I want to install OS X Lion. I am currently using 10.6.8. Do I need to erase my computer to install it? Once installed I want to upgrade to the latest OS so that my other devices will be compatible. iPhone 6s, iPad Mini 2
MacBook, Mac OS X (10.6.8), Late 2008
You will need to go to the Apple online store and buy the upgrade to OS X Lion 10.7
http://www.apple.com/shop/product/D6106Z/A/os-x-lion
While you may be able to upgrade to a more current version of OS X, your Mac is too old to update to the most recent version, macOS 10.12 Sierra. The last version of OS X that may work for your Mac is OS X 10.11 El Capitan. After you upgrade to OS X Lion, the upgrade to OS X El Capitan is free.
OS X El Capitan - Technical Specifications
Late 2012 Mac mini, macOS 10.12; Watch, 38 mm silver AL, Watch OS 3; iPad Air 2 & iPhone 6+, iOS 10.0.2; Airport Express
You will need to go to the Apple online store and buy the upgrade to OS X Lion 10.7
http://www.apple.com/shop/product/D6106Z/A/os-x-lion
While you may be able to upgrade to a more current version of OS X, your Mac is too old to update to the most recent version, macOS 10.12 Sierra. The last version of OS X that may work for your Mac is OS X 10.11 El Capitan. After you upgrade to OS X Lion, the upgrade to OS X El Capitan is free.
OS X El Capitan - Technical Specifications
Late 2012 Mac mini, macOS 10.12; Watch, 38 mm silver AL, Watch OS 3; iPad Air 2 & iPhone 6+, iOS 10.0.2; Airport Express
Thank you Dah*veed! I know my MacBook is ancient but I'm trying to get a little more life out of it;)
I got Lion and bought a Seagate Slim external hard drive to back up my computer before I install Lion. Can I just drag and drop my whole HD on to the Seagate or do I need to use Disk Utility and do each folder individually? I've tried once dragging/dropping my HD to the Seagate and after HOURS it showed up on the drive but there was nothing in any of the files? Once I actually have the complete backup, should I erase, clean install and take everything unnecessary off my computer so that it will run better? 8G's of memory. MAHALO for your help and Aloha!
If you are running OS X 10.6.8 Snow Leopard, you should have Time Machine on your Mac (I think, that's a long time to remember!) TM is Apple's backup utility. I would use that to backup all of your data. Open the TM System Preference and point the backup to your external drive and it will backup your data from your Mac's HDD.
Then you can erase the Mac and start fresh installing OS X Lion from the startup disk. Later in the setup of Lion you will be asked if you wish to restare data from a TM backup, say yes and point the setup to the external drive's backup.
PERFECT! Thanks you!!!
OS X Lion install
