Why is 6GB ram being used with barely anything going on?

What a mess!

You are overusing Ram hugely (8GB fitted, 15GB swapped to disk), a sign that your ML installation could be borked.

What is RDUSB01267, a google search reveals nothing and it starts up with your Mac, is another NI driver?

This (NIUSBGuitarRigMobileDriver) is not certified for Mavericks

If you read the NI forums there are hundreds of complaints regarding the drivers and Mavericks, and I don't see any Mavericks certified drivers at all.

Why are you loading so many old Pace drivers (Panther/Leopard/Snow Leopard etc)

Your machine is nowhere close to a safe state to upgrade, fix the mess first, then upgrade, or stay where you are.

I gave up checking every component for compatibility but I will say that you and I have totally different ideas of what Thorough means.

This is the current state of affairs. My machine had none of this stuff installed when I attempted the Mav upgrade.

The Guitar Rig and NI drivers were only installed recently and I don't even in fact need them. they will be removed shortly.

The Pace drivers too were installed a long time after attempting the Mavericks upgrade. I have been testing a lot of different audio applications.

Yes, I saw, and many of them have known issues with Mavericks.

Partition your drive with a second 50GB partition, install Mavericks in that spare partition and test the various devices and drivers there. When you get it running correctly just clone the spare partion to the main partition.

Add devices 1 at a time, test for performance hits after each installation.

OK Csound I'm going to give this another shot. I have partitioned a 50gig section of my drive, do I now use the upgrade method or do I need to download a full Mavericks dmg installation file from somewhere? (I figure if there is nothing on the new partition it will have nothing to upgrade)

Thanks for the help by the way.

Download the full installer from the App Store, ensure to choose the new partition when you install it. After the installation there will be some 'housekeeping' going on (indexing mainly) leave Mavericks alone for an hour or so and then see how it runs before you install anything.

edit:

If you save a copy of the installer for use later it will be worthwhile, but you must save the installer before you install because it will be gone after you install.

Ok it's downloaded.

I tried to run the installation and selcted the new 50 gig partition but that would not work and gave me an error message when it got to the 'restart' part.

Now I'm looking to creat a bootable DVD but the methods I see around look insanely long and complex.

What's the easy way to do this?

I ran the installer from the main drive.. I selected the partition i wanted it to install on. It ran for a few minutes, then it said the computer needs ot restart as part of the installation process, I clicked continue, and which point it started shutting down all programs and then came the error message. It was non specific:

It just said: "the installer has encountered and error. Please run the installer again".

I have not done anything else yet.

It should stay where it is, but you should make a copy and put it in another location, just in case ....

Reboot and let's take a quick look in Disk Utility to verify that this partition is formatted and partitioned correctly.

Good, now let Spotlight index, an hour should suffice to get some idea of the true performance. Then add your various devices first, one at a time checking for performance after each one. Reboot after each one as well.

Tedious I know, but you'll see what is causing issues that way.

If all goes well I think I will continue to use it.

At some point will I be able to get my stuff off the other Mountain Lion partition and then delete it.. will this Mavericks partition assimilate the free space and become one whoel drive again?

I have everything backed up so it's mainly just lots of applications that took some pretty detailed configuring. Some pretty big ones at that too. Lot's of pro photography and musician/producer applications.

Can you give me a clue what it involves please before I get too cosy amd attached to this new partition. 😮

You will need to clone the Mavericks partition to the space currently occupied by the old installation, then delete the Mavericks partition, then extend the (now Mavericks) partition to occupy all the space available.

Then you can reinstall (not restore) applications and restore data from your backup.

Hi.

OK, the procedure is this. Download a copy of Carbon Copy Cloner, there is a free trial which will do the job, but it's worth the $40 if you buy it.

You'll use CCC to clone the Mavericks partition to the original partition (Mountain Lion), when that is done (and tested) you will delete the 50G Mavericks partition and then extend the new Mavericks partition into the empty space.

Take your time and ask any questions you need to.

Don't start the clone until we go over it, ok?

Ok I'm here... 50 gig Mavericks partition selcted for copying to main Scrap partition.

Does this look healthy?

(I have a bootable Mavericks flash drive just in case everything goes pear shaped)

Screen_Shot_2014_05_11_at_23_12_06.png

I have chosen the 'Delete' option.

No I did not change the partition names. 'Scrap' has always been my single partitions name. 'Mavericks' was what I named the new 50 gig one.

Yes I went through the Scrap drive a final time and made sure I had everything backed up. I am aware that the Scrap partition is about to be wiped or overwritten by the Mavericks partition of which I will then have 2 copies. clones, both bootable. (Will it still be called 'Mavericks'?)

I will then delete the first created 50 gig partition and absorb the free space into the clone.

I know then that I will have to continue installing my app's and programs etc.

Shall I hit the Kill Switch now?