Important Steps in Upgrading to OS X Mountain Lion

The process of updating your Mac is a relatively easy process as long as you are running Mac OS Lion.  If you are skipping Mac OS Lion it will be a bit more complicated.

The first thing you want to do is check to see if your Mac compatible.  If you’re running Mac OS X 10.7 “Lion” or Mac OX 10.6 “Snow Leopard,” the answer is most likely yes. If you’re running an older Mac with Mac OS 10.5 “Leopard” or Mac OS X 10.4 “Tiger,” the answer is maybe.  Running an older Mac probably will mean your path to Mountain Lion will be a bit complicated.

Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion requires a Mac with at least an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, an “advanced” graphics processor, and (since Mountain Lion is 64-bit through and through) a logic board that can support a 64-bit kernel.  The following systems will support Mountain Lion: iMac (mid 2007 or newer), MacBook (2008 or newer), MacBook Pro (2007 or newer), MacBook Air (2008 or newer),  Mac mini (2009 or newer), and Mac pro (2008 or newer).

In order to get Mountain Lion you will have to purchase it online from the Mac App Store since it will not be available on DVD.  The file is around four GB in size and costs approximately $19.99.  If you have a high bandwith internet connection the download will be quick, but if your bandwith is low it may take a few hours to download.  To be able to access the Mac App Store you must Mac OS X 10.6.8 or newer, an Apple ID, and either App Store credit or payment information (like a credit card) on file.

Before installing Mountain Lion, you will want to make a bootable duplicate of your existing Mac OS X system to a separate hard drive or partition.  The purpose of this is so that you can return your Mac to its previous version in case something goes wrong.  Once you make a bootable backup you will want to test it to make sure it works.

Prior to upgrading to Mountain Lion you should check to see if your everyday software will work with it. This tends to be more of an issue if you’re upgrading from Mac OS X 10.6 or earlier, but if If you’re already using Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, you should not have many problems.  

References:

http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/how-to-prep-your-mac-for-os-x-mountain-lion/

https://www.apple.com/osx/how-to-upgrade/