can I safely upgrade to OSX El Capitan from Mountain Lion 10.8.5

Yes.

(136769)

As Niel mentioned it should be okay, however 4GB is on the low side of RAM. You may want to consider upgrading the RAM to at least 8GB.

The only question you’ll be asked is where to install it.

(136774)

sveiks wrote:

Hi Neil,

Thanks for the info. Your response answered the question, however, I should have stated that I am 72 years old and don't feel confident about downloading myself. I know that there will be steps and questions along the way that I may not be qualified to answer. I am worried that I may lose files, information, photos, etc.

Any additional suggestions? Should I have some @ Apple Store do it or walk me through it?

Helen

Helen,

It is very easy to do however you should do a backup of your computer prior to doing any updates. If you have not been backing up, please get an external HD (I recommend OWC Mercury Elite Pros, you can find the link below) and begin using Time Machine to backup the computer. .

To update to El Capitan please follow these directions. In the upper left of your display you will see an icon that looks like an Apple symbol, click that and then select App Store. On the right of the App Store you will see an icon that says Updates. Click that and install all the recommended updates including El Capitan and then follow the on-screen directions. Again, doing these steps are extremely simple to do.

If you still don't feel sure you can either call AppleCare (this will likely be a paid call) or ask a Genius at an Apple Store.

Link to Link to Mercury Elite Pro I’d recommend the $149 2TB model.

sveiks wrote:

I purchased a backup system, My Passport (Time Machine), with my computer in 2009. It was set to backup every hour, the latest was at 12:48 and the oldest is June 14, 2010. Is this sufficient? Will there be issues since it isn't a current system?

Your Time Machine backup should be fine, what I recommend is testing it first to make sure it is working okay. This is easily done by restoring any file. What you can do is click the Time Machine icon in the Dock and then navigate to a file and time and restore it. If that works okay, they you're ready!

You can do it! I just upgraded last week. I'm running it on 4gb of ram and it's actually faster than the previous operating system I upgraded from. I also have a Time Machine but didn't need to use it, as it did go smoothly. Just remember that it will take a while to download (depending on your Internet speed) and install. 🙂

Your welcome!!