Q: Help to upgrade old system to Mavericks.

Back up your data, click here, and read the entire page. Mac OS X 10.7 and newer don't support PowerPC software such as Microsoft Office 2004.

Before installing these upgrades be sure you do the following:

Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions

 

Boot from your Leopard Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list.  In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive.  If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.

 

If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.

Make a backup of your current Leopard system:

Clone using Restore Option of Disk Utility

 

  1. Open Disk Utility in the Utilities folder.

  2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.

  3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.

  4. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag

       it to the Destination entry field.

  5. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to

      the Source entry field.

  6. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.

 

Destination means the external backup drive. Source means the internal startup drive.

Upgrading to Snow Leopard

You can purchase Snow Leopard through the Apple Store: Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard - Apple Store (U.S.). The price is $19.99 plus tax. You will be sent physical media by mail after placing your order.

After you install Snow Leopard you will have to download and install the Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1 to update Snow Leopard to 10.6.8 and give you access to the App Store. Access to the App Store enables you to download Mavericks if your computer meets the requirements.

     Snow Leopard General Requirements

       1. Mac computer with an Intel processor

       2. 1GB of memory

       3. 5GB of available disk space

       4. DVD drive for installation

       5. Some features require a compatible Internet service provider;

           fees may apply.

       6. Some features require Apple’s iCloud services; fees and

           terms apply.

Upgrading from Snow Leopard to Lion or Mavericks

To upgrade to Mavericks you must have Snow Leopard 10.6.8, Lion, or Mountain Lion installed. Purchase and download Mavericks (Free) from the App Store. Sign in using your Apple ID. The file is quite large, over 5 GBs, so allow some time to download. It would be preferable to use Ethernet because it is nearly four times faster than wireless.

     OS X Mavericks- System Requirements

       Macs that can be upgraded to OS X Mavericks

         1. iMac (Mid 2007 or newer) — Model Identifier 7,1 or later

         2. MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer) —

             Model Identifier 5,1 or later

         3. MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer) — Model Identifier 3,1 or later

         4. MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer) — Model Identifier 2,1 or later

         5. Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer) — Model Identifier 3,1 or later

         6. Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer) — Model Identifier 3,1 or later

         7. Xserve (Early 2009) — Model Identifier 3,1 or later

To find the model identifier open System Profiler in the Utilities folder. It's displayed in the panel on the right.

Are my applications compatible?

         See App Compatibility Table — RoaringApps.

Upgrading to Lion

If your computer does not meet the requirements to install Mavericks, it may still meet the requirements to install Lion.

You can purchase Lion at the Online Apple Store. The cost is $19.99 (as it was before) plus tax.  It's a download. You will get an email containing a redemption code that you then use at the Mac App Store to download Lion. Save a copy of that installer to your Downloads folder because the installer deletes itself at the end of the installation.

     Lion System Requirements

       1. Mac computer with an Intel Core 2 Duo, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7,

           or Xeon processor

       2. 2GB of memory

       3. OS X v10.6.6 or later (v10.6.8 recommended)

       4. 7GB of available space

       5. Some features require an Apple ID; terms apply.