I need to upgrade from Tiger

[Bryjo]

I have an old I-Mac7.1 that still has version 10.4.11 operating system on it. It has served me well, but I can't add new software or hardware without having a newer OS. What would I have to do to upgrade to one of the big cats, preferalby Lion? I have 2 GHz processor speed, 1 processor, 2 cores, 4MB of L2 Cache, 2 GB of memory, and an external 1 TB of storage. Any suggestions? Be gentle; I'm new at this stuff. Thanks.

 

[TEG]

You can either buy Snow Leopard then upgrade to Lion, or simply buy the USB Key of Lion. You might want to upgrade the RAM to 4GB, for better performance.

TEG

 

[Bryjo]

Are you saying I would need to go to Snow Leopard before going to Lion, or will the USB drive allow me to go directly from Tiger to Lion? If the steps are incremental, does that mean I have to upgrade to Leopard, then Snow Leopard, then Lion? This could get expensive couldn't it.

 

[rkaufmann87]

Are you saying I would need to go to Snow Leopard before going to Lion, or will the USB drive allow me to go directly from Tiger to Lion? If the steps are incremental, does that mean I have to upgrade to Leopard, then Snow Leopard, then Lion? This could get expensive couldn't it.

You cannot jump from Tiger directly to Lion, one of the system requirements of Lion is a Mac that is running Snow Leopard. However you can buy Leopard and upgrade to Snow Leopard then run System Update to get to 10.6.6 or above and then buy Lion from the App Store. This upgrade will only cost $58.99, which is $29 for Snow Leopard and $29.99 for Lion.

Below is a copy from Lion's Tech Spec page:

General requirements

Mac computer with an Intel Core 2 Duo, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7, or Xeon processor
2GB of memory
OS X v10.6.6 or later (v10.6.8 recommended)
7GB of available space
Some features require an Apple ID; terms apply.
Some features require a compatible Internet service provider; fees may apply.

 

[TEG]

Are you saying I would need to go to Snow Leopard before going to Lion, or will the USB drive allow me to go directly from Tiger to Lion? If the steps are incremental, does that mean I have to upgrade to Leopard, then Snow Leopard, then Lion? This could get expensive couldn't it.

If you want to jump to Lion, you can, but it will require you wiping your computer's hard drive. The only reason to go to Snow Leopard (which doesn't require Leopard), is if you want to buy it via the App Store. Using the USB key, you can skip all that.

TEG

 

[Hugh]

If you want to jump to Lion, you can, but it will require you wiping your computer's hard drive. The only reason to go to Snow Leopard (which doesn't require Leopard), is if you want to buy it via the App Store. Using the USB key, you can skip all that.

TEG

Actually that's not true. In order to use the USB key, you have to have Snow Leopard 10.6.6 (or higher) installed. It's an upgrade, not a full blown installer, at least this is what I've been told. :/

Hugh

 

[TEG]

Actually that's not true. In order to use the USB key, you have to have Snow Leopard 10.6.6 (or higher) installed. It's an upgrade, not a full blown installer, at least this is what I've been told. :/

Hugh

You should still be able to boot off of the key, in which case you should be able to install with it on a vanilla drive.

TEG

 

[jbouklas]

I recently upgraded the same iMac- it was dog slow with 1GB of RAM running 10.6- I upgraded to 4GB, upgraded to Lion, and it runs great. Really smooth, no hiccups.

 

[Hugh]

You should still be able to boot off of the key, in which case you should be able to install with it on a vanilla drive.

TEG

What you should and what it does are two different things. I will ask more about it, I was going to get it until I read that you can't boot from it.

Hugh

 

[rossip]

I have the exact same iMac as you with 6 GB RAM running Lion and it's awesome. Note that if you use any PPC apps (Microsoft Office 2004, Quicken 2007 to name a few) they will not work in Lion. If I were you, this is what I would do:

Make sure you have the latest firmware for you iMac.

Back up all important files/ photos/ movies to an external usb drive. Make a written log of all the apps from the internet you want to reinstall.

Buy the OS X Lion USB Thumb Drive from apple and 6 gb ram from OWC (the best aftermarket mac supplier in my opinion).

Install the ram (not hard at all, OWC has videos).

NOTE: this next step will erase your entire hard drive!! Make sure you have backed up all your important files!! Erasing the hard drive is necessary to perform a clean install which is necessary to guarantee Lion will work properly.

Disconnect any external hard drives, thumb drives before proceeding so you don't accidentally erase them. Boot your mac from the OS X Lion USB Thumb Drive by holding down option during startup until the Lion USB icon shows and select the Lion USB. Launch Disk Utility (it will be one of the options) and use it to erase your hard drive (select the 250 GB drive to the left, not the Macintosh HD (or whatever you labeled your HD in Tiger) partition under it, click the tab "erase" next to first aid and then erase). Once that is done, close disk utility and follow the on screen instructions to install lion.

If all goes well, Congratulations! You have a modern computer again!! Good luck!

 

[VPrime]

Actually that's not true. In order to use the USB key, you have to have Snow Leopard 10.6.6 (or higher) installed. It's an upgrade, not a full blown installer, at least this is what I've been told. :/

Hugh

That makes no sense. Think about a situation with a new hard drive or hard drive crash. They wouldn't have nay OS installed.
The USB stick will allow them to run disk utiloity and format the drive and then do a clean install..

http://osxdaily.com/2011/06/21/mac-os-x-lion-clean-install-explained/

Yes you can create a fresh clean install of Lion. In fact, many of us who are running Lion Developer Preview have performed clean installs.

The only requirement for where a clean Lion installation is allowed is the existence of a target blank partition or hard drive that is properly formatted HFS+, this is the same requirement for past clean Mac OS X installs.

 

[rossip]

What you should and what it does are two different things. I will ask more about it, I was going to get it until I read that you can't boot from it.

Hugh

That’s disconcerting to hear. I too have been trying to find confirmation that it is bootable. This is the best I have found so far:

http://store.apple.com/us/question/answers/product/MD256Z/A?pqid=QU47CAJ9PATKC2XUJUYYPPT7YUDDPPYYU

It might be best to just start a new thread, asking to anyone who has actually bought the OS X Lion USB Thumb Drive where or not they can boot from it. What makes me 99% confident is this from the store page:

“When you install OS X Lion using the USB thumb drive, you will not be able to reinstall OS X Lion from Lion Recovery. You will need to use the USB thumb drive to reinstall OS X Lion.”

This implies to me that you must be able to boot from it as a recovery partition, which is sort of how lion boots when you make a DVD from the app store version.

 

[Porco]

I can confirm the the Lion USB drive will boot to a menu with Disk Utility and a few other options available, but I don't know if it checks whether an existing Snow Leopard Partition exists (which is does on my machines).

 

[aziatiklover]

For the ppl that don't know much about the USB key here read this! I have helped some other guy running Leopard and I have update tiger to Lion without PB with a clean install.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1218922/