leftshoeoff
Level 1
(0 points)
Q: Novice upgrading Lion to Mountain Lion
I got my MacBook Pro in June, 2012 and it is certainly compatible. It came with Lion pre-installed. I now want to upgrade to Mountain Lion and I have some questions. I've read many of the posts and I am thankful I did. Those posts prompt some of my questions. (I apologize ahead of time if most of these questions appear like they come from a moron. I'm not that; just totally inexperienced with Mac's. This is my first one.)
- I downloaded the Mountain Lion installer on September 27th but did not run it because I did not have an external drive to make a bootable backup of Lion as recommended. I now have an external drive. When I downloaded the Mountain Lion installer I was running Lion 10.7.4 and still am. In October, Lion 10.7.5 became available but I have not installed it. Should I install 10.7.5 before I run the Mountain Lion installer? Is my Mountain Lion installer for 10.7.4 since that is what I was running when I downloaded it? If I update to 10.7.5 will I need to try and download the Mountain Lion installer again?
- In Disk Utility I get the following Permissions errors:
2012-12-26 18:21:10 -0500: Disk Utility started.
2012-12-26 18:21:20 -0500: Verifying permissions for “Macintosh HD”
2012-12-26 18:21:23 -0500: Group differs on “Library/Image Capture”; should be 80; group is 0.
2012-12-26 18:21:23 -0500: Permissions differ on “Library/Image Capture”; should be drwxrwxr-x ; they are drwxr-xr-x .
2012-12-26 18:21:24 -0500: Group differs on “Library/Image Capture/Support”; should be 80; group is 0.
2012-12-26 18:21:35 -0500: Permissions differ on “Library/Printers/hp/cups/Laserjet.driver/Contents/PlugIns/SmartPrint.plugin”; should be drwxr-xr-x ; they are lrwxr-xr-x .
2012-12-26 18:25:18 -0500: User differs on “Applications/.DS_Store”; should be 0; user is 501.
2012-12-26 18:25:18 -0500: Permissions differ on “Applications/.DS_Store”; should be -rw-rw-r-- ; they are -rw-r--r-- .
2012-12-26 18:25:24 -0500: Permissions differ on “Library/Internet Plug-Ins/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin”; should be lrwxr-xr-x ; they are drwxr-xr-x .
2012-12-26 18:25:24 -0500: Group differs on “Library/Preferences/com.apple.alf.plist”; should be 80; group is 0.
2012-12-26 18:25:31 -0500: Warning: SUID file “System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/MacOS/ARDAg ent” has been modified and will not be repaired.
2012-12-26 18:26:21 -0500:
2012-12-26 18:26:21 -0500: Permissions verification complete
These errors do not appear on the list of Permission Errors you can ignore (http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1448). Should I repair these permissions before I make my backup or do the upgrade? They are not causing any problems currently and if I have to go back to Lion because the Mountain Lion upgrade fails, it doesn't seem like they will bother me then. Will they cause any problems with the upgrade?
- The external drive is 1TB. It seems like I should set up several partitions before I put anything on it; one for the Lion bootable backup, one for a copy of the Mountain Lion installer (or will it be in the Lion backup?), one for a Mountain Lion bootable backup (which seems like it should be the first thing I do after the upgrade), one for Time Machine or other backups. Does all of this sound right?
- Any preference between Carbon Copy Cloner and SuperDuper? They both look simple enough even for me.
- I don't have many programs installed and if they end up being incompatible, I won't mind trying to get them again. The exception is Microsoft Office that I bought and installed when I got th Mac. Will I have any problems with it?
I thank you all for any guidance you can give me.
MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012), Mac OS X (10.7.4)
Barney-15E
Level 9
(50,871 points)
- Should I install 10.7.5 before I run the Mountain Lion installer? Is my Mountain Lion installer for 10.7.4 since that is what I was running when I downloaded it? If I update to 10.7.5 will I need to try and download the Mountain Lion installer again?
No need. Just install over 10.7.4
- In Disk Utility I get the following Permissions errors:
They have been repaired or do not need to be repaired even though it says it is repairing them when it is not.
- The external drive is 1TB. It seems like I should set up several partitions before I put anything on it; one for the Lion bootable backup, one for a copy of the Mountain Lion installer (or will it be in the Lion backup?), one for a Mountain Lion bootable backup (which seems like it should be the first thing I do after the upgrade), one for Time Machine or other backups. Does all of this sound right?
A partition for the clone might be useful. Make sure it is big enough to hold the clone. If the installer is on the Clone, then it is fine leaving there.
After that, the drive really won't be big enough to split off again for bootable clone and Time Machine. You may consider just running with the bootable lion clone for a while, with the rest as Time Machine. When/if you decide you don't need the Lion Clone anymore, you could clone your ML to it.
I don't have any recomendation on the cloning programs.
- I don't have many programs installed and if they end up being incompatible, I won't mind trying to get them again. The exception is Microsoft Office that I bought and installed when I got th Mac. Will I have any problems with it?
I thank you all for any guidance you can give me.
Office 2008 and 2011 will run fine on Mountain Lion. Make sure it is fully updated. I can't imagine you got Office 2004 (which doesn't work) at the time you purchased your Mac.
The other concern is external peripherals like printers and scanners. Most have updates, but if you've been dragging around an old printer or scanner, some manufacturers abandon the older products.
