Upgrading an 13" MacBook 10.4.11

Question

Hello,
I need to upgrade my trusty old MacBook as it cannot have iTunes version I need for my Iphone to sync properly, and I seem to be coming across more and more "os 10.5 or higher required" messages. Am I right in thinking Snow Leopard is the way to go? Also, I really have no idea of backing up- what is the cheapest way of doing it, I have lots of photos -would be devastated to lose them. My husband has an iMac - can I use it to back-up?  Also, are printer drivers generally upgrade-able on-line, or is this likely to mean new printer, too?
Many thanks
Olga

Answer 1

You can connect to your husband's iMac with a Firewire cable and use Target Mode to transfer your stuff over to his Mac. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1661
You'll need a FireWire cable 6 pin to 6 pin if you both have FireWire 400. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_1_8?url=search-alias%3Delectronics&field- keywords=firewire+cable&sprefix=firewire%2Caps%2C164
You can upgrade from 10.4 to 10.6 with no problems. Any program that runs under 10.4 will run under10.6. You might have to upgrade some drivers for printers, etc.... You would find the updated drivers on the printers website. And you will have to install Rosetta if you have any Power PC applications http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/snow_leopard_installing_rosetta/   I recently upgraded an older MacBook (model1,1) straight from 10.4 to 10.6. If you only want iPhoto or other single apps from iLife '11 you can get them from the App Store after you've upgraded to 10.6.6. iPhoto, iMovie or Garage Band for $15 each and Pages, Keynote or Numbers from iWork '09 for $20 each.
You can order a Snow Leopard 10.6 install disk for $29 as long as you have at least1gb of RAM and 5gb of free space on your hard drive. http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC573Z/A?mco=MTY3ODQ5OTY
A 10.5 Leopard disk will run you over $150
Once you are at 10.6.8 you can buy Lion from the App Store if you have at least a model 2,1 MacBook. Lion will require at least 2gb of RAM but really needs 4gb to run smoothly. Also Lion doesn't run any Power PC programs. To see if you have any Power PC programs go to the Apple in the upper left corner and select About This Mac, then click on More Info. When System Profiler comes up select Applications under Software. Then look under kind to see if any of your applications are listed as Power PC. Universal and Intel will run under Lion.
Before Mac switched to Intel processors they used Power PC processors from 1994 to 2005. Power PC 601 through 604, G3, G4 and G5. Applications written for the Power PC processors need the application called Rosetta to run on Intel processors. This was part of the Operating System in 10.4 and 10.5 but was an optional install in 10.6. With 10.7 Lion Apple dropped all support for Power PC applications.