Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Upgrade to Snow Leopard on Macbook 4,1

P

phphoto

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 27, 2013
37
0
I have a 2008 Macbook white body running Leopard. I have a Snow Leopard disc and wanted to know if I can upgrade to this without losing any of my applications, files etc. Also is it possible to replace the 2GB ram with 4GB? Do I have to remove the battery first?

Thanks
 
The normal installation mode for Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard is an upgrade install, meaning no data or application of yours gets deleted, but it is always recommended to at least make a backup to an external HDD via Time Machine or CarbonCopyCloner (version 3.4.7 is still free and available for download here and works with Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, Mac OS X 10.7 Lion and OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion) or SuperDuper! before doing such a task, in case something goes wrong.

As for upgrading RAM, yes, the battery needs to be removed, which should be an easy task on a 2008 white MacBook.

 
Thank you for your replies. I'm still a little confused about using the retail snow leopard disc I have to upgrade to without losing all my apps and data. Do I make a back up of everything, upgrade the OS, and then reinstall all the data and apps. I was hoping to upgrade to Mavericks but I can't do this until I've loaded snow leopard.
 
You don't lose anything when you upgrade the OS : only the OS will change, all your apps, settings, and data will remain unchanged.

Yes, you do need to do a full backup (do a clone) just in case something went wrong when installing.
(and you need a full backup anyway : Time Machine and/or a clone).

If you have a white SL retail disc, it is 10.6.3.
So after you have installed, download an apply the 10.6.8 combo update.
Then run Software Updates do get all other available updates.

You can NOT install Mavericks on that machine : the maximum OS is Lion 10.7.5.
 
Thanks Brono09. I have the white retail dvd of snow leopard 10.6.3 as you mentioned. If I put this into the disc drive and restart whilst holding down the C key, I guess this will then guide me through the installation process. I have ever only done software updates by download before but you can't get the snow leopard for download anymore. I note what you say about not being able to upgrade to Mavericks but I will put some more Ram into it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back