Need help upgrading my OS

[Das1]

Hi, I am new to the site and need some assistance.

I have a Macbook, details below:

Model Name: MacBook
Model Identifier: MacBook4,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 3 MB
Memory: 2 GB

Its currently running on OS X 10.5.8

I want to upgrade to a more recent OS, but not sure which to go for and whether my macbook can handle it. Can I upgrade to a Lion?

problems I'm having at the moment is current apps wont work well with my current OS.

Would really appreciate any assistance.

Thank you

 

[Lifeisabeach]

Ok, so basically you have this one (in black or white):
MacBook "Core 2 Duo" 2.4 13" (White-08) Specs (Early 2008, MB403LL/A, MacBook4,1, A1181, 2242) @ EveryMac.com

The last version of OS X that it can run is 10.7 (Lion). It cannot run Mountain Lion (the most recent release, 10.8). You can now only get Lion directly from Apple (call 1-800-My-Apple). Be aware that if you have any older apps that ran on PPC-based Macs, they will not run on Lion because Rosetta has been dropped. Also, plan on doubling your RAM. 2 GB will not be enough. 4 GB is adequate, and the max that Apple supports on your model MacBook. Third parties have gotten it to use 6 GB of RAM, which would likely perform a bit better. See here: Apple MacBook 2.4GHz (13.3-inch Intel Core 2 Duo "Penryn") - Early 2008


EDIT: as an alternative, you may want to consider 10.6 (Snow Leopard) instead. Lion does have quite a number of improvements, but some of them are a bit awkward. Snow Leopard is still very much a viable platform, though some features are falling behind. It does have an advantage that it will still run PPC apps in Rosetta. If you can give a list of the software you have that doesn't work well, and what software you rely on, we can give a better recommendation between that and Lion.

 

[Das1]

Hi,

Thanks for the response. That's right, I have the black version.I hadn't planned on really upping the RAM but now see that it would be necessary to do so.

Before I do that, I'll try Snow Leopard first and see how that runs. I have a copy of it. Before I install it, would i need to back everything up and the restore it afterwards?

Mainly firefox has been causing problems as the latest update doesn't run on 10.5.8, so it keeps crashing. Also when live streaming it crashes. I also have problems with VLC, does shut down properly. As does MS Office.

When I first got the laptop (new) back in 2008, I would get software updates regularly, but for over a year I haven't got any, I assume its because the software is fairly old now, is that right?

Again, appreciate the advice.

 

[Slydude]

Before I do that, I'll try Snow Leopard first and see how that runs. I have a copy of it. Before I install it, would i need to back everything up and the restore it afterwards?

It's not absolutely necessary to backup your drive before doing the update but it is always a good idea. The update usually goes off without a hitch but things can go wrong.

If your current system is stable you might con side getting an external drive and making a complete clone you current system using something like SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner. This has three benefits:

1. If something goes amiss you have a backup of important information.
2. With a full clone if something goes horribly amiss and completely wrecked the current setup you can reboot from the clone and be back up and ready to correct the problem in no time.
3. In the event you have some software that does not play nice with Snow Leopard you can boot from the clone and run 10.5

 

[chas_m]

While it is possible for that machine to run Lion, for the time being I would recommend Snow Leopard unless you want to use iCloud services, which are only available to Lion users. Definitely up the RAM (I recommend giving a quick call to CanadaRAM, they will sort you out on that point beautifully).