Advice for upgrading from Snow Leopard to Lion

I have an Intel 20" iMac running OS X 10.6.8 with 2 GB of RAM and an external Firewire HD for Time Machine back-ups.
For starters, upgrade an operating system always make me VERY nervous, especially considering some of the various issues users have experienced, and reported on this forum. My question is this - What advice to you all have for successfully performing this upgrade?
As I understand it, I should (per an Apple Genius):
1. Perform a FULL back-up via Time Machine (including Applications, System, in addition to files (e.g. - music, pics, docs, etc.).
2. Download OS X Lion via the App Store and voila ... done. (Obviously, the nearly 4 GB download and subsequent install will take some time)
Am I missing anything here? Should I eject the Time Machine drive BEFORE starting the upgrade? Anything else I haven't mentioned?
Thanks in advance.

Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
Make Your Own Lion Installer
1. After downloading Lion you must first save the Install Mac OS X Lion application. After Lion downloads DO NOT click on the Install button. Go to your Applications folder and make a copy of the Lion installer. Move the copy into your Downloads folder. Now you can click on the Install button. You must do this because the installer deletes itself automatically when it finishes installing Lion.
2. Get a USB flash drive that is at least 8 GBs. Prep this flash drive as follows:
Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
3. Locate the saved Lion installer in your Downloads folder. CTRL- or RIGHT-click on the installer and select Show Package Contents from the contextual menu. Double-click on the Contents folder to open it. Double-click on the SharedSupport folder. In this folder you will see a disc image named InstallESD.dmg.
4. Plug in your freshly prepared USB flash drive. You are going to clone the InstallESD.dmg disc image to the flash drive as follows:
Open Disk Utility.
Select the USB flash drive from the left side list.
Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
Check the box labeled Erase destination.
Select the USB flash drive volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
Drag the InstallESD.dmg disc image file into the Source entry field.
Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
When the clone is completed you have a fully bootable Lion installer that you can use without having to re-download Lion.

Similar Messages

Is Lion (not Mountain Lion) still available for upgrading from snow leopard

Is Lion (not mountain lion) still available for download and upgrading from snow leopard?

Lion is no longer available from the Mac App Store. Even the thumb drive version has been withdrawn. It should be possible to get it by calling Apple Phone Sales.

Mail issues when upgrading from Snow Leopard to Lion

Hello,
I'm hoping someone out there may be able to answer this question or offer some advice. I am being prompted by Apple to move over to iCloud which requires me upgrading from Snow Leopard to Lion. I am extremely reluctant to do this as I have heard of problems when migrating to Lion, especially with Mail. I presently have over 30,000 emails in my inbox. These mails are divided into a multitude of folders all on my mac. I have a mac email account along with other non Apple email accounts (POP) on my Mac. These emails and the folder structure are fundamental to my work so losing any emails or even the folder structure would be disastrous for me. I have of course made a backup (2 in fact) but do like the idea of trying to rebuild everything from scratch. Any advice would be greatly welcomed. Thanks.

I'm no expert but at the moment I just woudn't do it as there appears to be lots of unexplained problems with mail and Lion. I have been a Mac user from the earliest days and have never ever had the kinds of problems I am currently having to work around since installing Lion. I wish I had stayed with Snow Leopard.

System freezes when attempting to upgrade from Snow Leopard to Lion

I hope someone can help me out there. I have downloaded the Lion upgrade install program and built an install disk on my jump drive using Lion Diskmaker 2.0.2, but when I tried to upgrade from Snow Leopard to Lion using the jump drive, the install freezes at 24% and I cannot reboot or anything. It just keeps coming back to the install screen. Any suggestions?

This could be due to a number of causes. If you have the Lion installer application, then I suggest you put it in your Downloads folder. Now do this:
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
When you've done the above you should now double-click on the Lion installer application in your Applications folder. When prompted click on the Install button. Note that you will not use the flash drive you made as you shouldn't need it. And, this will avoid any issues with a bad flash drive installer.

I am new to mac's and have upgrade from Snow Leopard to Lion but......

I am new to mac's and have upgrade from Snow Leopard to Lion but not all my application will work. Is it save to reinstall using original snow leopard dvd and does it wipe all my other application like apature? I am in a panic over this, any help!!
I came across this online and i want to know is it safe to do this:
Backup your User folders to an external drive. This should preserve your documents, photos, music, etc. If you store those things in locations not in the User folder, make sure to copy those over too.
Insert the Snow Leopard disc. Restart your Mac and hold down C to boot to your DVD drive.
Go to Utilities in the menu bar once the installer pops up and select “Disk Utility.”
Find the drive in the sidebar where Lion is installed, select it and navigate to the Partition tab.
Click on the drop down menu under Partition Layout and select “1 Partition.” Hit Apply.
Now navigate to the Erase tab and make sure “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” is selected, then hit Erase to delete all data on the drive.
Quit Disk Utility to get back to the Snow Leopard installer and proceed with the install.
Restore your User folder and documents from your backup.
Run Software Update to get everything current, install your apps from your original install media and update those as well.
if any one can help me that would be great, thanks Mike

Before you do that why not do this first:
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your Lion Recovery HD. When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu.
To boot from the Recovery HD restart the computer. After the chime hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
If this doesn't help, then you can proceed to reinstall Snow Leopard as follows:
Downgrade Lion to Snow Leopard
1. Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Quit DU and return to the installer. Install Snow Leopard.
This will erase the whole drive so be sure to backup your files if you don't have a backup already. If you have performed a TM backup using Lion be aware that you cannot restore from that backup in Snow Leopard. I suggest you make a separate backup using Carbon Copy Cloner 3.4.1.
This will erase the drive so be sure to backup your files before doing this.

After upgrade from snow leopard to lion, where is application front row?

After upgrade from snow leopard to lion, where is application front row? i realize it when to use my remote. any one knows about this matter?

OK - Fixed it.
Turns out the cure is to use the Webcal Interface to re-create the delegations. A bit tedious, but doing this presumably forces a rewrite of the file that previously cannot be accessed. Means you need to set up the delegation again for each account - but this at least is an improvement over not being able to do anything at all.
Once fixed, delegation works just fine.
Hope this helps someone else solve the issue etc.

I've just upgraded from Snow Leopard to Lion. Installation seemed to go OK but on rebooting it is asking where the System Events app is. What is it and where is it located?

I've just upgraded from Snow Leopard to Lion. The installation seemed to go OK but on rebooting it is asking where the System Events app is. What is it and where is it located?
Thanks

If the dialogue appeared once, and you cancelled once, the dialogue may reappear when you next log in. For more certainty I suggest a restart of the operating system, then a log in.
If you like: immediately after the problem is worked around, open the Console utility to see whether — amongst its view of all messages — there is an obvious sign of what caused the dialogue to appear. (If you see nothing obvious, don't waste too much time looking.)

I have a big problem with Lion and PGP. After upgrading from snow leopard to lion I cannot access my PGP drive which was generated under snow leopard. PGP does not start but gives a notion that lion cannot work with my PGP version. Solution?

After upgrading from Snow Leopard to Lion I cannot access a PGP drive which was generated under snow leopard. PGP does not start. When I try to start I just receive a message that Lion cannot work with PGP. How can I now access important and confifential informatio which I have stored in PGP (snow leopard). Do I have to move back to snow leopard. If so, how can I do this?

If you have this product,
http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH165159
you have to go back to Snow Leopard.
To re-install SL, back up your home directory, format and re-install.

I want to upgrade to Lightroom 5, but I'm concerned about compatibility with my 2008 intel Core 2 Duo iMac with only 4G of Ram. Will I be able to run Lighroom 5 if I upgrade from Snow Leopard to Lion?

I want to upgrade to Lightroom 5, but I'm concerned about compatibility with my 2008 intel Core 2 Duo iMac with only 4G of Ram. Will I be able to run Lightroom 5 okay if I upgrade from Snow Leopard to Lion? What will happen to the applications that aren't 64-bit compatible? Also the Eye-one Display 2 colorimeter to calibrate the monitor will not run on Lion, so that will be an expensive upgrade to an i1DisplayPro. Is the upgrade important enough to offset the expense? I have an Epson R2000 printer. Will there be problems with the drivers if I upgrade to Lion? It would be great to hear from other mac users who are also photographers and who print their own photos.

Before upgrading to Lion be sure to read this link:
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6271
Adobe lists these requirements:
http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop-lightroom/tech-specs.html
Looking at http://www.everymac.com/ even the earliest 2008 iMac was fully 64 bit, even though Boot Camp doesn't support 64 bit Windows on that machine.

Recently upgraded from Snow Leopard to Lion then Mavericks. I have Final Cut Express and when I export to Quicktime, and open to play the movie, Quicktime starts to "convert" it? What is this about????

Recently upgraded from Snow Leopard to Lion then Mavericks. I have Final Cut Express and when I export to Quicktime, and open to play the movie, Quicktime starts to "convert" it? What is this about????

My existing movies are all the following types straight from FinalCut
Apple Intermediate Codec, 1920 × 1080, Millions
16-bit Integer (Little Endian), Stereo, 48.000 kHz
This particular movie is 6.66 Gb
The new Quicktime player in OS Mavericks converts these to the following format:
Apple ProRes 422, 1920 x 1080
Linear PCM, 16 bit little-endian signed integer, 2 channels, 48000 Hz
And a movie size of 6.48 Gb
Please, please can someone tell me why?

No possibility to upgrade from Snow Leopard to Lion (MacBook Late 2006)

Today I wanted to upgrade my MacBook (Late 2006) from Snow Leopard to Lion, as Lion is the last OS X that my old MacBook will run.
But, in the Mac App Store, Lion isn't anymore available for purchase and download.
What can I do?
For me, it's unbelievable that I cannot upgrade anymore!
Maybe it's better to install Windows7 and forget Apple.

@ Courcoul
You can still buy a Snow Leopard DVD, but you cannot download Lion anymore. That's the craziness of Apple's MacAppStore! No old versions...
It seems that Apple only wants us to buy new hardware that fits the stuff offered in their MacAppStore.

Upgrade from Snow Leopard to Lion (mac)

After a ugrade from Snow Leopard to Lion on my Imac, the software witch i have by mine E3000 router, works not longer anymore.
What can i do?
How can i chance something now??
greets marijke

Welcome to the Cisco Home Community.
Check out this post from troia.
http://homecommunity.cisco.com/t5/Wireless-Hotspots/New-Lion-system-on-mac/m-p/417939/message-uid/41...
The Search Function is your friend.... and Google too.
How to Secure your Network
How to Upgrade Routers Firmware
Setting-Up a Router with DSL Internet Service
Setting-Up a Router with Cable Internet Service
How to Hard Reset or 30/30/30 your Router

Upgrading from Snow Leopard to Lion

Hi,
I'm upgading my Mac Pro from Snow Leopard (10.6.8) to Lion and before I do I want to backup my boot drive software.
What do you guys suggest? I initially thought I'd just use time machine, but I haven't used it before and it seems like it backs up
everything on every drive. I have an external drive I can use for backup and I've got 2 internal drives with media that I don't want to backup for this upgrade so I'm looking for a little advice, especially if you've done the same upgrade. From what I've read my Final Cut, Cubase, Reason and adobe software should all be compatible.
Thanks for your time and any advice.

Personally, I'd recommend a bootable clone: use either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper to clone your system to an external drive; that way, you would be able to roll back in case of a problem.

ICal delegation failing after upgrade from Snow Leopard to Lion

I've just upgraded our Snow Leopard server to run Lion Server.
I have a problem with iCal Server.
Individual calendars work OK: can be accessed from iCal / iThings and so on, and via web interface. But calendar delegation doesn't.
If I open Accounts / Preferences / Delegation from any version of iCal / Calendar I get this error:
In the server calendar server error log I see the following:
[twext.web2.dav.method.report_expand#error] Error reading property (u'http://calendarserver.org/ns/', u'calendar-proxy-read-for') for resource /principals/__uids__/BCDF1D53-4447-40A2-A035-B30F6E2EEDE4/: <StatusResponse 403 Unable to list properties: /Volumes/StorageHD/Library/Server/Calendar and Contacts/Documents>
Anyone got any ideas what is going on and / or how to fix?
Thanks in advance for any help available.

OK - Fixed it.
Turns out the cure is to use the Webcal Interface to re-create the delegations. A bit tedious, but doing this presumably forces a rewrite of the file that previously cannot be accessed. Means you need to set up the delegation again for each account - but this at least is an improvement over not being able to do anything at all.
Once fixed, delegation works just fine.
Hope this helps someone else solve the issue etc.

Upgrade from snow leopard to lion 10.7.2

Hi all,
I wonder if anyone can help me at all. We currently have three MAC computers in our office, the newest one is running on version 10.6.8 and the other two are 10.5.8. I want to upgrade all of them to the new Lion 10.7.2 so we can have the new server and access all the features that goes with it. I understand that you cannot just do an upgrade from leopard to lion, you have to buy all of the upgrades. Is this correct? Also, do I need to buy all the upgrades for all of the MACS or can I just buy one version of each? Would it be a version of snow leopard, then Lion, the Lion 10.7.2 ?
Hope this makes sense, any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks again,
Andrew

argo10 wrote:
We currently have three MAC computers in our office, the newest one is running on version 10.6.8 and the other two are 10.5.8. I want to upgrade all of them to the new Lion 10.7.2
First off you should consider the risks of upgrading to 10.7
1: 10.7 runs poorly or slowly on most older Intel hardware (certainly machines old encough to run 10.5 qualify)
Lion has been tested and it's a hair slower than Snow Leopard.
2: Lion machines also has to be 64 bit Intel processors, not the 32bit Intel Core Duo's. No PowerPC machines.
3: 2GB of RAM is required, but people report 4GB is better.
4: 10.7 will not run a LOT of your 10.5 and 10.6 software, and a lot haven't been upgraded/updated to work with 10.7. This also includes drivers for scanners and printers that some might be a bit older.
You can check this compatibility database
http://roaringapps.com/apps:table
Snow Leopard runs everything from 10.5 and 10.6 because of Rosetta. So all your software should work, perhaps with a minor update each.
5: OS Lion introduces some radical changes in the User Interface that can disrupt your workflow and sanity.
My 20 plus Apple vet/production manager opinion is this, upgrade the 10.5 machines to 10.6.8 and leave things alone.
When you buy new hardware, it will come with 10.7 and then you buy new software to go with it and gradually ease into it, sort of like getting a enema, insert gently.
If you go all radical and change all the machines, your going to be in for quite a bit of pain, not only on the machines, but from the users using them, believe me!
I understand that you cannot just do an upgrade from leopard to lion, you have to buy all of the upgrades. Is this correct? Also, do I need to buy all the upgrades for all of the MACS or can I just buy one version of each? Would it be a version of snow leopard, then Lion, the Lion 10.7.2 ?
You can buy this ($69) and backup, wipe and install. Need one for each machine on 10.5. and you should have one for the 10.6 machine too, but you can download Lion $29 from the 10.6.8 AppStore instead, no USB copy.
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MD256Z/A
Snow Leopard $29 install/upgrade disks are here
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC573Z/A
Again, I suggest you just upgrade the 10.5 Intel machines to 10.6, it's less expensive, it's stable and it works faster than 10.5 or 10.7 in tests.
Save Lion for new hardware and software upgrades when they arrive.

Advice for upgrading from Snow Leopard to Lion

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