Should I upgrade and why

[suparobg]

I have the late 2012 iMac 21,5 desktop with 8GB of RAM and would like to know if I update to Mavericks will my computer be slower and have all kinds of problems? I notice a lot of the problems with this OS upgrade are being voiced by owners of MacBooks is this true?
Thanks

 

[fisherking]

I have the late 2012 iMac 21,5 desktop with 8GB of RAM and would like to know if I update to Mavericks will my computer be slower and have all kinds of problems? I notice a lot of the problems with this OS upgrade are being voiced by owners of MacBooks is this true?
Thanks

why are you worried about macbook owners if u have an iMac? anyway, that's what these forums are for...complaints (LOL), troubleshooting. late 2012? update. for many of us, mavericks is great (not perfect), and, for me, it's faster. stable.

if you have doubts, you can always wait a few revisions (i.e. 10.9.2, etc..)

 

[suparobg]

upgrade?

I wanted to know if owners of new iMac computers that have upgraded are finding the experience to be with it or not

 

[Bear]

I have the late 2012 iMac 21,5 desktop with 8GB of RAM and would like to know if I update to Mavericks will my computer be slower and have all kinds of problems? I notice a lot of the problems with this OS upgrade are being voiced by owners of MacBooks is this true?
Thanks

First, you have to check if all the software you use is Mavericks compatible. Then you need to see if the issues people are reporting apply to what you are doing.

I ran in to a few things I didn't like on Mavericks and went back to Mountain Lion from my backup. Hopefully Apple will fix the issues soon. One of the issues is the new version of iWork is missing a lot of features. Another is iBooks doesn't allow you to edit metadata and it forced re-downloads of all purchased books the first time it was run, some with very bad metadata.

I wanted to know if owners of new iMac computers that have upgraded are finding the experience to be with it or not

Other than the issues I ran into, memory management on Mavericks does seem to work as advertised and is a nice improvement.

 

[suparobg]

upgrade?

how would I go back if I don't like it. I'm a noob when it coms to Mac
thanks

----------

First, you have to check if all the software you use is Mavericks compatible. Then you need to see if the issues people are reporting apply to what you are doing.

I ran in to a few things I didn't like on Mavericks and went back to Mountain Lion from my backup. Hopefully Apple will fix the issues soon. One of the issues is the new version of iWork is missing a lot of features. Another is iBooks doesn't allow you to edit metadata and it forced re-downloads of all purchased books the first time it was run, some with very bad metadata.

Other than the issues I ran into, memory management on Mavericks does seem to work as advertised and is a nice improvement.

How do I do a back up before I upgrade??

 

[dean1012]

The easiest way to backup (and quickest to restore IMHO) is to do a bootable clone with Super Duper (can be done for free).

If you don't like Mavericks, boot into the bootable clone and use Super Duper again to restore to the internal harddrive.

The other option is a complete Time Machine backup and then restore from Time Machine.

 

[suparobg]

how to back up

how do i do a back up using the time machine I don't have any external hard drive or cloud to speak of.

 

[fisherking]

how do i do a back up using the time machine I don't have any external hard drive or cloud to speak of.

GET AN EXTERNAL DRIVE; backup your mac. you do this because it's important to have a backup, and...ESPECIALLY before doing any major upgrades...

 

[dean1012]

Seconded, it isn't a backup if it isn't on different medium in my opinion.

You should ideally have multiple backups spread on site and off site but a single external drive should suffice for most people. It really depends on how valuable your data is to you.

You'll need an external drive that's at least as large as your internal drive. Preferably it'll be at least double the size.

So if you have a 256 GB internal drive, you'll need 256 GB external drive but you really should use at least a 500 GB internal drive.

You can buy a 500 GB internal drive (in the United States at least) for < $70 at most stores; probably cheaper online.

 

[suparobg]

backing up

after i get an external hard drive what steps do i need to do to back up my computer and OS. Or how does the time machine work

 

[fisherking]

after i get an external hard drive what steps do i need to do to back up my computer and OS. Or how does the time machine work

buy usb drive (if you're a newbie, get a mac-formatted drive). plug in to your mac. computer will ask if you want to use the drive with time machine. click 'ok'.

but really, this:

time machine