Will upgrading to a new OS like Lion or Mountain Lion delete my previous files on my computer? Will I have to back up my files with a hard drive first?

Upgrades do not delete your personal files in the Home folder. But any installation can go bad, so it would be wise to backup your current system to an external hard drive.
Upgrade Paths to Snow Leopard, Lion, and/or Mountain Lion
You can upgrade to Mountain Lion from Lion or directly from Snow Leopard. Mountain Lion can be downloaded from the Mac App Store for $19.99. To access the App Store you must have Snow Leopard 10.6.6 or later installed.
Upgrading to Snow Leopard
You can purchase Snow Leopard through the Apple Store: Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard - Apple Store (U.S.). The price is $19.99 plus tax. You will be sent physical media by mail after placing your order.
After you install Snow Leopard you will have to download and install the Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1 to update Snow Leopard to 10.6.8 and give you access to the App Store. Access to the App Store enables you to download Mountain Lion if your computer meets the requirements.
     Snow Leopard General Requirements
       1. Mac computer with an Intel processor
       2. 1GB of memory
       3. 5GB of available disk space
       4. DVD drive for installation
       5. Some features require a compatible Internet service provider;
           fees may apply.
       6. Some features require Apple’s iCloud services; fees and
           terms apply.
Upgrading to Lion
If your computer does not meet the requirements to install Mountain Lion, it may still meet the requirements to install Lion.
You can purchase Lion by contacting Customer Service: Contacting Apple for support and service - this includes international calling numbers. The cost is $19.99 (as it was before) plus tax. It's a download. You will get an email containing a redemption code that you then use at the Mac App Store to download Lion. Save a copy of that installer to your Downloads folder because the installer deletes itself at the end of the installation.
     Lion System Requirements
       1. Mac computer with an Intel Core 2 Duo, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7,
           or Xeon processor
       2. 2GB of memory
       3. OS X v10.6.6 or later (v10.6.8 recommended)
       4. 7GB of available space
       5. Some features require an Apple ID; terms apply.
Upgrading to Mountain Lion
To upgrade to Mountain Lion you must have Snow Leopard 10.6.8 or Lion installed. Purchase and download Mountain Lion from the App Store. Sign in using your Apple ID. Mountain Lion is $19.99 plus tax. The file is quite large, over 4 GBs, so allow some time to download. It would be preferable to use Ethernet because it is nearly four times faster than wireless.
     OS X Mountain Lion - System Requirements
       Macs that can be upgraded to OS X Mountain Lion
         1. iMac (Mid 2007 or newer) - Model Identifier 7,1 or later
         2. MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer) - Model Identifier 5,1 or later
         3. MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later
         4. MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer) - Model Identifier 2,1 or later
         5. Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later
         6. Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later
         7. Xserve (Early 2009) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later
To find the model identifier open System Profiler in the Utilities folder. It's displayed in the panel on the right.
Are my applications compatible?
         See App Compatibility Table - RoaringApps.
     For a complete How-To introduction from Apple see Upgrade to OS X Mountain Lion.

Similar Messages

I have a Power Mac G4 (2004) and want to transfer all my files to a new MacBook Pro 15.4". Can this be done thru firewire cable or do I have to transfer to an external Firewire 800 hard drive first?

I have a Power Mac G4 (2004) and want to transfer all my files to a new MacBook Pro 15.4". Can this be done thru firewire cable or do I have to transfer to an external Firewire 800 hard drive first?

Do it with a Firewire cable (buy a 800/400 adapter if you need it) - the USB transfer takes a much longer time.
Start up your old PowerMac G4 holding down the "T" key, for target disk mode.
On your new MacBook Pro open "Migration Assistant" in your utilities folder.
Connect the 2 computers by firewire cable and follow the prompts in Migration Assistant.

InDesign CS 5.5 will not launch on new IMac running OS X Mountain Lion...solution? Please...

I recently got a new IMac running OS X Mountain Lion. InDesign CS 5.5 will not launch, is there a solution?

I recently got a new IMac running OS X Mountain Lion. InDesign CS 5.5 will not launch, is there a solution?

How to setup new notebook from HP laptop with bad hard drive

Got kids a new Hp laptop in June. The hard drive has been getting progressively louder and is obviously about to go, with a blue screen error forcing a roll back of the computer. I have done a full backup to an external hard drive and I am returning this for a replacement. Should I make a recovery disc and reinstall from the disc when I get the new laptop, or should I just plug in the external hard drive and transfer the files over? A guy at work says using the recovery disc is the way to go, because it would reinstall Norton and all the other programs we have installed., but I thought the external hard drive backup was supposed to be the way to do this
This question was solved.
View Solution.

Not sure I understand the question. "Should I make a recovery disc and reinstall from the disc when I get the new laptop, or should I just plug in the external hard drive and transfer the files over?" Usually HP replaces only the hdd.
If you are receiving a new hdd to put it the laptop, yes you need to burn the Recovery Disks to reinstall Windows & original software on it. You can then use your backup to restore files.
IF the full backup you are referring to is a complete System Image, it can be used to restore Windows, programs and all files,etc on the new hdd. You do need to also burn the Repair CD to boot from and restore the System Image on the new hdd.(I would still burn a Recovery DVD set to have as a fallback)
If you are receiving an entire laptop replacement it will have everything installed on it. You will just have to restore your personal files from the backup
******Clicking the Thumbs-Up button is a way to say -Thanks!.******
**Click Accept as Solution on a Reply that solves your issue to help others**

I hv lost my icon for iphoto on my Imac Mac OSX10.5.8.   I still hv my pics but can no longer creat albums and events. If I upgrade to the latest Mountain Lion, will my pics go into the new iphoto?       I would like to update Mountain lion.Will

I hv lost my icon for iphoto on my Imac Mac OSX10.5.8.   I still hv my pics but can no longer creat albums and events. If I upgrade to the latest Mountain Lion, will my pics go into the new iphoto?

From where did you lose the iPhoto icon? From the Dock? If so, then it's still in your Applications folder. Find it there then drag the icon back into the Dock. If it's no longer in Applications perhaps you've moved or renamed it. Use Spotlight to search for "iphoto."
Upgrading to Mountain Lion will not affect your iPhoto Library unless you erase the hard drive first. Be sure you backup before any system upgrade.
Upgrade Paths to Snow Leopard, Lion, and/or Mountain Lion
You can upgrade to Mountain Lion from Lion or directly from Snow Leopard. Mountain Lion can be downloaded from the Mac App Store for $19.99. To access the App Store you must have Snow Leopard 10.6.6 or later installed.
Upgrading to Snow Leopard
You must purchase Snow Leopard through the Apple Store: Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard - Apple Store (U.S.). The price is $19.99 plus tax. You will be sent physical media by mail after placing your order.
After you install Snow Leopard you will have to download and install the Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1 to update Snow Leopard to 10.6.8 and give you access to the App Store. Access to the App Store enables you to download Mountain Lion if your computer meets the requirements.
     Snow Leopard General Requirements
       1. Mac computer with an Intel processor
       2. 1GB of memory
       3. 5GB of available disk space
       4. DVD drive for installation
       5. Some features require a compatible Internet service provider;
           fees may apply.
       6. Some features require Apple’s MobileMe service; fees and
           terms apply.
Upgrading to Lion
If your computer does not meet the requirements to install Mountain Lion, it may still meet the requirements to install Lion.
You can purchase Lion by contacting Customer Service: Contacting Apple for support and service - this includes international calling numbers. The cost is $19.99 (as it was before) plus tax. It's a download. You will get an email containing a redemption code that you then use at the Mac App Store to download Lion. Save a copy of that installer to your Downloads folder because the installer deletes itself at the end of the installation.
     Lion System Requirements
       1. Mac computer with an Intel Core 2 Duo, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7,
           or Xeon processor
       2. 2GB of memory
       3. OS X v10.6.6 or later (v10.6.8 recommended)
       4. 7GB of available space
       5. Some features require an Apple ID; terms apply.
Upgrading to Mountain Lion
To upgrade to Mountain Lion you must have Snow Leopard 10.6.8 or Lion installed. Purchase and download Mountain Lion from the App Store. Sign in using your Apple ID. Mountain Lion is $19.99 plus tax. The file is quite large, over 4 GBs, so allow some time to download. It would be preferable to use Ethernet because it is nearly four times faster than wireless.
     OS X Mountain Lion - System Requirements
       Macs that can be upgraded to OS X Mountain Lion
         1. iMac (Mid 2007 or newer)
         2. MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer)
         3. MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer)
         4. MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer)
         5. Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer)
         6. Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer)
         7. Xserve (Early 2009)
     Are my applications compatible?
         See App Compatibility Table - RoaringApps.
     Am I eligible for the free upgrade?
         See Apple - Free OS X Mountain Lion upgrade Program.
     For a complete How-To introduction from Apple see Upgrade to OS X Mountain Lion.

I have a hdd from late 2009 that I upgraded from leopard to snow leopard to lion to mountain lion. I want to upgrade the hdd to ssd. Do I need to buy a new copy of mountain lion to install on the ssd? If not, then what is the procedure to transfer?

I have a hdd from a late 2009 mbp. I upgraded from leopard to snow leopard to lion to mountain lion. Now I want to upgrade to a ssd. Do I need to purchase a new copy of mountain lion to go on my new ssd? If I don't, then what is the procedure to transfer mountain lion with my 4 user accounts onto the new ssd from the hdd?
I'm confused on if I can use the recovery hd on a thumb drive to install mountain lion on my ssd. Will it be pheasible with so many OS X upgrades? And then how do I get my user accounts onto the ssd from the hdd. Do I use migration assistant? Do I need to make a time machine backup first? Should I use something called Carbon Clone or something like that?
Thanks for reading

If you have a cable that connects and external HDD to the MBP, it will do. If it is something like this, an enclosure will not be needed for the swap:
An enclosure allows you to use your old HDD for storage or backup purposes. The cable will not.
Here are instructions as to how the swap can be performed using DISK UTITY. Substitute You cable for the enclosure in same:
INSTALLING A NEW HDD IN A MBP
1. Make certain that you have backed up all of your important data.
2. You will need a HDD enclosure. One with a USB connection will do. A 9 pin Firewire is better.
3. Install your new drive in the enclosure and connect it to your MBP.
4. Open DISK UTILITY>ERASE. From the left hand column drag the new drive into the 'Name' field. Make sure that the format is 'Mac OS Extended (Journaled)'. Click on the 'Erase' button.
5. Click on the 'Restore' button (on top). Drag the old drive into the 'Source' field and the new drive into the 'Destination' field. Click on the 'Restore' button on the bottom right hand corner.
Depending upon the amount of data you are transferring, this may take a couple hours or more. A Firewire will speed up the transfer. This will result in both drives having identical information on them.
6. After the data transfer has completed, you may swap the drives. Start the MBP and you have finished the installation. The initial boot may take a bit longer than you are accustomed to, but that is normal.
7. When you are satisfied that the new hard drive if functioning properly, you can erase the old drive and use it for any needs that you may have.
If there is any confusion on your part, post back.
Ciao.

I have an old iMac Desktop iMac 4,1 will I be able to upgrade to Lion or Mountain lion? I am currently running Snow Leopard

I am looking to upgrade to Lion or Mountain Lion . I currently use Snow Leopard and have an old iMac desktop the Apple ID in the computer says it's iMac 4,1. I am pretty sure this will not meet the system requirements for Mountain Lion but I want to make sure. If it doesn't meet the system requirements what are my options? Hopefully it's not buy a new desktop.

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
You have an Early 2006 iMac, and this Mac isn't compatible with Lion or Mountain Lion. That's because your computer has got a Intel Core Duo processor, and Lion and Mountain Lion requires a Intel Core 2 Duo processor or later because they are 64-bit operating systems.
Your options are to keep it with Snow Leopard (Snow Leopard is still supported by Apple and it receives some security OS X updates) or to buy a new computer with Mountain Lion

HT4906 i'm using an older version of iPhoto on my desktop Mac and I can't seem to control the number of photos appearing on my iPhone and iPad, will upgrading to the newer iPhoto resolve this?

i'm using an older version of iPhoto on my desktop Mac and I can't seem to control the number of photos appearing on my iPhone and iPad, will upgrading to the newer iPhoto resolve this?

What version do you have?
iPhoto menu -> About iphoto.
What goes to your iPad/iPhone is controlled in iTunes.
Regards
TD

I have a MacBook 5,1 (13.3" aluminum from 2007 or 2008). Automatic updates will only let me get to OSX 10.5.8. Can I upgrade to Snow Leopard, Lion, or Mountain Lion (to improve speed

I have a MacBook 5,1 (13.3" aluminum from 2007 or 2008). Automatic updates will only let me get to OSX 10.5.8. Can I upgrade to Snow Leopard, Lion, or Mountain Lion (to improve speed)? I'm willing to purchase if necessary and it really helps.

MacBook upgrade possibilities - https://discussions.apple.com/message/19577869 - "The Early 2006 model 1,1 Core Duo can only run a maximum of 10.6 Snow Leopard. The models Late 2006 Core 2 Duos 2,1 through Early 2008 4,1 can only run a maximum of 10.7 Lion. The Late 2008 model 5,1 Aluminum Unibody through the Mid 2010 White Unibody model 7,1 can run 10.8 Mountain Lion."
Kappy 08/2012 post on upgrading to Snow Leopard, then Lion or Mountain Lion - https://discussions.apple.com/message/19401628 - including how to get Snow Leopard and Lion since Apple removed them from the online store.

If I upgrade from Snow Leopard 10.6.8 to Mountain Lion, will I lose Microsoft Office and iMovie?

If I upgrade from Snow Leopard 10.6.8 to Mountain Lion, will I lose Microsoft Office and iMovie?

Check to make sure your applications are compatible. PowerPC applications are no longer supported.
Application Compatibility

Will upgrading from Lion to Mountain Lion delete my Windows partition (bootcamp)?

On my other computer I upgraded from Snow Leopard to Mountain Lion, and the windows vista partition was completely deleted. I was wondering if I upgrade from Lion to Mountain Lion on my other mac with Windows 7 will it be affected, or in other words, is Mountain Lion Bootcamp compatable with WIndows 7. Should I save it to an external hard drive?
Thanks!

No OS X installer deletes a Windows partition automatically. There is no reason for a Mountain Lion installer to do so when upgrading from Lion.
Nevertheless, having backups is always a good idea no matter what. If you don't have them, then this is a good time for them.

HT4561 how to upgrade operating system from 10.5.8 to mountain lion

How do upgrade my I MAC from MAC OS X ro Mountain lion?

To upgrade from OS X 10.5.8, you must first buy Snow Leopard by calling the phone number in the Apple Online Store: 800-MY-APPLE (in the US)
Make sure your system meets Snow Leopard's requirements:
Mac OS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard" System Requirements
To install Snow Leopard for the first time, you must have a Mac with:
An Intel processor
An internal or external DVD drive, or DVD or CD Sharing
At least 1 GB of RAM (additional RAM is recommended)
A built-in display or a display connected to an Apple-supplied video card supported by your computer
At least 5 GB of disk space available, or 7 GB of disk space if you install the developer tools
After you install Snow Leopard you can decide if you want to upgrade OS X to the latest version, Mountain Lion. Mountain Lion is available in the Mac App Store, which is available to you after upgrading to Snow Leopard.
Make sure your system meets the requirements for Mountain Lion:
Mac OS X 10.8 "Mountain Lion" System Requirements
To install Mountain Lion, you need one of these Macs:
iMac (Mid 2007 or newer)
MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer)
MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer)
MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer)
Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer)
Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer)
Xserve (Early 2009)
Your Mac needs:
OS X v10.6.8 or OS X Lion already installed
2 GB or more of memory (RAM)
8 GB or more of available hard disk space
If your system does not support Mountain Lion's requirements, you may be able to upgrade to Lion. To do that you must call Apple again to order a download code. Redeem the download code in the App Store to download Lion. Lion costs 99¢ more than Snow Leopard.
Make sure your system meets the requirements for Lion:
Mac OS X 10.7 "Lion" System Requirements
Mac with an Intel Core 2 Duo, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7, or Xeon CPU
Core Duo CPUs are not sufficient for Lion
2GB of memory (RAM)
OS X v10.6.6 or later (v10.6.8 recommended)
To determine which Mac you have, what kind of CPU it uses, and how much memory is installed:  > About this Mac
The specified 2 GB minimum is barely adequate for either Lion or ML. They will run in 2 GB but you may not like its performance. 4 GB is a more realistic minimum.

Can't upgrade to from Snow Leopard to Lion or Mountain Lion though I have paid for both.

Hi again!
I lost all sound when upgrading to Mountain Lion from Lion and was told by Apple that the cause was likely to be a bad install of ML. I am using a Prism Sound Orpheus Sound Card which worked fine with Lion.
Since then I have put in a new internal System drive and installed the latest version of Snow Leopard firstly with the DVD'S and the using software update.
When going to the apps store I cannot download ML or Lion as I believe (maybe)? that the Apps store thinks that I already have it as it was downloaded into the corrupted system of my old system drive? . I note that all the apps that I have are not listed on the new drive i.e.Pages etc How do I get around this and download Lion and Mountain Lion so that I can rebuild and test my system?

You will need to remove the drive that has Lion/Mountain Lion installed, then boot from the Snow Leopard drive in order to redownload Lion or Mountain Lion. App Store detects any extant Lion/Mountain Lion system thus blocking you from re-downloading.
This time save the download so you won't have to do it again by copying it to your Downloads folder. You can then make your own installer:
Make Your Own Mountain/Lion Installer
1. After downloading Mountain/Lion you must first save the Install Mac OS X Mountain/Lion application. After Mountain/Lion downloads DO NOT click on the Install button. Go to your Applications folder and make a copy of the Mountain/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.
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 flash drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. 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 an hour depending upon the flash drive size.
3. Locate the saved Mountain/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 content of the InstallESD.dmg disc image to the flash drive as follows:
Double-click on the InstallESD.dmg file to mount it on your Desktop.
Open Disk Utility.
Select the USB flash drive from the left side list.
Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
Select the USB flash drive volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
Drag the mounted disc icon from the Desktop 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 installer that you can use without having to re-download Mountain/Lion.
Note: The term Mountain/Lion used above means Lion or Mountain Lion.
As an alternative to the above you can try using Lion DiskMaker 2.0 that automates the process.

Problems upgrading from Lion to Mountain Lion

First of all, I greet you all. First time poster from Mexico.
I´m having problems with certain applications since I updated from Lion to Mountain Lion. The transition has been filled with issues, specially with aspects related to the incorporation of Twitter and Facebook to the OS. This will be a long post, and I apollogize in advance for my english, it´s not my native language.
I have a MacBook Pro 15" mid 2010, It came with Snow Leopard if my memory serves. It was fast and very reliable. Since I upgraded to Lion, I felt the OS was slower, it took time to power on and shut off. But overall, it was still stable, never doing anything unexpected, nor apps crashing or freezing.
Yesterday I decided to upgrade to Mountain Lion. The installation was uneventful, everything seemed ok, if slow. Then, I opened Mail. It gor stuck in a dialog box saying the email library was being updated. It lingered for more than three hours. I let it overnight. Next day the screen was in standby so I moved the cursos, it went back for a second, then went black again. I tried several times to wake her, same thing. I shut it off with the power button.
Upon opening Mail again, it went straight to the dialog box with the progress line stuck in the same place where it had been the night before, and it lingered for as long as I let it. I searched in this forum, and I came across a post that had a workaround (didn´t save the link. Sorry), which was entering Library>Mail>V2>MailData, and erase the first three files that started with the word envelope. This enabled Mail to finally update the email library and open the app itself, but after a couple of seconds of indexing the emails I previously had in Lion, it crashed again. This is where I´m currently at. If I open the app, it shows for a couple of seconds, sorts some emails, and crashes.
Another problem I have, is in System Preferences. If I try to open the Email, Calendar and Contacts tab, it shows the login stage for social services, but crashes righ away. Everything else in System Preferences will work, but that tab crashes righ away.
The Messages tab opens, but if I enter my AppleID, it crashes.
So, in short, a lot of what makes Mountain Lion different to Lion, crashes for me. I´ve run the disk utility to fix premissions several times. I´ve run the Maintenance, OnyX and Deeper apps and everything stays the same.
I installed a couple of supplementary upgrades to Mountain Lion from the Apple support web site, but it hasn´t corrected anything. I have searched for the answer on several forums, but haven´t had any luck. I tried to reinstall, same issues reappear. I´m reluctant to just backup everything and nuke the system, since: 1)I don´t have enough space on my external HD to backup everything I want and 2)I´m not that skilled on computers so I know I´ll eventually miss something, like my favorites from Safari or something like that.
I can access the crash reports if it´s useful to any of you. I thank in advance everyone who might try to assist me with this.

HI,
The issues would seem to be centralised on the System Preferences > Mail, Contacts and Calendars items.
When this item is functioning then you can turn On and Off the "Accounts" for the Mail App and the Messages app in this pane.
Example pic
This Mail, Contacts and Calendars Preferences Pane will be calling on saved data in a file ending in .plist
.plist files are held in ~/Library/Preferences
In Lion and Mountain Lion you have to access this in the Finder > Go Menu > Go to Folder and typing the path in to the dialogue box.
Find and drag to the Trash (to delete) com.apple.CalendarAgent.plist and com.apple.AddressBook.plist
These two items seem to be updated when you change a setting in the Mail, Contacts an Calendars pane.
Another thing to check in the Contacts app > My Card
This used to be called the Address Book.
There can be issues with some apps if the My Card (Head and Shoulders icon) is not your own Card.
9:53 PM Friday; December 7, 2012
Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"
 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mountain Lion 10.8.2)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

How do I upgrade my Mac Mini running Snow Leopard to Mountain Lion? Thanks

I have a Mac Mini running Snow leapard. I believe i can update it to Mountain Lion but have read I have to first update it to Lion. This is where Im struggling. How do I get a copy of Lion as I cant download it as there is not an App Store on Snow Leapard.
Any help would be great!

Upgrading to Snow Leopard, Lion, or Mountain Lion
You can upgrade to Mountain Lion from Lion or directly from Snow Leopard. Mountain Lion can be downloaded from the Mac App Store for $19.99. To access the App Store you must have Snow Leopard 10.6.6 or later installed.
You can purchase Snow Leopard by contacting Customer Service: Contacting Apple for support and service. The price is $19.99 plus tax. You will receive physical media - DVD - by mail.
Third-party sources for Snow Leopard are:
Snow Leopard from Amazon.com
Snow Leopard from eBay
After you install Snow Leopard you will have to download and install the Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1 to update Snow Leopard to 10.6.8 and give you access to the App Store.
You can purchase Lion by contacting Customer Service: Contacting Apple for support and service. The cost is $19.99 (as it was before) plus tax. It's a download.
Be sure your computer meets the minimum requirements:
Apple - OS X Mountain Lion - Read the technical specifications.
Macs that can be upgraded to OS X Mountain Lion
1. iMac (Mid 2007 or newer)
2. MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer)
3. MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer)
4. MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer)
5. Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer)
6. Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer)
7. Xserve (Early 2009)
Are my applications compatible?
See App Compatibility Table - RoaringApps - App compatibility and feature support for OS X & iOS.
Am I eligible for the free upgrade?
See Apple - Free OS X Mountain Lion upgrade Program.
For a complete How-To introduction from Apple see Apple - Upgrade your Mac to OS X Mountain Lion.
Model Eligibility for Snow Leopard and Lion.
Snow Leopard General requirements
1. Mac computer with an Intel processor
2. 1GB of memory
3. 5GB of available disk space
4. DVD drive for installation
5. Some features require a compatible Internet service provider; fees may apply.
6. Some features require Apple’s MobileMe service; fees and terms apply.
Lion System Requirements
1. Mac computer with an Intel Core 2 Duo, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7, or Xeon processor
2. 2GB of memory
3. OS X v10.6.6 or later (v10.6.8 recommended)
4. 7GB of available space
5. Some features require an Apple ID; terms apply.

Will upgrading to a new OS like Lion or Mountain Lion delete my previous files on my computer? Will I have to back up my files with a hard drive first?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for