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Level 1

4 points

Best OS for MBP mid 2009

Hi,

I have 13" mid 2009 MBP running 10.6.8. I had not upgraded the OS until now as I feared the performance will go down as it only has 2 GB RAM.

However, it has now reached to a level where its just becoming painful to use the system, so I am planning the following upgrade:

1. Max out RAM to 8 GB

2. Swap out optical drive for 250GB SSD for OS and keep the old 160 GB Hard Drive.

What I am not sure is with above upgrade which OS will be best suited for my MBP? I was planning to put Mavericks as I have heard both Yosemite and El Captain will not run that smooth on an older version of the macbook pro. I would really appreciate if someone can advice which will be the best OS? I mainly use my laptop for word processing and emails and yes light room 4.

Also, should I swap the optical drive for the new SSD or the old HDD? (My optical drive doesn't work anyways). I was earlier planning to get 500GB SSD but then decided to go for 250 and save some money as I have 1 TB external hard drive which I use since I work on multiple machines most of the times.

Any other advice or point I should keep in mind during the upgrade?

Many Thanks

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Feb 12, 2016 10:10 AM

Best reply

Allan Eckert

Level 9

79,518 points

Posted on Feb 12, 2016 10:11 AM

El Capitan

View in context

39 replies

BobHarris

Level 9

53,267 points

Feb 12, 2016 8:26 PM in response to dvinny

Quick question here (sorry as this may be a daft one) if I install the new OS in the new SSD drive would it automatically uninstall the old OS and all the applications from the old drive? Honestly I don't mind deleting everything and starting fresh. In case I wipe off everything install new OS then what would happen to my time machine backups would they still work I am assuming yes but just want to be sure before I go ahead with this.

The original disk would be be untouched. If you went with putting the SSD in the DVD slot, then you would have 2 bootable disks, and you would need to use System Preferences -> Startup Disk to specify which is your default boot device.

However, what a lot of people do is to clone their original drive on the the SSD. Of course that is not a clean install, and if that is your desire, then you would do the clean install, then either use Applications -> Utilities -> Migration assistant to move your data over, or drag and drop (much more tricky for some things).

My upgrade to El Capitan was using EtreCheck to clean out a lot of cruft, then I did an upgrade install over the top of the existing OS (Mavericks for me). But I had a mostly clean system with respect to 3rd party additions. And any additions I kept, I made sure to upgrade to the most recent versions.

Eric Root

Level 10

684,057 points

Feb 13, 2016 7:29 AM in response to dvinny

Check to make sure your applications are compatible. PowerPC applications are no longer supported after 10.6.

Application Compatibility

Applications Compatibility (2)

El Capitan 10.11 Compatibility information

Do a backup before installing, preferable 2 backups on 2 different drives.

dvinny Author

Level 1

4 points

Feb 14, 2016 10:10 AM in response to BobHarris

Thanks all for your suggestions, went out to get the required things for the upgrade. Got myself 2 x 4 GB RAM and installed it (followed the instructions online and the new ram is working great). Bought Samsung 850 EVO (250 GB) SSD to replace the optical drive but they didn't had the caddy so have ordered online which will be delivered in couple of days.

So the plan is to install the SSD in the optical bay and do a clean install of El Capitan on the SSD and keep the old one as it is. Once installed, boot from the new SSD and monitor the performance. If all goes well then keep the El Capitan and remove the old OS all together and move only the user profile and important things to the new drive.

Am I missing anything or do you guys think its a good plan?

Honestly I am happy with the 10.6.8 and with hardware upgrades I am sure it will work really well but thanks to Goto Meeting who have removed support for 10.6.8 I will have to upgrade the OS as some of my clients use that I have to organize lot of meetings on that tool.

Thanks

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,660 points

Feb 14, 2016 10:21 AM in response to dvinny

dvinny wrote:

Am I missing anything or do you guys think its a good plan?

Spotlight & Time Machine both automatically backup & index internal disks. Take that into account with any TM backups (exclude the other OS disk if you want).

Spotlight will reindex internal disks but 10.6's index is not compatible with 10.11 & vice versa. It may cause you to be reindexing the disks after booting into the other OS. Not a major problem, but annoying when you have to wait to find something.

Personally I set other boot disks not to mount on startup in every OS, you can still mount them manually via Disk Utility.

I use 'fstab' to do this for the entire system. Ask if you want to create /etc/fstab entries, otherwise make an Applescript or similar to eject the disk on login, it may be enough.

BobHarris

Level 9

53,267 points

Feb 14, 2016 11:56 AM in response to dvinny

From inside iTunes and Photo preferences you should be able to point to the original disk Music and Pictures folders for you music and pictures.

Also enable TRIM

<http://osxdaily.com/2015/10/29/use-trimforce-trim-ssd-mac-os-x/>

dvinny Author

Level 1

4 points

Feb 16, 2016 6:36 AM in response to Drew Reece

I am still waiting on the caddy, looks like it will take couple of more days to arrive.

But I have got another question now. I was reading about adding the second drive and I came across another article which mentioned that it will be better to add the SDD to the main drive rather than in the optical drive slot. Following is the line from the article (below is for theMacBookPro 5,5 model)

"While the SSD does function, it will only do so at SATA Revision 1.0 (1.5Gb/s) speeds rather that the SATA Revision 2.0 (3.0Gb/s) speed the machine can deliver."

While the above does make sense and had started to think about switching the bays for my SSD and the normal HDD when I was told by another engineer to be careful while adding the spinning HDD in the optical drive and to be sure not to cover the breather holes for regular spinning HDD's or else there is a good chance that the drive will crash.

Now I am not able to decide where to put the SSD? In the optical bay or the standard bay...

Any suggestions please.

Many Thanks

Csound1

Level 9

59,973 points

Feb 16, 2016 6:52 AM in response to dvinny

Put it in the fastest bay.

BobHarris

Level 9

53,267 points

Feb 16, 2016 8:28 AM in response to dvinny

You can look at Applications -> Utilities -> System Profile -> SATA and find the "Link Speed" for the current Disk and the DVD. That should be the fastest the link can go.

As Csound1 it is best to put the SSD in the fastest interface location. If they are BOTH the same "Link Speed", then you can use either location for the SSD.

My 2011 15" Macbook Pro has identical "Link Speed" for both the original hard disk and the DVD locations (I've since replaced my hard disk with a 1TB SSD, and I still have my DVD, which while using attached to a SATA controller that can do 6 Gigabits, has Negotiated the speed down to 1.5 because the DVD is not that fast). In my case I could have put the SSD in either slow and gotten the same performance. Since I got a bigger SSD than the hard disk I did not need to remove the DVD to have the storage I wanted.

dvinny Author

Level 1

4 points

Feb 16, 2016 9:03 AM in response to BobHarris

BobHarris wrote:

You can look at Applications -> Utilities -> System Profile -> SATA and find the "Link Speed" for the current Disk and the DVD. That should be the fastest the link can go.

As Csound1 it is best to put the SSD in the fastest interface location. If they are BOTH the same "Link Speed", then you can use either location for the SSD.

My 2011 15" Macbook Pro has identical "Link Speed" for both the original hard disk and the DVD locations (I've since replaced my hard disk with a 1TB SSD, and I still have my DVD, which while using attached to a SATA controller that can do 6 Gigabits, has Negotiated the speed down to 1.5 because the DVD is not that fast). In my case I could have put the SSD in either slow and gotten the same performance. Since I got a bigger SSD than the hard disk I did not need to remove the DVD to have the storage I wanted.

That was really helpful Bob and saved me the unnecessary trouble of shifting the hard drives. It looks like I have same speed for both the slots. Details below

NVidia MCP79 AHCI:

Vendor: NVidia

Product: MCP79 AHCI

Link Speed: 3 Gigabit

Negotiated Link Speed: 1.5 Gigabit

Description: AHCI Version 1.20 Supported

ST9160314ASG:

Capacity: 160.04 GB (1,60,04,18,85,696 bytes)

Model: ST9160314ASG

--------------------

NVidia MCP79 AHCI:

Vendor: NVidia

Product: MCP79 AHCI

Link Speed: 3 Gigabit

Negotiated Link Speed: 1.5 Gigabit

Description: AHCI Version 1.20 Supported

MATSHITADVD-R UJ-868:

Model: MATSHITADVD-R UJ-868

BobHarris

Level 9

53,267 points

Feb 16, 2016 11:12 AM in response to dvinny

That was my situation on my Late 2009 27" iMac. Both the hard disk and the DVD were 3 Gigabit, so I pulled the DVD and put a 480GB SSD from MacSales.com, and kept the hard disk where it is.

And I used the exact same System Profiler trick to verify the SATA speed. It also allowed me to make sure I did not overspend on a faster SSD, when all I needed was one that could do 3Gigabits, and not pay a premium for 6 Gigabit.

The bad news is, I was getting close to replacing that iMac, but now, it is running way too well, and I do not have any justification to replace it 😀

dvinny Author

Level 1

4 points

Apr 13, 2016 8:22 AM in response to BobHarris

Right so I finally got everything in place. 250 GB SSD installed in the optical drive slot and all is working well. BUT

How do I do clean install of El Capitan on the SSD? I tried making bootable USB but no joy. The createmedia command doesn't work on 10.6.x (so i have been told) and neither does DiskMaker X. Any suggestions ?

I want to keep my old system as it is on the old spinning drive (including the OS) and make it dual boot using the SSD by installing El Capitan on it. This is to test if El Capitan would work as per expectation and if not then I will go back to 10.6.8 and enjoy my new SSD and RAM and forget about the OS completely.

I hope the above is a feasible plan, if yes please help !!

Thanks

BobHarris

Level 9

53,267 points

Apr 13, 2016 10:23 AM in response to dvinny

dvinny wrote:

How do I do clean install of El Capitan on the SSD? I tried making bootable USB but no joy. The createmedia command doesn't work on 10.6.x (so i have been told) and neither does DiskMaker X. Any suggestions ?

I want to keep my old system as it is on the old spinning drive (including the OS) and make it dual boot using the SSD by installing El Capitan on it. This is to test if El Capitan would work as per expectation and if not then I will go back to 10.6.8 and enjoy my new SSD and RAM and forget about the OS completely.

I hope the above is a feasible plan, if yes please help !!

1st and foremost backup your system (2 backups to separate devices using different backup utilities would be ideal 🙂)

Booted from your 10.6.8 disk, you should be able to start the El Capitan install and then point it to your SSD so that you are doing a new install on the SSD.

The backups are so that if something goes wrong, you will still have a copy of your 10.6.8 system safely backed up.

dvinny Author

Level 1

4 points

Apr 14, 2016 1:08 AM in response to BobHarris

So if I just select the new drive during the installation I will get to keep both the OS i.e. 10.6.8 and El Capitan?

Also, below is the Etrecheck report. Is there anything I should be worried about? Thanks

EtreCheck version: 2.9.3 (253)

Report generated 2016-04-14 13:35:42

Download EtreCheck from http://etrecheck.com

Runtime 2:42

Performance: Excellent

Click the [Support] links for help with non-Apple products.

Click the [Details] links for more information about that line.

Problem: No problem - just checking

Hardware Information: ⓘ

MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2009)

[Technical Specifications] - [User Guide] - [Warranty & Service]

MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro5,5

1 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU: 2-core

8 GB RAM

BANK 0/DIMM0

4 GB DDR3 1067 MHz ok

BANK 1/DIMM0

4 GB DDR3 1067 MHz ok

Bluetooth: Old - Handoff/Airdrop2 not supported

Wireless: en1: 802.11 a/b/g/n

Battery: Health = Replace Soon - Cycle count = 1780 - SN = W09350LMA784A

Video Information: ⓘ

NVIDIA GeForce 9400M - VRAM: 256 MB

Color LCD 1280 x 800

spdisplays_display_connector

System Software: ⓘ

OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.8 (10K549) - Time since boot: about 17 hours

Disk Information: ⓘ

ST9160314ASG disk1 : (149.05 GB) (Rotational)

- (disk1s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB

Macintosh (disk1s2) / [Startup]: 159.70 GB (3.35 GB free) (Low!)

Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250GB disk0 : (232.89 GB) (Solid State - TRIM: No)

- (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB

El Capitan (disk0s2) /Volumes/El Capitan : 249.72 GB (249.40 GB free)

USB Information: ⓘ

SanDisk Cruzer Force 14.91 GB

- (disk2s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB

elcap (disk2s2) /Volumes/elcap : 15.66 GB (15.63 GB free)

Apple Inc. Built-in iSight

Apple Internal Memory Card Reader

Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad

Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver

PixArt HP X500 USB Optical Mouse

Apple Inc. BRCM2046 Hub

Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

Configuration files: ⓘ

/etc/hosts - Count: 14

Kernel Extensions: ⓘ

/Library/Extensions

[not loaded] org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxDrv (4.1.18) [Support]

[not loaded] org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetAdp (4.1.18) [Support]

[not loaded] org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetFlt (4.1.18) [Support]

[not loaded] org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxUSB (4.1.18) [Support]

/System/Library/Extensions

[not loaded] com.joshuawise.kexts.HoRNDIS (1.0.0d1 - SDK 10.6) [Support]

[loaded] com.rim.driver.BlackBerryUSBDriverInt (0.0.74) [Support]

[not loaded] com.rim.driver.BlackBerryUSBDriverVSP (0.0.74) [Support]

[not loaded] com.thursby.kext.NetBIOS (5.0.1) [Support]

[not loaded] com.thursby.kext.cifs (5.0.1) [Support]

/System/Library/Extensions/HuaweiDataCardDriver.kext/Contents/PlugIns

[not loaded] com.MBB.driver.MBBACMData (5.01.05) [Support]

[not loaded] com.MBB.driver.MBBActivateDriver (5.01.03) [Support]

[not loaded] com.MBB.driver.MBBEthernetData (5.01.09) [Support]

Startup Items: ⓘ

HWNetMgr: Path: /Library/StartupItems/HWNetMgr

Startup items are obsolete in OS X Yosemite

System Launch Agents: ⓘ

[loaded] 66 Apple tasks

[running] 8 Apple tasks

System Launch Daemons: ⓘ

[loaded] 137 Apple tasks

[running] 29 Apple tasks

Launch Agents: ⓘ

[running] HWPortCfg.plist [Support]

[loaded] com.adobe.CS4ServiceManager.plist [Support]

[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist [Support]

[failed] com.rim.BBAlbumArtCacher.plist [Support] [Details]

[failed] com.rim.BBLaunchAgent.plist [Support] [Details]

[failed] ouc.plist [Support]

Launch Daemons: ⓘ

[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist [Support]

[loaded] com.adobe.versioncueCS4.plist [Support]

[loaded] com.google.keystone.daemon.plist [Support]

[failed] com.rim.BBDaemon.plist [Support] [Details]

User Launch Agents: ⓘ

[loaded] com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist [Support]

[loaded] com.facebook.videochat.[redacted].plist [Support]

[loaded] org.virtualbox.vboxwebsrv.plist [Support]

[loaded] 2 Apple tasks

User Login Items: ⓘ

iTunesHelper UNKNOWN Hidden (missing value)

MagicMenu Application (/Applications/StuffIt/MagicMenu.app)

SpeechSynthesisServer Application (/System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks /SpeechSynthesis.framework/Versions/A/Resources/SpeechSynthesisServer.app)

Activity Monitor Application (/Applications/Utilities/Activity Monitor.app)

Android File Transfer Agent Application (~/Library/Application Support/Google/Android File Transfer/Android File Transfer Agent.app)

Other Apps: ⓘ

[running] [0x0-0x11011].com.google.android.mtpagent

[running] [0x0-0x1e01e].org.mozilla.firefox

[running] [0x0-0x34034].org.m0k.transmission

[running] [0x0-0x5a05a].com.etresoft.EtreCheck

[running] [0x0-0xe00e].com.stuffit.MagicMenu

Internet Plug-ins: ⓘ

JavaAppletPlugin: Version: 13.9.7 - SDK 10.6 Check version

FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 21.0.0.197 - SDK 10.6 [Support]

QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.6.6

Flash Player: Version: 21.0.0.197 - SDK 10.6 Outdated! Update

AdobePDFViewer: Version: 9.5.2 [Support]

o1dbrowserplugin: Version: 5.38.6.0 - SDK 10.8 [Support]

CitrixICAClientPlugIn: Version: 11.4.3 - SDK 10.0 [Support]

googletalkbrowserplugin: Version: 5.38.6.0 - SDK 10.8 [Support]

iPhotoPhotocast: Version: 7.0

User internet Plug-ins: ⓘ

CitrixOnlineWebDeploymentPlugin: Version: 1.0.105 [Support]

Picasa: Version: 1.0 [Support]

WebEx64: Version: 1.0 - SDK 10.6 [Support]

Audio Plug-ins: ⓘ

iSightAudio: Version: 7.6.6

3rd Party Preference Panes: ⓘ

Adobe Version Cue CS4 [Support]

Flash Player [Support]

MacFUSE [Support]

NTFS-3G [Support]

Time Machine: ⓘ

Time Machine information requires OS X 10.8 "Moutain Lion" or later.

Top Processes by CPU: ⓘ

19% firefox

6% WindowServer

4% plugin-container

3% Transmission

2% java

Top Processes by Memory: ⓘ

737 MB firefox

213 MB mds

197 MB java

66 MB plugin-container

66 MB WindowServer

Virtual Memory Information: ⓘ

3.98 GB Free RAM

4.02 GB Used RAM

0 B Swap Used

Diagnostics Information: ⓘ

Apr 13, 2016, 08:32:03 PM Self test - passed

Apr 13, 2016, 12:27:14 AM /Library/Logs/CrashReporter/mds_2016-04-13-002714_[redacted].crash

/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/Metadat a.framework/Versions/A/Support/mds

Apr 13, 2016, 12:27:14 AM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/mds_2016-04-13-002714_[redacted].crash

Apr 13, 2016, 12:25:16 AM /Library/Logs/CrashReporter/mds_2016-04-13-002516_[redacted].crash

Apr 13, 2016, 12:25:16 AM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/mds_2016-04-13-002516_[redacted].crash

Apr 13, 2016, 12:21:04 AM /Library/Logs/CrashReporter/mds_2016-04-13-002104_[redacted].crash

Apr 13, 2016, 12:21:04 AM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/mds_2016-04-13-002104_[redacted].crash

Apr 12, 2016, 07:36:31 PM ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/ksfetch_2016-04-12-193631_[redacted].crash

/private/tmp/KSOutOfProcessFetcher.501.ppfIhqX0vjaTSb8AJYobDV7Cu68=/ksfetch

Apr 12, 2016, 07:36:30 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/ksfetch_2016-04-12-193630_[redacted].crash

/private/tmp/KSOutOfProcessFetcher.0.ppfIhqX0vjaTSb8AJYobDV7Cu68=/ksfetch

Apr 12, 2016, 07:36:30 PM /Library/Logs/CrashReporter/ksfetch_2016-04-12-193630_[redacted].crash

Apr 12, 2016, 07:36:29 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/ksfetch_2016-04-12-193629_[redacted].crash

Apr 12, 2016, 07:36:29 PM /Library/Logs/CrashReporter/ksfetch_2016-04-12-193629_[redacted].crash

Apr 12, 2016, 07:31:40 PM ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/ksfetch_2016-04-12-193140_[redacted].crash

Apr 12, 2016, 07:31:36 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/ksfetch_2016-04-12-193136_[redacted].crash

Apr 12, 2016, 07:31:36 PM /Library/Logs/CrashReporter/ksfetch_2016-04-12-193136_[redacted].crash

Apr 12, 2016, 07:31:35 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/ksfetch_2016-04-12-193135_[redacted].crash

Apr 12, 2016, 07:31:35 PM /Library/Logs/CrashReporter/ksfetch_2016-04-12-193135_[redacted].crash

Apr 12, 2016, 07:03:16 PM ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/ksfetch_2016-04-12-190316_[redacted].crash

Apr 12, 2016, 07:03:11 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/ksfetch_2016-04-12-190311_[redacted].crash

Apr 12, 2016, 07:03:11 PM /Library/Logs/CrashReporter/ksfetch_2016-04-12-190311_[redacted].crash

Apr 12, 2016, 07:03:10 PM /Library/Logs/CrashReporter/ksfetch_2016-04-12-190310_[redacted].crash

Apr 12, 2016, 07:03:10 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/ksfetch_2016-04-12-190310_[redacted].crash

MichelPM

Level 10

80,980 points

Apr 14, 2016 1:55 AM in response to dvinny

I like the fact the none of the regular contributors supply any other options of OS X to upgrade to.

Everyone, but me, it seems, is always pushing the latest and greatest OS X whether the Mac, in question can handle it or not!

If you find the EL Capitán is not working that well for you and your Mac and since OS X 10.9 Mavericks isn't available any longer, the next closest OS X version that is still available for sale with a special download code is OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion.

It has the same hardware specs for installation as El Cap.

OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion purchased emailed download code here.
http://store.apple.com/us/product/D6377Z/A/os-x-mountain-lion
Apple will send you an email for the special download code for the Mac App Store within three days ( or slightly earlier) of purchasing the download code.

Good Luck!

MichelPM

Level 10

80,980 points

Apr 14, 2016 1:53 AM in response to dvinny

If you are no longer using a Blackberry smart phone, get rid of all the RIM software and its parts.

It's not compatible any longer with OS X.

Best OS for MBP mid 2009