Relatively new to mac, need some help please!

[pezlam]

Hello there, I bought a macbook pro from my brother. The osx went a bit weird and wouldn't boot properly so i used the discs he got when he bought it to format the drive. Turns out that these discs were OS X 10.5.8.

Isn't there anyway i can download mavericks and format from boot? Seems absolutely ridiculous to have to purchase every upgrade since 10.5.8.

Thanks in advance Pez.

 

[techiesteve]

Before you can download the current latest OS you will need to install Snow Leopard from DVD, then update it via software update. The Snow Leopard 10.6.3 retail DVD is all you will need to buy from Apple. First check you have enough RAM installed. An older MBP that shipped with 10.5.8 should take 8GB.

 

[pezlam]

Before you can download the current latest OS you will need to install Snow Leopard from DVD, then update it via software update. The Snow Leopard 10.6.3 retail DVD is all you will need to buy from Apple. First check you have enough RAM installed. An older MBP that shipped with 10.5.8 should take 8GB.

I think it had 10.7 before i formatted it. Would this be okay to install mavericks?

Here are the specs:

Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro5,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 3 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz

 

[andylap]

Hi,

First off, did you have Mavericks on the computer before you formatted it? This would help a lot!

 

[johnodd4]

He might not be able to run mavericks can you tell us whats your graphics card in that macbook???

 

[Slydude]

That is a MacBook Pro. The 5.1 version is late 2008 and will run Yosemite though it may run a little slow with just 4 GB. It's not bad on that machine with 8 GB though. That's what I am running at the moment.

To upgrade the OS do the following:
1. Purchase a Snow Leopard DVD from Apple and install that.
2. Run Software update to bring the OS up to 10.6.8 and make sure the version of the App Store is OK.
3. Login to the App store and download the OS you wish to install.

It would be a good idea to back up any data first as always.