Late 2009 white unibody Macbook: clean install or...?

[jinxed]

Hi all

I have a late 2009 white unibody Macbook, and I have a question: is it possible to totally sweep the harddrive and do a fresh install of OSx mavericks or Yosemite? Originally the Macbook came with 10.6 (Snow Leopard). Original specs, didn't alter or upgrade components.

The reason I ask this, while working and surfing on the Mac is still possible starting up is taking quite a while and some apps take their time to start as well. Working with apps still goes fine, sometimes a bit of a lag. I think it is from upgrading 10.6 to 10.7 and 10.8 with apps and documents in place. So would I benefit from a fresh install? Or would I also need to bump up my memory to 4gb? Or is it better to save that money for a new Mac in the future? It still works good though.

Thanks in advance

 

[scandalouslime]

I have the same mac as you with a 1tb 5400rpm hard drive and 4GB of RAM. I believe I have OS X 10.10 consumer beta 3 installed and I gotta tell you, it actually runs better than I expected. Apps do take a wee bit longer to launch, but it doesn't feel like much. There isn't any lag at all on my machine, But I do have 4GB of RAM. Since you have only 2GB of RAM, I advise to stay away from Yosemite at all costs until you can get that 4GB of RAM installed.

 

[MCAsan]

OS releases have requirements pages. You can easily see if your Mac can do the release.



OS X Mavericks: System Requirements
Learn about the system requirements for OS X Mavericks.

To install Mavericks, you need one of these Macs:

iMac (Mid-2007 or later)
MacBook (13-inch Aluminum, Late 2008), (13-inch, Early 2009 or later)
MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid-2009 or later),
MacBook Pro (15-inch or 17-inch, Mid/Late 2007 or later)
MacBook Air (Late 2008 or later)
Mac mini (Early 2009 or later)
Mac Pro (Early 2008 or later)
Xserve (Early 2009)
Your Mac also needs:

OS X Mountain Lion, Lion, or Snow Leopard v10.6.8 already installed
2 GB or more of memory
8 GB or more of available space

 

[jinxed]

Thank you

But how can I do a fresh install of Mavericks without installing Snow Leopard first, that originally came with my Macbook? Is that even possible?

 

[logana]

If you are suffering slow start-ups and apps lagging I would suggest replacing the hard disc before you install 10.10. It sounds as if the disc is failing and installing a new OS is about the worst thing you can do to a disc (constant writing to it for 30-45 minutes),

Upgrade the ram to at least 4GB and google Yosemite usb installer and follow those instructions to do a fresh install of Yosemite.

 

[Eldiablojoe]

My recent thread has a lot of good info on just your exact situation.


https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=20431689#post20431689