Q: how to update to mountain lion

BEFORE UPGRADING...

First check the Compatibility of your Mac...

Upgrade to Mountain Lion

Then... Before attempting any Major Upgrade... get yourself an External Hard Drive... and create a Bootable Clone Backup of your current Hard Drive...

By far the easiest way to make such a Backup, is to use something like

SuperDuper  http://www.shirt-pocket.com/

or CCC  http://www.bombich.com/

That way, should anything untoward happen during the Upgrade,

you will NOT LOSE ANYTHING.

(Get an EHD that is at least equal to your current Drive...)

Also, Check here for compatibility of 3rd party Software you may be using...

http://roaringapps.com/apps:table

Purchase it from the Mac App Store.

(70141)