If you’re feeling especially cautious, you can also opt to run Apple Hardware Test.ĭisk Utility can verify that your Mac’s drive is healthy.īack up your Mac, and test that backup: Let me say that again: Back up your Mac, and test that backup- before installing Mountain Lion.
If you’re upgrading from Snow Leopard, you can use Disk Utility when booted from either your Snow Leopard Install DVD or the OS X install DVD or thumb drive that shipped with your Mac. If you’re upgrading from Lion and your Mac can use Lion Recovery (known in Mountain Lion as OS X Recovery), you can boot into recovery mode (by holding down Command+R at startup) and use Disk Utility from there alternatively, if you created a bootable Lion-install drive for older Macs or for newer Macs, or created a separate Recovery drive, you can boot from that drive and use Disk Utility. If Disk Utility finds problems, you’ll need to boot from a different volume to perform the actual repairs using the Repair Disk button.
Make sure your Mac’s startup drive is in good health: To do so, open Disk Utility (in /Applications/Utilities), select your startup drive in the list on the left, click the First Aid tab to the right, and then click Verify.
Perform the following tasks before the upgrade and you’ll have a much better chance of actually enjoying a pain-free experience.
While Apple describes the process of upgrading to Mountain Lion as a simple download and install, those of us who’ve been doing this for a while know that a major OS update is never that simple. (MacBook users, of course, all have a trackpad already.) I personally prefer a mouse or large trackball for general “mousing,” but I keep a Magic Trackpad within reach, as well, just to take advantage of OS X’s gesture-based features.
The systemwide gestures introduced in Lion last year are only going to become more pervasive as OS X evolves, and you likely won’t enjoy the full benefits of Mountain Lion without a trackpad. Also, wow.)įinally, although it’s not a requirement, if you’ve got a desktop Mac, I highly recommend picking up Apple’s Magic Trackpad ( ) if you don’t already have one. (If you’ve got one of the two Mac models that originally shipped with OS X 10.4 Tiger and support Mountain Lion, and you’re still running Tiger, you definitely want to go the Snow Leopard -> Mountain Lion route-the alternative is very messy.
If that isn’t an option for you, for whatever reason, stay tuned-we’ll explain how to install 10.8 over Leopard, assuming you have the right to do so, much as we did with Lion last year. You’ll still be paying less than $50 for a huge OS upgrade.
What if you’ve got an otherwise compatible Mac that’s still running Leopard (OS X 10.5)? The easiest option is to purchase Snow Leopard for $29 and install it now, then upgrade to Mountain Lion when it’s released. If you need to free up space on your drive, you can use a utility such as WhatSize or GrandPerspective to help you find big files you can get rid of and we recently provided some specific suggestions for freeing up drive space. You may also find, especially if you’re upgrading from Snow Leopard, that some of Mountain Lion’s features require more “everyday” free space, as is the case in Lion. Similarly, Apple recommends having at least 8GB of free space on your Mac’s drive, but I recommend playing it safe by aiming for 15GB or more-the Mountain Lion installer itself is over 4GB and you’ll need some room for temporary files. Most reputable vendors will make it clear which RAM they offer is specifically compatible with Macs. Some third-party RAM that’s not up to Apple’s specs will cause problems when you upgrade your OS. A word of advice here: If you don’t buy your RAM directly from Apple, be sure you get RAM that’s specifically guaranteed for use in Macs. If you have only 2GB installed, you might consider a hardware upgrade before installing OS X 10.8. (Note that while the above computers can install Mountain Lion, some features, such as Power Nap, AirPlay mirroring, and AirDrop, have stricter requirements.)Īpple also says you need 2GB of RAM (memory), although in my experience, you’ll enjoy better results with at least 4GB. MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer).Apple says Mountain Lion requires one of the following computers, already running OS X 10.6.8 or any version of OS X 10.7: