Upgrading from 10.4 to Snow Leopard

I am a ludite. I have no idea what I am doing.
I bought the $29 OS Snow Leopard disk. I cannot figure out how to install it.
A few things are happening.
1) I am told when the start up disk is running that I need more RAM
2) I have an external hard drive and I keep reading things that say I need to partition to make this work and I do not even understand what that means.
I am hoping that someone can give me very simple, minute, clear instructions on what I need to do to get this new OS installed. Keep in mind that I may not know what the words you are using mean (such a partition) so it would be great if you can explain all the stuff. I know this is a hassle for whoever answers it, but I really need some help here.
Thanks!

We NEED to know what exact computer model you have...before we can help.

- Nick

I have a 13 inch MacBook purchased in July or August of 2006. Intel processor, I think.

macinmorocco said:

I have a 13 inch MacBook purchased in July or August of 2006. Intel processor, I think.

Click to expand...

Ok...good. How much ram do you have?...and how much free space do you have available on your hard drive?

- Nick

I have a little over 5 GB available on my computer's hard drive.
The external has 200 available.
I have 512 MB of RAM.

macinmorocco said:

I have a little over 5 GB available on my computer's hard drive.
The external has 200 available.
I have 512 MB of RAM.

Click to expand...

Thanks again for the info. Well...you have two issues:

1. Not enough ram.
2. Probably not enough disk space.

This page lists the system requirements for Snow Leopard:

Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard - Apple Store (U.S.)

Most importantly it says that you need 1 gig of ram (you have 512meg)...and 5gig of free hard drive space (you have 5 gig free space)...but you really should have more free...otherwise you will run into problems.

HTH,

- Nick

What OS are you currently running? Depending on it, it may be easier if you erase the HDD and do a fresh install instead of a upgrade.

Stretch said:

What OS are you currently running?

Click to expand...

Have another look at the title of this thread.

Anyway, bottom line: macinmorocco will need to install more RAM on that machine (I would recommend maxing it out, RAM for that machine is cheap) and needs to clear A WHOLE LOT of disk space before he or she can successfully install Snow Leopard.

To macinmorocco: no partitioning necessary. Your external drive has nothing to do with your boot drive except that you need to find someplace to store I would say at least 20GB of material from your boot drive.

How large is the boot drive? Maybe a simpler solution would be to buy a larger hard drive. If the drive is the original one that came with the machine from 2006, it's high time it was replaced anyway.

If the machine says "MacBook" on it, then it is definitely an Intel Mac. Judging from the age of it, you cannot upgrade past Snow Leopard but it is wise to get as far as you can, so buying SL was a good move. You'll have to spend a bit more to get the machine "up to spec" for Snow Leopard, however.

If anything I've said is unclear, please let me know.