as long as your computer has the minimum specifications for Snow Leopard you can buy the $29 upgrade and install Snow Leopard. However if you want to also upgrade iLife you will need to purchase the box set she recommended.

Roger

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Answer 10

Chris CA

Level 10

82,513 points

Jan 7, 2011 2:47 PM in response to rkaufmann87

However if you want to also upgrade iLife you will need to purchase the box set she recommended.

Or you can just buy iLife seperately.

$29 for SL plus $49 for iLife.
Box set is $129 but also comes with iWorks.

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Answer 11

rkaufmann87

Level 10

148,488 points

Jan 7, 2011 2:46 PM in response to Chris CA

Good point, so if the OP wants to get the latest version of OS X, iLife and iWork then the Box set is the way to go. If all she cares about is Snow Leopard the $29 upgrade DVD is the ticket.

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Answer 12

Jan 7, 2011 3:11 PM in response to John Simmons

Hi name is Robin in the u/k I have one of the original white 24 inch imacs, running on 2.16 ghz intel core 2duo, I also wanted to go on to snow leopard and was also advised that I would have to purchase leopard which as it turned out was cods wallop, before I tried the switch I also was running on 10.4.11 tiger. I purchased in the u/k snow leopard at a cost of £25 ie sterling,I had no problem in upgrading and am now running mac os x version 10.6.5, you must bear in mind it is the job of the assistant you spoke too to get the large sale out of you, if you only require snow leopard go for it. hope this helps.

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Answer 13

R C-R

Level 6

17,794 points

Jan 7, 2011 3:14 PM in response to Chris CA

And now, with the introduction of the Mac App Store, you can even buy the individual applications in iLife or iWork separately. The iWork apps are $19.99 a piece & the iLife ones are $14.99.

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Answer 14

Jan 10, 2011 12:11 AM in response to R C-R

I did it. I'm now on Snow Leopard via Upgrade and all seems to be good (so far!). Thank you for all the help!!!

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Answer 15

ajduguid

Level 3

650 points

Jan 10, 2011 3:18 AM in response to robin bix

To be fair I don't think they're doing it to get a bigger sale out of you. From some of the threads I've read here my understanding is the difference between the upgrade and the full retail version isn't down to any technical difference but a difference in the licence agreement. If I've understood correctly the upgrade disk at the low price is a nod towards the users that upgraded to Leopard at full cost as Snow Leopard was pitched as more an incremental improvement over Leopard.

It's a bit like the fact that Apple don't make the users life's **** by requiring validation etc when installing OS X but the fact that you can technically install the OS on multiple machines doesn't mean the licence allows you to do so. They still expect you to pony up for each machine.

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