Mountain Lion on late 2009 iMac

hi everyone, i have a late 2009 iMac with a snow leopard 10.6.2 disc which i want to give to a friend who lost hers, and i have decided to upgrade my iMac to Mountain Lion 10.8 if it is possible to do so.

can anyone tell me the exact procedure for doing this, as i believe for newer versions it comes in the form of a digital download to the iMac hdd somewhere.

i understand that i can launch the new installation of mountain lion from within snow leopard if/when the time comes, but how would i install it if my hdd was to die, or i replace it.

i would copy the downloaded image to a usb portable hdd or a usb pen stick as a backup (formatted using ExFAT) so can it be installed from an external device, or do i burn the image to a dvd disc.

also, i currently have Windows 7 installed on bootcamp, will installing mountain lion from the image on the hdd nuke the windows 7 partition as well.

cheers

Okay, starting from the top:

1. You don't specify if your 10.6.2 disc is a retail disc or your own gray system disc. If the latter, it's not going to work on her machine. She can order Snow Leopard directly from Apple for a whopping $20, and that's the correct path for her to take.

2. On your machine, you should have the Mac App Store. If you don't, use Software Update to get to 10.6.8 (free) and then use the now-installed Mac App Store to purchase OS X Mountain Lion ($20). Make a backup before you buy Mountain Lion as a precaution (though Mountain Lion generally installs "in place" with no issues).

3. How do you install Mountain Lion if you replace the drive? See this: Apple - OS X Recovery restores your Mac with a few clicks.
(so there's not really a burning need to create a backup DVD of the ML installer, however you can if you want to)

4. The Win 7 partition is not touched by the ML installer unless you opt to nuke the entire drive. It only installs ML on the Mac partition.

hi, thx for the reply.

sorry i have the original 10.6.2 disc that shipped with the iMac, thats why i offered it to my friend as i knew it would be ok as her macbook has just had the hdd die and she had another one installed, now needs a snow leopard disc to install again.

she is happy to keep 10.6.2, so im happy to let her have the disc.

also, i already updated to 10.6.8 and have the app store on the iMac so yes i can download mountain lion from that, but i dont want to upgrade it just yet, its my sons iMac and he is living away from home and he still has all his audio software and other important apps etc on it.

his files are backed up onto his portable drive that he took with him with his MBP with while living away.

if i download the new Mountain lion image, cant i just store it on the hdd ready to install later, and burn the image to a disc to use for installing later, especially if the hdd dies or i upgrade it before installing mountain lion.

i just like the option to have it there in case, and the link you provided is for creating an OS X Recovery on an external drive (usb stick) of the mountain lion partition once it has been installed.

the reason why i want it now is so i have it ready to go when my son says the word.

i wish they would still do the disc purchase option, for those who prefer it that way.

cheers

It will NOT work on anything but the same model iMac as chas-m said. When you download ML Google for LionDiskMaker to burn to a USB thumb drive. That will then be bootable and Recovery will not be a hassle.

Disc media is gone gone gone.

Aside from all the answers you received, Snow Leopard is only licensed to the original owner - you. As member chas_m pointed out, have her buy a retail DVD of Snow Leopard from Apple direct for $20.

hi again, ok forgive me for my ignorance here, im not an apple user, the iMac i have is my sons, which is now my daughters, and she uses the windows 7 side at the moment because my son doesnt want her using his OSX partition until he has come back home to sort all his stuff out.

how does the licensing work with OSX, because i still thought my sons disc can be used on her MBP and it would be ok as she already owned snow leopard but lost her disc, and her hdd died, thats why she thought she can just se someone elses disc, and then register it with apple using her license.

when my son got his late 2011 MBP it had lion on it, he bought mountain lion but didnt install it immediately, and we tried using that Lion Disc Maker tool to create a bootable usb stick, but it never worked.

anyway, i will just buy ML from his imac and download it, and try burning the image to a bootable usb stick again.

cheers