How to Upgrade to Mountain Lion - I have old black macbook

angelayue238 wrote:

I believe mine says Identifier 4,1. What should I be running on?

This is your exact model, it is a Early 2008, (there is a Late 2008 with the same model id)

13" MacBook Early 2008. 6GB of RAM max, one 4GB and one 2GB module.

You can only go to 10.7 max in that machine, no 10.8 or higher.

With a full bed of RAM id required for 10.7, or stick with what you have on 10.6.8 for best performance and running of your older PPC based software.

I advise remaining on 10.6.8 on that machine and buying a new one with 10.8 (or when 10.9 is released on new hardware) instead of trying to push that older machine with a bloated OS X version like 10.7 is.

Anyway once you upgrade to 10.7, in a few months your behind again as 10.9 is released and you can't upgrade that Early 2008 any further than 10.7 anyway.

So if you want more integration with your other devices, a new machine with 10.9 is likey the best choice.

If I upgrade to lion, where do I download that

Call Apple via phone and purchase 10.7, they will send you information to download and install it.

I really don't advise it for that older machine, also your current software may not work unless you do some research first.

Don't compain that we didn't warn you that upgrading to 10.7 will cause your software not to work.

http://roaringapps.com/apps:table

If you later decide you want to return to Snow Leopard, you can follow this complicated User Tip here, all your current software will be removed when reverting back unfortunatly.

How to revert your Mac to Snow Leopard

Or you can make a bootable 10.6 clone on a external drive first and reverse clone while option/alt key held booted from it.

Most commonly used backup methods

As said above, you have to call Apple at 1-800-My-Apple to obtain an authorization to purchase Lion.

My wife has one of the original MacBook Airs, a model 1.1, that is limited to Lion. It only has 2 Gigs of RAM and 1.8 Mhz processor, and it works with Lion about the same as it did with Snow Leopard.

So, I really can't agree with all of the advice to avoid Lion. Other than buying more RAM, $19.95 is alot less than a new Mac.

Keep in mind that if you have any PowerPC only software, it won't run in Lion.

If you click on the Software, on lefthand panel of the System Profiler, you'll get a list of all the applications on your Mac. There will be a column in the list for "Kind." If you sort that column it will group the "Kinds," and anything listed as PowerPC won't run in Lion. Only ones listed as "Universal" or "Intel" will be able to run in Lion.

Example:

Oh, and yes, you should have a backup. External hard drives also cost less than a new Mac.

I can't address the iCloud discussion, but this computer is certainly usable with OS X 10.7.5. I have an iMac 17 with a 2.0 GHz Core 2 Duo with 2.5 GB of RAM, and my son used Photoshop CS 5 on it for a year or two. In addition, assuming you have a stock computer with two 1 GB RAM modules, you'll have have to decide whether you want to purchase two 2 GB modules (to get to 4 GB total) or a 2 GB and a 4 GB module (to get to a total of 6GB). As an example, see this page from Data Memory Systems:

http://www.datamemorysystems.com/apple-macbook-intel-core-2-duo-2-4ghz-13-black- mb404ll/a-early-2008-memory-upgrades/

It's $54 for 4 GB or $113 for 6 GB ($27 plus $86), so the marginal cost of that last 2 GB is $59 ($113 - $54). That may be a little too expensive for your needs.

Jim