Looking To Upgrade To Mavericks From Snow Leopard....

Yes the computer is too old. Please read the minimum system requirements for ML:

To install Mavericks, you need one of these Macs:

• iMac (Mid-2007 or later)
• MacBook (13-inch Aluminum, Late 2008), (13-inch, Early 2009 or later)
• MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid-2009 or later),
• MacBook Pro (15-inch or 17-inch, Mid/Late 2007 or later)
• MacBook Air (Late 2008 or later)
• Mac mini (Early 2009 or later)
• Mac Pro (Early 2008 or later)
• Xserve (Early 2009)

Your Mac also needs:

• OS X Mountain Lion, Lion, or Snow Leopard v10.6.8 already installed
• 2 GB or more of memory (4GB or more STRONGLY recommended)
• 8 GB or more of available space

I think mine is called the early 2009 Mini, a similar generation, and I'm running latest and greatest Mavericks:

Model Name: Mac mini

Model Identifier: Macmini3,1

Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo

Processor Speed: 2.26 GHz

Number of Processors: 1

Total Number of Cores: 2

L2 Cache: 3 MB

Memory: 4 GB

The first thing that came to my mind was that I also might have seen that message but proceeded anyway because I could. Today blocks are set up to warn consumers off because they'll think features like ThunderBolt and LIghtfoot are available on their machines just because they saw it on TV. I'd be disappointed too if it turns out I could upgrade everything I needed but there was some system gestalt thingy that wouldn't let the installer proceed.

So what was a black MacBook Pro originally? Wiki says they started as Core Duo and moved up to Core 2 Duo and 8GB RAM OEM, only addressing 4GB, so I imagine there's trouble with Mavericks trying more addresses on machines that don't have them available?

I would expect to move from Snow Leopard, to Lion (to Mountain Lion), and to Mavericks out of hand, because they shipped that way new before the air style took over. Do you have 160GB boot drive, at least room enough to copy the whole thing down? Also, something in the middle was a paid upgrade, so is the Mavericks blocked by the fact nobody is allowed to jump that far ahead past a paid jump?

Sorry SkyHook17, please read my post on the minimum system specifications. The OP's MB is simply too old.

Not a problem. I got curious because: Does anyone know why?

It doesn't really matter does it, it simply too old.

SkyHook17 wrote:

Not a problem. I got curious because: Does anyone know why?

It is because the OP does not have a Mac Book Pro, but a 2008 black MacBook:

[click on images to enlarge]