Snow Leopard and Upgrading OS on Mid 2011 I Mac

Hello all,

I am new to this forum and not the most computer savvy. We own a mid 2011 27" I Mac computer. I need to upgrade my OS from Snow Leopard which we are currently using and I have some concerns in going to Yosemite. I also have some software to use that requires a Mac OS of 10.7.5 or above so I would be open to just upgrade to any of the available OS that would meet those requirements.

Unfortunately I do not have all of my computer details but I can post later if needed. It does have 4GB of RAM and I am in process of adding another 8GB of RAM.

My daughter has quite a few videos she has created in IMovie and I am concerned if those will be affected if I update to Yosemite. Secondly she takes online classes on this computer and must use either Google Chrome or Firefox browsers as the school is not compatible with Safari. I have seen some posts regarding Google Chrome having issues on the Yosemite OS.

Any and all input will be greatly appreciated.

Hi, I have the same 2011 27" iMac other than yours must have been released prior to July 20, 2011
Mac OS X Lion, Initial release date, as mine was released in September and I had to request a copy of SL that I wanted to be able to use.

Anyway, I'd suggest you have two choices that I'd recommend:
- purchase a copy of Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion for $20.00 that's available from the Apple Store.
- download a copy of Yosemite from the Apple site for free

But before doing so, I suggest making a partition or use an external drive and either clone your existing volume to it and then install the new OS X version on it, or do the install and use Migration Assistant to move your settings etc. to the new volume and then boot from it.

If it's really goofy or whatever, you'll have your original SL volume to boot from.

For cloning and backup, I use and prefer using Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC), well worth the money and to have a bootable backup.
https://www.bombich.com

And a good move on the RAM upgrade, well worth it and your iMac will enjoy it and perform better as well, especially with the later OS Xs.

Before you upgrade beyond Snow Leopard check the apps that you are using Any apps that are Power PC only were written for a different Mac processor and will not run on OS X 10.7 or higher without an upgrade. Here's a quick way to see if you are still running PowerPC software. Programs listed as Intel or Universal Binary will either run or need minor updates. Apps labeled PowerPC won't run at all

Or for just OS X version Application compatibility in general, check out:
Application compatibility table - RoaringApps

Thank you for your suggestions. I will check my Apps.