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First ever OSX Upgrade - an idiots guide!

Apple fanboy

Apple fanboy

macrumors Ivy Bridge
Original poster
Feb 21, 2012
59,607
60,453
Behind the Lens, UK
Hope some of you old pro's can help me out here. I will be upgrading to Mavericks in the next few days but want to make sure I do it right. Currently running ML on a late 2012 iMac. Have my machine backed up by Time Machine.

Should I create a bootable version of ML before I upgrade just incase? If so I have a copy of CCC installed which I assume I would use. How big a thumb drive would I need to do that (if necessary)? Which files do I need to back up to create a bootable drive?

Other than taking an extra back up on another external drive for my Pictures, Music and documents anything else I need to do or worry about?
 
Hello,

I would create a full bootable backup of the Mac = a clone.

You can do it with CCC. You just need an external hard drive (USB2 or more).

CCC will also copy the ML Recovery partition.
The clone is an exact copy of your current hard drive.

Alternatively, you might wish to create an USB installer of ML.
You can not do this by copying some files : you would need to download the full installer from Apple servers (not from the App Store since your Mac came with ML installed).
This can be done with OSX Recovery (boot on Cmd + r) by downloading the installer to an external storage and by stopping the process before the installer launch the installation.
Then, the installer stored on the external storage can be used to create a bootable drive.
See here : https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/15536967/

For me, a clone would be enough.
 
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Just do it! I'm assuming you're originally from a PC/Windows background where we all know all too well upgrades tend to mess up. But you're in the wonderful world of the Mac now and you really shouldn't worry.

To be honest I didn't even update my TimeMachine before I did it, I just installed and had no worry in my mind that it wouldn't go without a hitch and it didn't.

Typing from my 10.9 Mavericks upgraded from 10.8.5 and its working perfectly.

Just do it! :D
 
northernmunky said:
Just do it! I'm assuming you're originally from a PC/Windows background where we all know all too well upgrades tend to mess up. But you're in the wonderful world of the Mac now and you really shouldn't worry.

To be honest I didn't even update my TimeMachine before I did it, I just installed and had no worry in my mind that it wouldn't go without a hitch and it didn't.

Typing from my 10.9 Mavericks upgraded from 10.8.5 and its working perfectly.

Just do it! :D
Click to expand...

Yes from a windows background. To many bad upgrades in the past!
Think I'll leave it to the weekend, do a CCC back up on a separate HD and then if anything goes wrong, I've still got to copies.
 
You would do well to make a bootable image of the OS X upgrade. I had to resort to this on one of my Macs today. Did not think to carbon copy my boot drives as most media is housed elsewhere.
 
1. Make sure you have a backup copy of your entire disk (which you should have anyway).
2. Click on Mavericks.
 
So I have a Time machine back up on my Time Capsule. I thought it would be prudent to make a bootable back up as well using CCC on a separate hard drive. It's been running 10 hours and has backed up only 3.44 GB so far. I know its on USB 2 but that is ridicules. Any suggestions?
 

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Something's wrong.

The "normal" speed with CCC is about 1GB/minute.

Did you erase/format your external before cloning ?

(Mac OS extented journaled, GUID partition table).
 
Bruno09 said:
Something's wrong.

The "normal" speed with CCC is about 1GB/minute.

Did you erase/format your external before cloning ?

(Mac OS extented journaled, GUID partition table).
Click to expand...

Yes. It is a Buffalo 500 GB external. I've had it a couple of years, but hardly ever use it.
 
Bruno09 said:
I would try this :

- stop CCC
- use Disk Utility to check the external drive and repair it if suggested.
Click to expand...

It says it won't repair. How do I go about reformatting and starting again? Or is there a problem with the drive?
 

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Try this :

Select the disk (500.11 GB BUFFALO HD)

1. Erase tab, Erase

2. Partition tab : replace "current" with "1 partition"
Name the partition
Select "Mac OS extended (journaled)
Options : GUID partition table

Apply.

You should see the name of the partition just below the name of the disk.

Then try CCC again...
 
Bruno09 said:
Try this :

Select the disk (500.11 GB BUFFALO HD)

1. Erase tab, Erase

2. Partition tab : replace "current" with "1 partition"
Name the partition
Select "Mac OS extended (journaled)
Options : GUID partition table

Apply.

You should see the name of the partition just below the name of the disk.

Then try CCC again...
Click to expand...

So I erased the partition, then tried to erase the HD itself. Got the following message.
 

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Open the Terminal and run (safe) :

cd /Volumes/"Untitled 1"; ls -la

Enter.

If you get "no such file or directory", try :

cd /Volumes/Untitled\ 1; ls -la

Enter.

What do you get ?

EDIT : modified the second command. (deleted the ")

If you still get "no such file or directory", rename "Untitled 1" to "Untitled", and run :

cd /Volumes/Untitled; ls -la
 
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