Upgrade my old iMac?

2006 2.16 intel w/ 1 GB ram running 10.4.11. Don't want to trash it and don't want to spend $1200 to replace it. running slow, worried about death of hard drive. can I upgrade with more ram, an external hard drive and newer OS X?

Upgrade the hard drive to a newer one, upgrade the ram at least to 2GB, and install Snow Leopard on it. Go to "About this Mac" and see if it has a Intel Core or Intel Core 2. If it has a Intel Core, upgrade to 2GB of RAM and Snow Leopard. If it has an Intel Core 2, upgrade to 4GB of RAM and upgrade to Lion. (Lion requires Core 2 processor). Note that upgrading the hard drive is an advanced process and if you are not sure about upgrading the hard drive, don't do it.
Both Core and Core 2 iMacs use DDR2 667MHz PC-5300 memory and SATA hard drives. NOTE: iMac Mid-2006 (iMac 4,2) will not support 4GB of RAM. To see your ID go to: About this mac > More Info and you will see: "Model Identifier". You can add in any 3.5" SATA hard drive up to 3TB. For the RAM, you can find some there: http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/apple/memory/iMac or you can buy one on eBay for cheap, but it may not work if you don't choose the right memory.
One last note: BACKUP! Backup all your data before performing any upgrade!
EDIT: Your Mac is quite old already. You should save for a new one, yours will stop being supported in a few years, it's low in specs and it won't stay to the latest version of OS X. Macs do not have endless lifespan. If you really don't have the money to get a new one, you can upgrade it but one day you'll have to. Many applications aren't supporting SL anymore and in a few years Lion will be unsupported too. So you might think about upgrading.

Similar Messages

Upgrade the old iMac before migrating to a new one or not?

Hi all,
I am planning to buy a new iMac and would like to migrate some of my stuff to it from an old iMac. And then I would also like to migrate some of my stuff from a still older MacBook onto this old iMac. Complicated enough? :-)
In short:
Step one: stuff from my 5 year old iMac with OS 10.7.5 Lion on it migrates to -----> a brand new iMac with Yosemite.
Step two: stuff from my 8 year old MacBook with OS 10.5.8 on it (and not upgradable any further) migrates to -----> the 5 year old iMac with OS 10.7.5 Lion on it.
Now, my questions are these:
1) Should I first upgrade the 5 year old iMac with OS 10.7.5 Lion on it to Yosemite before migrating my stuff from it to a brand new iMac with preinstalled Yosemite or not? Recommended, not recommended, neutral, what?
2) If the answer to the 1st question is "yes" (recommended), will I then be able to migrate my stuff from the 8 year old MacBook with OS 10.5.8 onto it? That is, will the two migration assistants (of OS 10.9 and OS 10.5) "talk" to each other at all?
Any further tips will be hugely appreciated!
Lots of thanks in advance!

Hi rkaufmann87,
thank you so much for your reply!
I am afraid you misunderstood me a little bit… While you kindly explain to me ways of how to migrate my data from one computer to another, my question was not so much about "how" but rather about "whether":
a) should I first upgrade my old iMac (with 10.7.5 Lion on it) to Yosemite before migrating its data to the new iMac with preinstalled Yosemite? Will it help in any way or is it irrelevant?
b) and if the answer is "yes" (i. e. upgrade the old iMac to Yosemite), whether the migration assistant on the 8 year old MB will then be able to "talk" to its counterpart on the now upgraded old iMac?
Perhaps this too might help:
What I am trying to do is make two computers out of three -
1) My wife's 8 year old MacBook will most probably go to the dustbin. Before it does, I would like to migrate her data to my 5 year old iMac which will then replace her MB (in the dustbin) and be hers forever after.
2) I will certainly have to migrate my own data from my 5 year old iMac to the new iMac which I am about to buy.
So the question remains: upgrade the old iMac for both purposes (s. above - #1 and #2) from Lion to Yosemite - yes, no, doesn't matter, what?
Many thanks again!

Upgrading my old imac to OSX from OS 9.2.2 from an external cd drive

Hi there
I dusted off my old imac for my son to use which was I think bought around 2000 its blue with a cd load tray. I know its got OS 9.2.2.2 currently. I wanted to upgrade the system to OSX 10.4 from a tiger disk. Unfortunately the cd drive isnt working so it wont read any disks. I appreciate that the drive is a cd only drive however my question is whether Im able to use an external dvd/cd drive hooked up via the usb port to start up the disk from and with luck upgrade the hard drive that way?
When I hold down the C key at start up it doesnt start up from the disk with the external dvd/cd player. The player however does work and the computer can read disks once the computer is on.
Any ideas or is it a dead loss without changing the cd drive?
Thank you for your help in advance
Daniel
Message was edited by: DRS71
Message was edited by: DRS71

On your old iMac, Apple only supports up to OS 10.3.9. Even with that your old iMac is not going to be very snappy.
Secondly, your old iMac will not boot from an external USB drive. Therefore you can not use an external drive to install any OS.
FYI, any future questions should be posted in the iMac CRT discussion area where these old iMacs are discussed in great detail.

I just upgraded an old Imac from Leopard to Snow Leopard, now it won't work

I just upgraded my 2003 imac from leopard to snow leopard and after restart all I get is a blue screen. Nothing happens. How can I get back to the old leopard. I use this computer for research just because of the 23'' screen. Help

I'm sure that a 2003 machine is incapable of accepting Snow Leopard. Have you checked the specs to see if it is ...
Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard -Read the Technical Specifications
In particular, check the amount of RAM you have.
You could contact Apple through your National Apple store with the serial number of your machine to see if they can provide a replacement DVD ... but I doubt they can.
Contact Apple support

My mail outbox wont go online. Inboxes work fine. Just upgraded my old iMac to OS 10.6.8, kept my internet provider, entered all the same numbers and settings so can't figure out why mail won't go out. Help. S.T.

My eMail outbox won't go online. I can't send eMail messages but I am currently receiving my messages.
Just upgraded my older iMac to 10.6.8 but kept the same eMail addresses (Google), the same provider (Cricket Broadband), and entered all the same settings in Mail Preferences and Accounts as before.
Any suggestions as how to get my outbox online so I can send mail?
ST

Hello,
Who is your eMail provider, the part after the @ sign?
In Mail's Window Menu, choose Connection Doctor, any red dots for status, if so what is the message?
Then click the Show Details button & Check again.
Mail: Can't send messages, "Cannot send message using the server smtp.xxxxx.com" alert appears...
old: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1482
What SMTP setting do you have for gMail?
Did you get rid of any old passwords in Keychain Access?

Time Machine Error when upgrading from old iMac to new iMac

Hi. I recently purchased the new 27" iMac and just completed migrating all data from an old PPC iMac. When I went to activate Time Machine and begin backing up on an existing 1TB Time Capsule, I received the following Time Machine error: "The backup disk image "xxxx" iMacG5 sparsebundle" is already in use."
Does this mean I need to go into Time Capsule first and delete the old iMac's sparsebundle before activating Time Machine on the new iMac? If so, is it safe to just drag the sparsebundle file to the trash?
Thanks!

sgrubman wrote:
Hi. I recently purchased the new 27" iMac and just completed migrating all data from an old PPC iMac. When I went to activate Time Machine and begin backing up on an existing 1TB Time Capsule, I received the following Time Machine error: "The backup disk image "xxxx" iMacG5 sparsebundle" is already in use."
Does this mean I need to go into Time Capsule first and delete the old iMac's sparsebundle before activating Time Machine on the new iMac?
No, you shouldn't have to do that, but you may want to if the TC's disk isn't well over twice the size of the data you're backing-up.
Most likely, all you have to do is eject the sparse bundle via the Finder.
A new feature in Snow Leopard will allow you to continue backing-up to the same sparse bundle. See #B5 in the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip,* also at the top of the +Time Machine+ forum.
If so, is it safe to just drag the sparsebundle file to the trash?
Yes, but if there's nothing else on the Time Capsule, this will be much faster:
Use the +*Airport Utility+* app, in your Applications/Utilities folder.
Select +*Base Station > Manual Set-Up+* from the Menubar, then Disks in the tool Bar, then Erase.

I would like to upgrade my old iMac G3

I have the orignal iMac Bondi G3 233 (1997), which I have not used for years. I recently connected the computer to my DSL modem noting that it still works. However, all applications and softwares are outdated and the surfing speed was miserable although I have DSL. I was nevertheless able to "surf".
I would like to upgrade the computer so that I can use it for surfing (nothing else expected from the computer, just surfing). In this context, some questions:
1. Does it make any sense?
2. I would like to clean the computer from all old, obsolate apps & programs. What should I clean and what should I leave?
3. Can I buy more RAM? Difficult to install?
4. What else (than RAM) should I buy?
5. Any other remarks?
Thanks a lot.

1. Does it make any sense?
To upgrade an ancient 233 to surf the Net? This only makes sense if it will be used by kids, or people who don't expect speed. This computer won't really be able to handle things like Flash, any kind of movie, online games, etc. If it will be used by anyone who wants to do this kind of thing, well, good luck!
2. I would like to clean the computer from all old,
obsolate apps & programs. What should I clean and
what should I leave?
If it will only be used for surfing, just leave on the basics. IE/web browser, Office, etc. Anything like Photoshop or whatever can be trashed, because that kind of thing really won't run well. Games can take up space, and will probably be slow, so they can also be trashed.
3. Can I buy more RAM? Difficult to install?
Difficult to install in a tray loading iMac? Yes. Very. You have to take out the whole logic board/drive assembly to get at the RAM, and you have to take out the processor card to get to the bottom RAM slot.
4. What else (than RAM) should I buy?
A larger, faster hard drive. You'll need it. The faster, the more responsive the computer will be. The larger, the more files you can have.
5. Any other remarks?
Honestly, if I were you I'd take the money you'd use to upgrade this computer and just buy a maxed out slot loader. They're faster, they can run Tiger (slowly), they're much easier to upgrade, etc. etc. But it's your choice.

Upgrading my old iMac with OSX 10.6.8

Hello out there,
I have an older iMac with installed OSX version 10.6.8. I know that I ran a newer version at one point, but I reinstalled everything back to this one. Now I would like to upgrade the OSX again but App store only contains the latest version (Yosemite) and this version doesn't run on my hardware.
How can I get my hands on an earlier version (Snow leopard or Mountain Lion) etc. when they don't exist in the store?
Thanks in advance.

10.6.8 is Snow Leopard so you want to go higher than that. Get Lion 10.7 here http://store.apple.com/us/product/D6106Z/A/os-x-lion
and Mountian Lion 10.8 here http://store.apple.com/us/product/D6377Z/A/os-x-mountain-lion
You may want to upgrade your ram before upgrading, anything past Snow Leopard will struggle in less than 4gb of ram.

What steps to upgrade panther on imac

I want to upgrade an old imac 350mhz (Indigo, slot loader with 192 mb ram) with Panther retail disks. It's only for internet use by my infant children to access their school website etc.
I've carried out quite an exhaustive search over this forum to find an overview of the steps i need to action. So far i've added the latest firmware update, upgraded the hard drive to a 20gb drive, changed the pram battery and ordered another 512mb memory stick from Crucial.
Usually i'd zero write the hard drive and install panther on the clean disk. I'm worried that this will erase the firmware update. Is this right or need i not be worried?
If anybody can provide a link that easily identifies each step i would be very grateful.
I do not intend to leave OS 9.2.2 on the computer - Can this cause any issues further down the line such as if i need to boot from disk etc?

firmware dones't reside on the hard drive, its loaded to the motherboard, so it doens't matter what you do to the drive, the firmware update is there an nothing can change that.
getting rid of OS 9 shouldn't cause any problem, other than you won't be able to use classic in OS X.

Memory upgrade on an old iMac G 3 without Slot-Loading

Hallo, i have got an old imac G 3 233 Mhz without the slot loading option and i would like to upgrade my memory, what do i have to do for installing the memory and where do i find it, i've no user manual of this computer and i did'nt find one for the old model from 1998
Pleas help

Welcome To Discussions Rebecomp!
See if this iMac: Installing Memory (1 of 2), has the info you need.
Good Luck!
ali b

I upgraded my 3 yr old iMac to Snow Leopard and now my HP C4150 Scanning function doesn't work (not recognized). I downloaded updated Drivers from the HP site, but still no joy. Any suggestions?

I upgraded my 3 yr old iMac to Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6) and now my HP C4150 Scanning function doesn't work (not recognized). I downloaded updated Drivers from the HP site and installed them, but still no joy. Any suggestions?

aspaceman,
Perhaps I owe you an apology. Having re-read that downloading from HP was unsuccessful I feel uncomfortable. Can I suggest you update your 10.6 system (as noted in your profile) to 10.6.8 (if it is not already there) by using the
Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1 combo update plus any software updates that then apply.

My laptop died. I've dusted off my old iMac running OSX 10.2.8 and want to upgrade firefox to 3.5 or 3.6. Looks like I can't do that - where would I find older versions of firefox to update to?

My now dead laptop was running Firefox 3.6. It died. Now I have my old iMac out of storage. It has Firefox 2.0.0.1 on it. I'm using it now. Check for updates says I can go as high as 2.0.0.20. I'd like to upgrade the iMac to the most current operating system it can work with (right now it's at OSX 10.2.8), and then get Firefox up to the most current version this can run. I tried searching for older firefox versions to download, but can't seem to find them on your website. (I used search term "download Firefox 3.5"). I did this to check and see what OSX version they can work with. Let me know what I need to do. Thanks!

Firefox 2.0.0.20 is the last ever release for Mac OSX 10.3.9 and earlier versions. <br />Get it here: <br />
https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/2.0.0.20/mac/en-US/
System requirements for Firefox 3.5: <br />
Mac OS X 10.4 and later, Macintosh computer with an Intel x86 or PowerPC G3, G4, or G5 processor, 128 MB RAM (Recommended: 256 MB RAM or greater), 200 MB hard drive space <br />
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/3.5/system-requirements/

I have a rather old iMac 20" (mid 2007) and I want to upgrade the Hard drive. How do I change it? How do I transfer all my applications? May I just copy the old hd into the new one? Thanks.

I have a rather old iMac 20" (mid 2007) and I want to upgrade the Hard drive. How do I change it? How do I transfer all my applications? May I just copy the old hd into the new one? Thanks.

There are many online tutorials on how to change out the HD on a mid 2007 iMac. One of the originals is from 2007 and is Upgrade your iMac 20" or iMac 24" aluminum (mid 2007) to 1TB Hard Drive and 4 GB RAM - DIY Guide. As far as migrating your system Apple helps out with that in Setup Assistant which automatically starts when you turn on a new Mac for the first time. After you have installed the new HD you will have to format the new HD to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and then you will have to install OS X. The first time you turn it on Setup Assistant will start. Follow the directions and you will be fine. In order to restore your information you will need to backup what is on the current internal HD first. I'd recommend using Time Machine (Assuming you are using Leopard or later) AND also creating a bootable clone using either SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner.
Please complete your profile so at the very least we know what version of OS X your machine has installed.

I recently upgraded my old powerbook to an iMac. I've dumped the files of my backup drive into the new iMac. Is there a way to have access to all the files (new and old computers) when logged on as the same user vs. logging in and out to access each?

I am new to posting to this support community but have often referred to it for answers. So thank you all who've contributed; you've been a great help!
I recently upgraded my old powerbook to an iMac. I've dumped the files of my backup drive into the new iMac. Is there a way to have access to/merge all the files (new and old computers) together so when I'm logged in can access all the files.
Thanks!
M

Sure-glad to help you. You will not lose any data by changing synching to MacBook Pro from imac. You have set up Time Machine, right? that's how you'd do your backup, so I was told, and how I do my backup on my mac. You should be able to set a password for it. Save it. Your stuff should be saved there. So if you want to make your MacBook Pro your primary computer, I suppose, back up your stuff with Time machine, turn off Time machine on the iMac, turn it on on the new MacBook Pro, select the hard drive in your Time Capsule, enter your password, and do a backup from there. It might work, and it might take a while, but it should go. As for clogging the hard drive, I can't say. Depends how much stuff you have, and the hard drive's capacity. As for moving syncing from your iMac to your macbook pro, should be the same. Your phone uses iTunes to sync and so that data should be in the cloud. You can move your iTunes Library to your new Macbook pro
you should be able to sync your phone on your new MacBook Pro. Don't know if you can move the older backups yet-maybe try someone else, anyways,
This handy article from Apple explains how
How to move your iTunes library to a new computer - Apple Support''
don't forget to de-authorize your iMac if you don't want to play purchased stuff there
and re-authorize your new macBook Pro
time machine is an application, and should be found in the Applications folder. it is built in to OS X, so there is nothing else to buy. double click on it, get it going, choose the Hard drive in your Time capsule/Airport as your backup Time Machine and go for it. You should see a circle with an arrow on the top right hand of your screen (the Desktop), next to the bluetooth icon, and just after the wifi and eject key (looks sorta like a clock face). This will do automatic backups of your stuff.

Trying to connect my iPhone6 with my old iMac with 10.6.8 MacOS. It says I need a new version of iTunes. When I try to upgrade the iTunes (11.3.1), it says, it is already the latest version. What do I do now?

Trying to connect my iPhone6 to my old iMac with 10.6.8 MacOS, and synch up the music. It says I need a new version of iTunes. When I try to upgrade the iTunes on my iMac, it says, it is already the latest version. What do I do now?

The current version of iTunes is 12.x.x and requires OS X later than Snow Leopard.

Upgrade my old iMac?

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