updating Snow Leopard to Mountain Lion

I currently have an iMac with Snow Leopard that I purchased new a few years ago. It's been running fine but I'm thinking about updating the OS to Mountain Lion. I guess the main reason is I'm thinking about either using Aperature or Lightroom 5 as I'm thinking about giving RAW a try in terms of shooting with cameras. As far as I can tell, one of the minimum requirements is to have Mountain Lion.

I guess another reason for maybe updating to ML is because we're also thinking og updating our router to the new "tower" Airport Extreme and it also requires a minimum of ML if you want to configure the router using the iMac. We do have ip5's and I know we can also configure using our iphones after we download the app so that's not really a big deal.

I've been doing some searching and it seems that some people or a good number of people have had problems updating to ML and in some cases, it has either really messed up their machine or made it worse such as making it run really slow.

I guess that's what I'm scared of. My SL OS runs fine now though it could use some RAM but it's working fine. I'm worried that if I decide to update, I'll mess something up.

If I do decide to update to ML, is it as easy as simply first backing up my computer using Time Machine and then going to the app store and purchasing ML for $19.99? From there, does the app/system know what to do and I just follow along on the prompts?

Also, I've read about some people make a bootable drive on a usb stick. I don't have any other apple computers so is this really necessary, especially since we don't plan on buying any other apple computers for a while?

halfmonkey said:

If I do decide to update to ML, is it as easy as simply first backing up my computer using Time Machine and then going to the app store and purchasing ML for $19.99? From there, does the app/system know what to do and I just follow along on the prompts?

Click to expand...

Yes.

halfmonkey said:

Also, I've read about some people make a bootable drive on a usb stick. I don't have any other apple computers so is this really necessary, especially since we don't plan on buying any other apple computers for a while?

Click to expand...

The bootable USB stick is exactly like having a bootable DVD (just like the Snow Leopard disk you have). If for some reason your hard drive completely failed in the future...you would be able to boot your computer from the USB stick...and then be able to reinstall Mountain Lion on the replacement drive.

This comes in particularly handy if (for some reason)...you temporarily couldn't get on the internet to redownload ML from the Mac App store.

HTH,

- Nick

pigoo3 said:

Yes.



The bootable USB stick is exactly like having a bootable DVD (just like the Snow Leopard disk you have). If for some reason your hard drive completely failed in the future...you would be able to boot your computer from the USB stick...and then be able to reinstall Mountain Lion on the replacement drive.

This comes in particularly handy if (for some reason)...you temporarily couldn't get on the internet to redownload ML from the Mac App store.

HTH,

- Nick

Click to expand...

If I didn't want to mess with creating a bootable usb stick, can I still upgrade to ML or do you recommend I actually create it? You said that if I couldn't get on the internet, having the usb drive would come in handy? Does that mean that if something happened to my iMac, as long as I have an internet connection, I'd be able to access the app store and re-load ML?

halfmonkey said:

If I didn't want to mess with creating a bootable usb stick, can I still upgrade to ML or do you recommend I actually create it?

Click to expand...

I recommend that you actually create it. The ONLY time you can make this bootable USB stick is AFTER ML is downloaded but BEFORE ML is actually installed. Once ML is installed...the installer file that was downloaded (which is needed to make the bootable USB stick) is automatically deleted. Thus no longer available to make the bootable USB stick from.

Many users either don't know this...or are too lazy to do it. Then they regret it later when their hard drive crashes...they replace the HD with a brand new one...and now they have no way to reinstall ML.

FYI...Time Machine backups are not bootable. That's why the ML bootable USB stick comes in handy.

halfmonkey said:

You said that if I couldn't get on the internet, having the usb drive would come in handy? Does that mean that if something happened to my iMac, as long as I have an internet connection, I'd be able to access the app store and re-load ML?

Click to expand...

You can always redownload Mountain Lion. But if your iMac's hard drive completely crashes...then you have no hard drive to boot the computer from (thus cannot get on the internet). That's why you need the bootable USB stick.

FYI...with OS versions ofter SL (Lion and Mountain Lion) a small "Recovery Partition" is created on the hard drive. This recovery partition can be booted into as necessary when problems occur. So if your hard drive does not completely crash (but you have problems)...you can boot into the "Recovery Partition" to help solve things.

- Nick

pigoo3 said:

I recommend that you actually create it. The ONLY time you can make this bootable USB stick is AFTER ML is downloaded but BEFORE ML is actually installed. Once ML is installed...the installer file that was downloaded (which is needed to make the bootable USB stick) is automatically deleted. Thus no longer available to make the bootable USB stick from.

Many users either don't know this...or are too lazy to do it. Then they regret it later when their hard drive crashes...they replace the HD with a brand new one...and now they have no way to reinstall ML.

FYI...Time Machine backups are not bootable. That's why the ML bootable USB stick comes in handy.



You can always redownload Mountain Lion. But if your iMac's hard drive completely crashes...then you have no hard drive to boot the computer from (thus cannot get on the internet). That's why you need the bootable USB stick.

FYI...with OS versions ofter SL (Lion and Mountain Lion) a small "Recovery Partition" is created on the hard drive. This recovery partition can be booted into as necessary when problems occur. So if your hard drive does not completely crash (but you have problems)...you can boot into the "Recovery Partition" to help solve things.

- Nick

Click to expand...

How hard is it to create the USB bootable stick?

halfmonkey said:

How hard is it to create the USB bootable stick?

Click to expand...

Do a Google search for the procedure...and read thru it. Only you can determine what is easy/hard.

Difficulty is relative. What Einstein thought was easy...the rest of us would think is hard.

- Nick

This site tells you how:
How To Make A Bootable Disk Or USB Drive Of OS X Mountain Lion | Cult of Mac

Thanks for all of the help.

For those that were in the same boat as me, did you guys update to ML? I'm just trying to decide if it's even worth the hassle and risk? I guess my main concern is that once I update, my system bricks or performs worse than when I had SL as the OS. I'd think that with Maverick around the corner, ML has had it's chance to mature and work out all of the kinks. Plus, 3rd party developers would have had a chance by now to update their software to work with ML.

halfmonkey said:

Thanks for all of the help.

For those that were in the same boat as me, did you guys update to ML? I'm just trying to decide if it's even worth the hassle and risk? I guess my main concern is that once I update, my system bricks or performs worse than when I had SL as the OS. I'd think that with Maverick around the corner, ML has had it's chance to mature and work out all of the kinks. Plus, 3rd party developers would have had a chance by now to update their software to work with ML.

Click to expand...

Here are some common reasons for doing an OS upgrade:

- new features
- compatibility with newer hardware
- compatibility with newer software

Risks:

- compatibility may be lost with older software
- compatibility may be lost with older hardware
- features come & go. Favorite features in older OS versions sometimes are replaced by new features.

If you reread your original post in this thread...you gave yourself some reasons for upgrading to Mountain Lion. "Things" that require ML. If you want/need to do something that requires ML...then you MUST upgrade to ML.

- Nick