2009 MacBook Pro for son

Hey guys. I have a 2009 17” MacBook Pro I have had since new. I used it for a couple years and then it has sat in a drawer ever since. I have a 15 year old son that’s wanting to do a YouTube channel and I was wondering if this computer would suffice? It’s got 4gb ram and like a 3.06 chip I believe. It was top of the line when I bought it. What os should I put on it? It has snow leopard right now. Any info would be great.

It can be upgraded to 8gig of RAM...and newest OS is can run is El Capitan (OS 10.11). I would say install El Capitan on it...and upgrade it to 8gig of RAM if 4gig seems to not be enough. Other than that...let your son do the You Tube Channel...and see if it works out.

- Nick

Long time no see.

The machine should be OK for your son to mess around with YouTube. Have him update it to the latest version of macOS that it will take. (El Capitan macOS 10.11.6) Maybe add another 4GB of memory?

Nick types faster than me. LOL.

chscag said:

Nick types faster than me. LOL.

Click to expand...

Nahh...probably slower. I likely just had a 5 minute head-start. Lol

- Nick

Thanks guy. Really good to see u two still around. When I get home from work in two weeks I’ll get some help getting it all souped up. I wanna give it as a xmas present. I was just gonna get him a cheap computer but this way I can get him some of the extras that he needs for his YouTube channel. ?

Sounds like a great Christmas gift! Great to see you too!

- Nick

Agree with both Nick and Charley. From my experience with El Cap I would for sure jump the RAM up to 8GB. 4 gets a bit lean with the newer Mac OS's.

Maybe a small SSD, 128gb or 256gb. Would make it seem faster.

http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/compatible-upgrade-for/Apple/macbook-pro-(17-inch,-mid-2009)

https://eshop.macsales.com/upgrades/macbook-pro-17-inch-mid-2009-3.06-ghz/internal-drives

A relatively minor point for the OP.

Presuming that you are going to do a clean install of El Capitain, in other words present your son with a Mac that, when first turned on, has the welcome screen - your son will need to create an Apple ID.

Memory fails me here, but there is a minimum age requirement for creating your own ID. If your son is below this age, you will have to create one as his parent.


There was a recent post about this but I can’t find the thread. Maybe someone can till us the minimum age requirement?

Ian

Here's that thread Ian:

http://www.mac-forums.com/ios-and-apps/343726-create-apple-id.html?highlight=

And I'd go along with Bob above and install a SSD. It'll transform the machine

Thank you, Nick. Most kind. Well, there is no problem as the son is 15.


Ian

ok finally sitting down in front of the computer. i already ran into my first problem. i cant find the original disks. ugh. i moved a few times and now they are lost. am i still gonna be able to do this? anyone have a reccomendation for ram and a hdd? whats my first step here?

whats the easiest way to just get the files and photos off this computer without having to go one by one?

im such a noob

RustProofCorn said:

ok finally sitting down in front of the computer. i already ran into my first problem. i cant find the original disks. ugh.

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What were you planning on doing with those disks? Reason why I'm asking is...you probably don't need them for most things.

RustProofCorn said:

i moved a few times and now they are lost. am i still gonna be able to do this?

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Do what? Just so we know 100%...and not guessing.

RustProofCorn said:

anyone have a reccomendation for ram and a hdd? whats my first step here?

Click to expand...

I know you want to give this computer to your son for Christmas...for the You Tube Channel interest. How much upgrading do you want to do? What happens if your son finds this computer to not meet his needs? Then the upgrade monsy spent may be lost. But if you feel there's very little chance of this...we usually recommend getting RAM from macsales.com or crucial.com.

As far as storage. You could leave the current HD in it & see how things work out. Or install an SSD...which will make if feel much faster.

RustProofCorn said:

whats the easiest way to just get the files and photos off this computer without having to go one by one?

Click to expand...

The quickest & easiet method might be to take an external hard drive...and clone it using Super Duper or Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC). This would be a bootable clone exactly the same as what's on the computer at the moment. Then you can extract things later as you wish...and get the MacBook Pro's HD wiped...and new OS installed & ready for gifting.

- Nick

I dont know how to do all the fancy stuff with the quotes sooooo.... lol

i thought i needed the new disks to make this computer like a new one. i meant when i said "am i still gonna be able to do this?" am i still gonna make this like a new computer without the original disks

i actually feel like i will just do the ram. the computer still feels peppy as it is. so maybe with the new ram and then holding off on the hdd i can spring for a nice mouse and a nice microphone he wants

i will get the super duper that sounds nice and easy and painless..

you have a tutorial thats easy to understand on how to blank this drive an put el captain on it?

RustProofCorn said:

i thought i needed the new disks to make this computer like a new one.

Click to expand...

The one definite thing you're going to want to do is install a much newer OS version. I think you mentioned it currently has Snow Leopard installed...which is OS 10.6. The most current macOS is 10.13 (High Sierra). The newest OS this computer can run is OS 10.11 (El Capitan).

Those disks really won't be a lot of help...since they would only install a pretty old OS version (10.6).

RustProofCorn said:

i actually feel like i will just do the ram. the computer still feels peppy as it is. so maybe with the new ram and then holding off on the hdd i can spring for a nice mouse and a nice microphone he wants

Click to expand...

Sounds good.

RustProofCorn said:

i will get the super duper that sounds nice and easy and painless.

Click to expand...

Super Duper is free...so that's a great choice.

RustProofCorn said:

you have a tutorial thats easy to understand on how to blank this drive an put el captain on it?

Click to expand...

Here's an older article (below) that explains how to do an upgrade from Snow Leopard to El Capitan. Some thing's you may or may not know are:

- OS 10.6 (the OS you have installed)...was the last OS version to be distributed on disk. Every OS newer than 10.6 was download only (technically there was a USB stick version of 10.7...but most folks got 10.7 via download).
- OS 10.9 and newer were download only & free (OS 10.7 & 10.8 need to be purchased).
- When Apple releases a new version of the macOS...older versions are removed from the Mac App Store. Unless a user downloads those OS versions when they were available...they will no longer be available to 1st-timers.

At this point...the newest OS version available for your 2009 MacBook Pro is El Capitan & the only free version you will be able to download (unless older versions were downloaded previously).

Please read the article (below). It explains how to do things. Also...don't forget to click on the "Here are instructions on how to upgrade to El Capitan." link at the bottom of the article:

https://www.macworld.com/article/29...-you-mac-ready-for-os-x-10-11-el-capitan.html

- Nick

for some reason i cant get that to open. it says it cant open a secure connection with the server.

i downlaoded chrome and was able to open it.

had one error with super duper so far. trying again. old computers stink man.. lol

| 08:00:11 PM | Error | SDCopy: Error copying /usr/share/man/man8/symstacks.rb.8.gz to /Volumes/backup/usr/share/man/man8/symstacks.rb.8.gz of type 8 due to error 1: Operation not permitted

getting this error in super duper. anyone have ideas on how to fix?

Not sure why there are issues with the link. Works fine on my End.

Here are a brief set of steps to get things done:

- Clone the hard drive with Super Duper.
- Download the El Capitan Installer (make sure you have OS 10.6 fully updated to 10.6.8).
- Install El Capitan (it may auto launch after downloading).
- The installer may give you the option to erase the HD...I would do this so everything is removed before your son gets it.

Pretty easy.

- Nick

p.s. By the way...here's the 2nd link I referred to earlier...hopefully you are able to view it:

https://www.macworld.com/article/2986158/operating-systems/how-to-install-os-x-el-capitan.html

One thing you did not tell us is (at least I don't remember seeing it)...what's the condition of the battery? If this computer was sitting idle for a long time. The battery may be in pretty sorry condition.

- Nick