how to upgrade from snow leopard to mountain lion

Open the App Store (Applications folder or on the Dock.) Sign in with your Apple ID and password. Find the Mountain Lion download. Click on the purchase button (the one that displays the purchase price.) When the purchase is recorded the button will change to Download (or Install.) Click on the button and wait for the download to finish. It's 4 GBs so it can take up to a few hours depending on the speed of your Internet service.

When the download is complete the installer will launch automatically. Before you proceed I suggest reading:

Make Your Own Mountain/Lion Installer

1. After downloading Mountain/Lion you must first save the Install Mac OS X Mountain/Lion application. After Mountain/Lion downloads DO NOT click on the Install button. Go to your Applications folder and make a copy of the Mountain/Lion installer. Move the copy into your Downloads folder. Now you can click on the Install button. You must do this because the installer deletes itself automatically when it finishes installing.

2. Get a USB flash drive that is at least 8 GBs. Prep this flash drive as follows:

1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your flash drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to an hour depending upon the flash drive size.

3. Locate the saved Mountain/Lion installer in your Downloads folder. CTRL- or RIGHT-click on the installer and select Show Package Contents from the contextual menu. Double-click on the Contents folder to open it. Double-click on the SharedSupport folder. In this folder you will see a disc image named InstallESD.dmg.

4. Plug in your freshly prepared USB flash drive. You are going to clone the content of the InstallESD.dmg disc image to the flash drive as follows:

1. Double-click on the InstallESD.dmg file to mount it on your Desktop.
2. Open Disk Utility.
3. Select the USB flash drive from the left side list.
4. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
5. Select the USB flash drive volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
6. Drag the mounted disc icon from the Desktop into the Source entry field.
7. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.

When the clone is completed you have a fully bootable installer that you can use without having to re-download Mountain/Lion.

Note: The term Mountain/Lion used above means Lion or Mountain Lion.

As an alternative to the above you can try using Lion DiskMaker 2.0 that automates the process.

Thanks so much for that Kappy. Ready to proceed.

MagnusPym

Here's yet another question about upgrading from OSX v 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard) to OSX Mountain Lion. We have 2 PC's (both with iTunes & iCloud & iTunes Match. I have all my music on my office PC but with iTunes Match the music is in "The Cloud" and available to our 2 iPad's (iPad 3 & iPad 4). Our iMac (late 2006 model) is not connected to "The Cloud" because it's OSX is Snow Leopard 10.6.8. I would LOVE to upgrade to Mountain Lion and be able to access "The Cloud" and all my music BUT in the Tech Specs for Mountain Lion it states that one of the requirements is: an iMac that is a 2007 model or newer. Our iMac is a late 2006 model 2.16 GHZ Intel Core 2 Duo with 3 GB of 667 MHZ DDR2 SRAM. What changes were made between the late 2006 iMac and the 2007 iMac that would make the 2006 "NOT UPGRADEABLE" 😕 😕

You need 4GB of RAM

Would it work just as well to copy the downloaded installer of Mountain Lion on to a DVD?