Upgrading OS on old macbook

I've got an old macbook, the first aluminum model, about 5 years old.

My question is, should I upgrade the OS.
I've never done that before and have traumatic flashbacks of doing that on window machines, taking a loong time, nothing working afterwards and in some cases losing a lot of files, settings, etc.
I'm just a bit paranoid about something like that going wrong.
Can it go wrong?
Anyone had catastrophic accidents because of trying to upgrade the OS?

Another problem is, the CD rom player does not work and I heard you may have to get a cd to do this stuff, so if I can't download the new OS, I probably can't upgrade, at all.

I know, I probably just should get a new one, who knows, maybe father Christmas can help me with that.
But maybe not.

So in short; can I upgrade from 10.5.8 to a newer, better OS and can I do this via download in stead of some cd?

You are right about the disk problem, you can order 10.6.8 from apple as a DVD around $19.00 but if you cant use your CD player this will be problematic.

I would suggest however that you first do a backup of your hard drive to an external source, just in case.

I would not suggest upgrading from Snow Leopard to say Mountain Lion on your laptop without first checking on line for compatability with your model. Snow Leopard is a great OS in my opinion and my son who is s sound engineer is still using it. Good luck.

It's not that problematic, a USB2 burner should cost about $30 or so. I've been using external burners for years because of the convenience, cost to replace/fix and other reasons.

That laptop you're referring to is probably from 2008 IIRC. Snow Leopard is probably the ideal OS for it, because as I recall it can't be upgraded on RAM very far.

The aluminum 2008 MacBook can be upgraded to 8 GB of memory according to Mactracker. However, I agree with chas_m that Snow Leopard is probably ideal for that machine.

And it should go without saying, but OF COURSE jufjo should not even THINK about upgrading until he has made a complete backup of his machine, using Time Machine or Carbon Copy Cloner or whatever he prefers.

Thanks all!
I'll hope and wish that I can get my hands on a new macbook in october but if that won't happen, I'll follow your advice when upgrading.

jufjo said:

Thanks all!
I'll hope and wish that I can get my hands on a new macbook in october but if that won't happen, I'll follow your advice when upgrading.

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You could always compromise. Get something used that's newer than 5 years old...but not brand new (if the budget doesn't allow for brand new).

- Nick

Refurbished MacBook Pros are also available from Apple's online store. Definitely check out that option -- they are like (or sometimes better than) new and a great value.