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Upgrade from Mavericks to Big Sur

P

Passy78

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 5, 2020
21
12
Hi,

I have an old Macbook Air 11'' inch here that does support Mac OS Monterey. As I had to completely restore the OS (with cmd+R) I was only given the option to install Mac Os Mavericks. How do I upgrade now to a newer OS version, such as Big Sur ? In the App Store, Apple no longer shows Big Sur. When I search for "Big Sur" it doesn't show anything. When I search for Monterey, I can find it in the app store. But it says that "This version of macOS 12.2 cannot be installed on this computer".

I know Big Sur works fine, but where can I find and download it ?

thanks for your help,
Pascal
 
@BigBlur : Yes, been there, but on this page I can't see a download link ... It opens in Safari where I can't download anything. I suppose it should open the link in the app store but that doesn't work for me. Maybe Mavericks is too old ?
 
You could also upgrade to another version, such as El Capitan, or even High Sierra. Once you have upgraded to something a bit newer, then go on forward with Big Sur, if that is what you want to do.
 
My suggestion:

YOU MUST HAVE DATA BACKED UP BEFORE YOU DO THIS!
(you have been warned)

You need to erase THE ENTIRE DRIVE.
You can't do that using "command-R" (recovery partition)

To do this, you need to boot to INTERNET RECOVERY
Command-OPTION-R
at boot.

You'll need your wifi password.
The internet utilities take a while to load, so be patient.

When you get to the utilities, do this:
a. Open disk utility
b. CHECK CAREFULLY to see if there is a "view" menu.
c. If there IS a view menu, go to it and choose "show all devices"
(if there IS NOT a view menu, just proceed to the next step)
d. Look on the left. The topmost item is the physical hard drive inside.
e. Click on the drive and then click the erase button
f. I'd try erasing to APFS.
g. Quit disk utility and open the OS installer.
h. IMPORTANT QUESTION: which VERSION of the OS is it offering to you?
(When you use internet recovery, you'll be offered the latest version of the OS that can run on your Mac)
i. If it's Mojave or later, APFS is fine.
j. Start "clicking through" the install process.
k. The MB will reboot one or more times, and the screen may go dark for a few minutes with no other indication of activity. BE PATIENT.
l. When the install is done, you should see the initial setup screen (choose your language) -- start clicking through.
m. At this point you can connect your backup and use setup assistant if you wish.
OR... create a new account, but you'll have to migrate stuff "by hand".

Good luck.
 
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Fishrrman said:
My suggestion:

YOU MUST HAVE DATA BACKED UP BEFORE YOU DO THIS!
(you have been warned)

You need to erase THE ENTIRE DRIVE.
You can't do that using "command-R" (recovery partition)

To do this, you need to boot to INTERNET RECOVERY
Command-OPTION-R
at boot.

You'll need your wifi password.
The internet utilities take a while to load, so be patient.

When you get to the utilities, do this:
a. Open disk utility
b. CHECK CAREFULLY to see if there is a "view" menu.
c. If there IS a view menu, go to it and choose "show all devices"
(if there IS NOT a view menu, just proceed to the next step)
d. Look on the left. The topmost item is the physical hard drive inside.
e. Click on the drive and then click the erase button
f. I'd try erasing to APFS.
g. Quit disk utility and open the OS installer.
h. IMPORTANT QUESTION: which VERSION of the OS is it offering to you?
(When you use internet recovery, you'll be offered the latest version of the OS that can run on your Mac)
i. If it's Mojave or later, APFS is fine.
j. Start "clicking through" the install process.
k. The MB will reboot one or more times, and the screen may go dark for a few minutes with no other indication of activity. BE PATIENT.
l. When the install is done, you should see the initial setup screen (choose your language) -- start clicking through.
m. At this point you can connect your backup and use setup assistant if you wish.
OR... create a new account, but you'll have to migrate stuff "by hand".

Good luck.
Click to expand...
Yes, thanks a lot. Now I am offered Big Sur and I try to install it (OK it says it will take more than 3 hours) so I have to be patient.
 
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