I have a Macbook Pro v10.5.8, is it possible to upgrade to Mountain Lion as thats what the Macstore is telling me to do?

Colin Robinson found this list of model idetenifiers (About This Mac > More Info) that can run ML:

MacBookPro4,1

Macmini5,3

Macmini5,2

Macmini5,1

MacBookPro5,1

MacPro4,1

MacBookPro5,2

iMac8,1

MacBookPro5,4

MacBookAir4,2

iMac11,1

iMac11,2

iMac11,3

MacBookPro8,2

MacBookPro3,1

MacPro5,1

iMac9,1

Macmini3,1

MacBookPro6,1

iMac12,2

iMac12,1

MacBook5,1

MacBook5,2

iMac10,1

MacBookPro7,1

MacBookAir4,1

MacBookPro5,3

MacBookPro6,2

MacBookPro5,5

MacBookAir3,1

MacBookAir3,2

Macmini4,1

Xserve3,1

MacBookAir2,1

MacBookPro8,1

MacBook7,1

MacBookPro8,3

iMac7,1

MacBook6,1

MacPro3,1

Also look at this for other applications that do not run under ML: http://roaringapps.com/apps:table

Upgrading to Mountain Lion

You can upgrade to Mountain Lion from Lion or directly from Snow Leopard. Mountain Lion can be downloaded from the Mac App Store for $19.99. To access the App Store you must have Snow Leopard 10.6.6 or later installed.

If you need to purchase Snow Leopard you can still purchase a copy from Apple's online store's telesales agents.[1-800-MY-APPLE (1-800-692-7753) or Customer Service and Sales Support at 1-800-676-2775.] Ask for a Sales Representative.

Third-party sources for Snow Leopard are:

Snow Leopard from Amazon.com

Snow Leopard from eBay

After you install Snow Leopard you will have to download and install the Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1 to update Snow Leopard to 10.6.8 and give you access to the App Store.

If you need to purchase Lion call 1-800-692-7753 or 1-800-676-2775. Ask for a Sales Representative. They will check your Apple ID, and email you a code and instructions. The cost is $29.99 (as it was before) plus tax. It's a download.

Be sure your computer meets the minimum requirements:

Apple - OS X Mountain Lion - Read the technical specifications.

Macs that can be upgraded to OS X Mountain Lion

1. iMac (Mid 2007 or newer)
2. MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer)
3. MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer)
4. MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer)
5. Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer)
6. Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer)
7. Xserve (Early 2009)

Are my applications compatible?

See App Compatibility Table - RoaringApps - App compatibility and feature support for OS X & iOS.

Am I eligible for the free upgrade?

See Apple - Free OS X Mountain Lion upgrade Program.

For a complete How-To introduction from Apple see Apple - Upgrade your Mac to OS X Mountain Lion.

Yes.

Follow Kappy's very detailed and very helpful guidance on upgrading.

have the MacBook Pro silver 2008 model and had upgraded it to Lion 10.8. As I had upgraded to a new iMac I gave the Laptop to my wife. I had transferred via Migration assistant from her Dell running Windows Vista. Unfortunately, I messed up the user accounts due to the way in which MiG Asst suggested I had two similar names, which then caused issues with filling my 250GB hard drive. In deleting User accts and other attempts to reclaim disk space, as I was faced with problems, I backed up to external drive. Then reformatted laptop and put back the Original operation OS X disks. Unfortunately I had overlooked these were V10.5.8!

I tried to use Migration Assistant via the external backup drive, but again worried about the warning about two similar User names. I understand that my latest Lion 10.8 is on the drive, but not confident how to recover it! 😕

Basically I want to put the Laptop back to its former state as a simple laptop for my 70 Yr old wife to understand and use with her iPad. All her original files etc are still on the Dell Vista Laptop.

Any help would be so appreciated...