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Best way to update OS X

J

johnnyyt

macrumors member
Original poster
recently purchased a used rMBP 15. it came with osx lion 10.7.5

unfortunately, the laptop was purchased after july 20th so its not eligible for the free upgrade 🙁

my question is what is the best way to go about installing and upgrading to mountain lion?
i've got a few suggestions of just updating it through app store after buying
others are saying to backup my info on a usb drive and just do a restore of the osx

i'm coming from a pc so i'm new to this kinda stuff
 
Back up your system (always a must)
Purchase ML from the app store
Download and install.

Easy peasy 🙂
 
OS X is designed to install a new version in the place of your current OS, leaving your user data, applications and settings intact. There is no need to do a "clean" install, wiping the disk, installing the OS and restoring all your stuff from a backup.

I've installed 10.3, 10.4, 10.5, 10.6, 10.7 and 10.8 straight over the top of existing data, and never had any problems (as a result).

However: you need to have a backup, regardless of any installing. Things can go wrong; hardware fails; stuff gets stolen and catches fire. Files without backups are waiting to be lost.

One other point: once you've installed the OS, if you've come from Windows, you're likely to think that reinstalling will be the solution to all and any problems you may have. On OS X, it probably isn't. The problem will be somewhere else -- most likely in your user account's prefs and caches.
 
please help!

I currently have an older IMAC running 10.5.8 to save me a trip to genius bar, is there an easy way to upgrade operating system? Thanks 🙂
odel Name: iMac
Model Identifier: iMac9,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.66 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 6 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz
Boot ROM Version: IM91.008D.B08
SMC Version (system): 1.44f0
 
donmen said:
I currently have an older IMAC running 10.5.8
Model Identifier: iMac9,1
Click to expand...
You can install Mountain Lion, the latest version, but you need to buy a DVD of Snow Leopard from Apple first, as this contains the software for the Mac App Store, where you buy ML.
 
benwiggy said:
You can install Mountain Lion, the latest version, but you need to buy a DVD of Snow Leopard from Apple first, as this contains the software for the Mac App Store, where you buy ML.
Click to expand...

If you had a paid version of MobleMe account you might be able to get the OS X.6 DVD for free. I got mine for free did not need to use it but have it in case i should ever need it as i Have a Retail copy of every OS since OS 8 - never know when you will need it. Might never need it but if i do not have it I will one day need it. so check with apple you might still be able to get it for free. if not i have a spare Retail edition I could sell you - as my wife and i each got one for free - only really need one!
 
OS X Mountain Lion is $20 from the App store.

There are numerous ways to create a USB drive from the installer.

When you create the ML USB, you can install ML on your rMBP.
 
kemo said:
Not so fast! I'd really recommend you to do a "clean" install - as it takes basically the same time installing BUT you can avoid some unexpected issues...
Click to expand...
You could make a case for clean install vs. upgrade a few years ago, but at this point I think apple has really refined their upgrade process to the point where there's little risk going with the process they provide, i.e., download and install.
 
kemo said:
Not so fast! I'd really recommend you to do a "clean" install - as it takes basically the same time installing BUT you can avoid some unexpected issues...
Click to expand...
Such as....?

Clean install does not take the same time, if you factor in restoring everything else.

Apple has designed the OS to be installed in place. As I say, I've installed every OS version since 10.3 over the top of an existing OS on several different Macs, and never had a problem.
 
benwiggy said:
OS X is designed to install a new version in the place of your current OS, leaving your user data, applications and settings intact. There is no need to do a "clean" install, wiping the disk, installing the OS and restoring all your stuff from a backup.

I've installed 10.3, 10.4, 10.5, 10.6, 10.7 and 10.8 straight over the top of existing data, and never had any problems (as a result).

However: you need to have a backup, regardless of any installing. Things can go wrong; hardware fails; stuff gets stolen and catches fire. Files without backups are waiting to be lost.

One other point: once you've installed the OS, if you've come from Windows, you're likely to think that reinstalling will be the solution to all and any problems you may have. On OS X, it probably isn't. The problem will be somewhere else -- most likely in your user account's prefs and caches.
Click to expand...

While I have found this to be true most of the time, I found that the only way I could recover from what I call a "ReportCrash loop" was to reinstall OSX. I ran into a situation where (due to Comcast) the restore was going to take 12 hours so I did the restore using a usb stick I made before I allowed "Install OSX Mountain.app" to run.

stchman said:
OS X Mountain Lion is $20 from the App store.

There are numerous ways to create a USB drive from the installer.

When you create the ML USB, you can install ML on your rMBP.
Click to expand...


I agree that making a USB stick for yourself is an important step to upgrading OSX as it protects you from a situation where your entire HDD goes bad or you encounter internet connectivity issues at the time you need to do a recovery.
 
maflynn said:
You could make a case for clean install vs. upgrade a few years ago, but at this point I think apple has really refined their upgrade process to the point where there's little risk going with the process they provide, i.e., download and install.
Click to expand...

As far as I know I had experienced issues with stability, system speed, random process peaks etc. when I was "upgrading" from Snow Leopard to Lion/Mountain Lion. (Always SSD with 50GB+ free space, plenty of RAM - no crapware on my laptop...). So I'm back on SL even though I bought both Lion and Mountain Lion in the day one and patiently tried every update Apple released including 10.8.3. I had always some issues with the specific OS.

Situation however was a bit better (mean I had "less" of the issues) when I did a CLEAN installation however I never get near the stability I'm experiencing on SL.
By the way I have i7 late 2011 (latest HW I'm aware its able to run SL?). I'm not saying you guys are not telling true but I'm not lying either...
 
benwiggy said:
Such as....?

Clean install does not take the same time, if you factor in restoring everything else.

Apple has designed the OS to be installed in place. As I say, I've installed every OS version since 10.3 over the top of an existing OS on several different Macs, and never had a problem.
Click to expand...

Yea, I'm sure you had no issues but I experienced exact opposite, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. Look, technically there's is always a lower chance to experience some issues/conflicts within OS when installing on formatted drive rather than upgrading from previous version.

About the time - true, I meant the installation time itself, which will be basically equal. Naturally you then need to restore previous settings (considering clean installation), which takes some time..
 
kemo said:
Look, technically there's is always a lower chance to experience some issues/conflicts within OS when installing on formatted drive rather than upgrading from previous version.
Click to expand...
After doing a "clean" install of the OS, most people will want to restore all their system and user preferences anyway. And that's the likely location of any problems you may have had, which renders the clean install pointless.

If you are going to advise that people do a clean install, you should also say that they shouldn't migrate their settings.

I don't think the stability issues you experienced are necessarily inherent features of the OSes you installed.
 
kemo said:
Yea, I'm sure you had no issues but I experienced exact opposite, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. Look, technically there's is always a lower chance to experience some issues/conflicts within OS when installing on formatted drive rather than upgrading from previous version.

About the time - true, I meant the installation time itself, which will be basically equal. Naturally you then need to restore previous settings (considering clean installation), which takes some time..
Click to expand...
I have been a Mac user since 1989 with System 6.0.3 and an owner since the same year with System 6.0.4. I am posting this message using my MacBook Pro running OS X 10.8.3. I have never done an upgrade via "Clean Install."

This is not Windows where you wipe and reinstall as a preventative measure. Neither is format and reinstall the catch-all procedure to fix problems because diagnosing the real problem will waste more time than it is worth.

Clean Install of OS X as first procedure is a complete waste of time. Upgrading in place will get you back to work as soon as you reboot after the upgrade. I won't go chances of problems because you will think that you are one of the exceptions. You are not.

The last time I had a problem with an OS upgrade was my upgrade to System 7.5. OS X has nothing to do with System 7.5. User settings, applications, and files are completely separate from the OS. Even in the event of a borked OS upgrade, your files are completely intact. Redo the upgrade and then immediately resume work.

There is a tendency for many to attribute problems to upgrades. It is common to attribute impending hard drive failures, motherboard issues, and such like to the OS. These issues often pop-up during upgrades because the user is paying attention, not because the upgrade caused them. However, you can neither prevent nor repair a hard drive or a blown capacitor with a clean install.

Maintaining up-to-date backups is among best practices for operating a computer. Clean Installs of OS X are among the opposite.
 
benwiggy said:
After doing a "clean" install of the OS, most people will want to restore all their system and user preferences anyway. And that's the likely location of any problems you may have had, which renders the clean install pointless.

If you are going to advise that people do a clean install, you should also say that they shouldn't migrate their settings.

I don't think the stability issues you experienced are necessarily inherent features of the OSes you installed.
Click to expand...

Hold on, I never said I migrated all the settings which would make the clean installation pointless as you said.

When I did "upgrade" I've always experienced more issues than if I did a clean installation and manually restore my settings (app .plists, keychain, 1Password's data etc.) - actually nothing which could somehow interfere with system files or cause any "problems".
 
kemo said:
Hold on, I never said I migrated all the settings which would make the clean installation pointless as you said.
Click to expand...
Indeed. My point is that you need to make that evident. Just saying "clean install" is no good if people then just migrate everything on top -- which most people will do and will want to do unless otherwise instructed. So reinstalling and migrating everything is a waste of time.

However, it could also be argued that hand-sifting which prefs to copy over and which not to is also a massive waste of time, particularly as you've said that doing this still didn't solve your problems of stability on ML. So perhaps the installation is irrelevant and some other factor is at play.
 
I've always been a clean install person over upgrades.

A clean install of ML takes about 20 minutes tops.

While Apple may have refined their upgrade process, some people have had issues upgrading, so it is not 100%
 
stchman said:
A clean install of ML takes about 20 minutes tops.
Click to expand...
Does that include installing all your apps and selectively importing your prefs and user data.....?

stchman said:
While Apple may have refined their upgrade process, some people have had issues upgrading, so it is not 100%
Click to expand...
Search the forums and you will find some people have problems with Photoshop, with Word, with Finder, with any number of apps or just the OS itself. Pinpointing the cause is hard. It's all too easy to say "I just upgraded and now my computer doesn't work."
"A problem I'm having on my computer" is not necessarily "a problem with the software that I'm using".
 
Using the USB thumb drive method to do a clean install, it takes me about 20 minutes after the initial install of the OS from the USB drive. This is on a 5400 HDD. Than using another USB where I have stored my programs, it takes another 15 minutes or longer (Music/Pages/Keynote/Adobe Flash, etc). Total time for me, your mileage will vary is about 40 minutes.. 😉
 
Don't install ML in this machine, it will be very slow. Save your time. ML requires min 4GB to run in acceptable performance. Just my 2cents.

donmen said:
I currently have an older IMAC running 10.5.8 to save me a trip to genius bar, is there an easy way to upgrade operating system? Thanks 🙂
odel Name:iMac
Model Identifier:iMac9,1
Processor Name:Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed:2.66 GHz
Number Of Processors:1
Total Number Of Cores:2
L2 Cache:6 MB
Memory:2 GB
Bus Speed:1.07 GHz
Boot ROM Version:IM91.008D.B08
SMC Version (system):1.44f0
Click to expand...
 
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