Jess -
For the benefit of everyone in this thread who's giving you a hand here, please post in here:
1. What MODEL NUMBER your Macbook is (instead of guessing by year & type of case, etc. -- your Macbook is in the manufacturing range where Mountain Lion *might* work efficiently [IF your MB has enough RAM] or it might not work at all. Gotta tell us the exact model number to know for sure.), and
2. AND how much RAM your Macbook currently has (click the Apple icon, top left of screen, click on "About This Mac").
Go to this Apple Knowledgebase page: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1635
or here: http://www.everymac.com/ultimate-mac-lookup
for help in finding your MB's model number.
And when/if you find your MB's model number/year & time of year manufacture, etc, & want to do some DIY researching, then go here:
http://www.everymac.com/systems/by_capability/maximum-macos-supported.html
to find out if your MB can handle Lion and/or Mountain Lion.
But with either one of those, L or ML, I'd say that your MB should have a minimum of 4GB of RAM for comfortable use of your MB.
Or just go with Snow Leopard, Jess... 10.6.8. Much simpler. To get that, all you'd have to do is purchase just one O.S. -- *any* version of 10.6.xx on disk, install that, & then inside your new Snow Leopard v??, download & install the "Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1" from here: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1399 & then install that. That will take whatever version of 10.6 you initially installed all the way up to Snow Leopard version 10.6.8. After installing that Combo Update though, you should run Software Update under the Apple menu to completely update your 10.6.8. When you run Software Update it will tell you you that you need to install the Security Update 2012-004, among other things. Java's another one. You can skip the Java, but do install the 2012-004 Update. *BUT* prior to installing that Update, **DO NOT** move the Mail.app email application from the Applications folder to any other folder. Because if you do, you will be right back on here with a new problem.
And after running Software Update, if you're really set on someday having Lion or Mountain Lion, download & install the "Mac OS X 10.6.8 Supplemental Update" from here: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1429. What that Supplemental Update does is it readies & optimizes the personalized items you've got in Snow Leopard 10.6.8 for migration into Lion/ML when & if you upgrade your SL to L / ML.
Lots here, but essentially you've got to decide if Snow Leopard's good enough for your needs (which I believe w/ 99% certainty that it will be), which means that you'll have to buy only one OS: Any version of 10.6 on disk.
Or if you want to take the time, expense, effort & possibly some troubleshooting time too to go all the way up to Lion/ML, then that means that you've got to buy BOTH 10.6.xx, install that, update that, and then go buy the Lion/ML disk & install that on top of your fully-upgraded Snow Leopard. You cannot upgrade to Lion/ML straight from 10.5.xx. Gotta get it up to 10.6.8 first.
I hope this all helps you in your decision-making...
Step 1 though........ MODEL NUMBER, Jess. And RAM amount.
Kevin Kendall
