Should I Finally Upgrade from Mountain Lion to El Capitan?

[theALmighty66]

Apparently my "vintage" mid-2009 MacBook Pro can only go as high as El Capitan, but I've been putting off the upgrade out of a little nervousness over compatibility.

So I've got 53.86 GB free on a 160 GB hard drive. 8 GB of RAM.

Is there any reason why I shouldn't upgrade now? A memory or hard drive hog by chance?

Thanks!

 

[honestone]

It's difficult to decide to vote one way or another, as there are some things you need to consider:

1. How old is that 160 gig drive inside your machine? If it's the original one, you need to first check out its "health". (By the way, just to make sure, is this your Mac?

http://www.everymac.com/systems/app...3-mid-2009-sd-firewire-800-unibody-specs.html

2. Even if that internal drive is still "in good health", 5400 rpm speed is rather slow, and especially as you move onto a more modern OS. You might want to consider installing a SSD inside the machine. The performance difference will be drastic, and assuming the 160 gig drive is OK, you could use it as an external drive. This link explains how to do the upgrade:

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Pro+13-Inch+Unibody+Mid+2009+Hard+Drive+Replacement/1337

An upgrade to a 251/256 gig SSD would do. Samsung makes the best SSDs (I have 4 Samsung SSDs, one inside each of my Macs, and two 512 gig Samsung 850 Pro SSDs in two separate external enclosures. They perform very, very well).

3. Making a 3 upgrade "jump", ie, from OS 10.8.x to OS 10.11.6, could be somewhat too much. You might want to consider upgrading to Yosemite first, OS 10.10.5.

4. You are making backups to an external device, right?

5. Finally, there is the issue of any third party software you are using. You need to see if any/all such software needs to be upgraded to be compatible with whatever Mac OS you are upgrading to.

 

[theALmighty66]

Hi!

1. It is the original, and somehow it's been completely fine & undamaged. We checked its health back in January & everything was up to par. (Yes, it is mine.)
2. Hmm! Thanks!
3. Eh, I can deal with the changes if you recommend El Capitan the most.
4. Yup! Why, local files are endangered? I thought they wouldn't be.
5. Eh, I'm not too worried about that, but good call—thank you.

 

[honestone]

Appreciate the information. If you have "the need for speed", then an SSD upgrade would be more than beneficial.

I guess an upgrade all the way to El Capitan would be OK. It's difficult for me to recommend one way or another, as I have always upgraded "on schedule and on time", ie, whenever a new OS is released (although I do not upgrade immediately, but preferring to wait for that first upgrade to the OS). Any of the 3 Mac OS versions that you could consider are stable. Again, though, take an inventory of any third party apps that you have. In fact, if you list them here, "we" can probably help you with determining whether you need upgrades or not. For some products (like the excellent freeware program Onyx), there is a specific version for each Mac OS. A prior version of Onyx will not run with a later Mac OS.

As for the need for backups, while local files might be OK, it is still wise (and just about mandatory to make frequent backups. By the way, what software are you using for that?

Finally, it would be best if you do a clean, fresh, "virgin" installation for whatever Mac OS you choose to get to. And for that, a backup is mandatory.

 

[honestone]

I guess I should add one more thing. For each succeeding Mac OS, resource requirements increase. You are fortunate to have 8 gig of RAM, as that is more than enough (unless you tend to run multiple applications at the same time). However, I can tell you from direct experience that going from a 5400 rpm drive to an SSD drive is one of the best things you can do. When I purchased my late 2012 Mac Mini, it came with a 1 TB 5400 rpm drive. Unfortunately, it was rather slow, so I decided to swap it for a Samsung 840 256 gig SSD, and boy, am I ever glad that I did. It sure was like a HUGE breath of fresh air! The machine boots so much faster, applications run faster, etc., etc. And I was able to install the 1 TB drive inside a nice, slim Orico external enclosure.

I would definitely recommend upgrading to an SSD inside your machine. You will not regret it.

 

[Cydne]

In terms of whether to go all the way from Mountain Lion to El Capitan, I had the same problem as you. An older machine (iMac, in my case) that maxed out at El Capitan. I reluctantly did the upgrade to Yosemite and hated it. Since I'd installed it in a partition, I promptly went back to using Mountain Lion. Finally upgraded to El Capitan so that I could run Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo. I don't like El Capitan as well as I did Mountain Lion but I do like it much better than Yosemite. As far as I can tell, there is no advantage to bothering with Yosemite first since you will wind up going to El Capitan eventually anyway if you keep the machine much longer.

 

[kurlykon]

Yes, upgrade. I had to because of iOS 10 on iPhone wouldn't let me upload my photos to old software. Got apple support on the phone and they helped through whole process which took about 2 hours!
They were very patient and no charges.

 

[honestone]

There have been other folks who upgraded to Yosemite and were pleased. And from what I remember, I had no issues with it either. But, not every OS is for everyone, and I certainly understand that.

But, no matter which OS one upgrades to, there is still the issue of the slow, 5400 rpm drive. An upgrade to an SSD will definitely make a world of difference in terms of performance.

 

[ranger1]

Apparently my "vintage" mid-2009 MacBook Pro can only go as high as El Capitan, but I've been putting off the upgrade out of a little nervousness over compatibility.

So I've got 53.86 GB free on a 160 GB hard drive. 8 GB of RAM.

Is there any reason why I shouldn't upgrade now? A memory or hard drive hog by chance?

Thanks!

Hello theALmighty66,

I followed the usual OS X upgrade path, prompted by the 'App Store's "Updates available", including, unfortunately, to El Capitan. This upgrade (to me) was the cause of countless problems.

A very great number of purchased but non Apple software programs WOULD NOT WORK with El Capitan. Adobe Photoshop Elements 8, MPEGStreamclip, Snap Motion 2 (among many others) were either severely compromised in their usability or worse, would not work AT ALL!

Some incompatibility issues were overcome by the software's developers releasing an El Capitan compatible version, some software (several of which have extensive and unique capabilities but are no longer supported by their developers) cannot be replaced nor sunstituted. All this pain just to be able to use the "new, improved" OS X El Capitan. In my case, "I don't think so!"

El Capitan also has some extremely frustrating built in "features" that someone at Apple (perhaps for their own amusement) must have written into the code for the "upgrade".

After months of suffering (in my experience) the effects of this latest OS X upgrade (El Capitan), I went back to Yosemite and ALL the problems vanished! Reverting back to Yosemite from El Capitan (via "App Store/Purchased") will not work as El Capitan will be active System. I needed to copy the Yosemite Installer onto an external, formatted HD. Using that installer, I then needed to install Yosemite onto that external HD and (after installation) select that HD as the startup disk (from within the internal El Capitan System) and restart. I had to then erase the internal HD and reinstall all non Apple software and re register each program. I had to copy all backed up work files.

I hope my explanation is not overly confusing but I was anxious that you may not have to endure the frustrations I did, simply the "enjoy" the use of El Capitan. I shudder to think what 'gremlins' Sierra' is capable of unleashing of loyal OS X users. Yosemite should meet all your requirements if you are currently using Mountain Lion as your active OS X.

Sincerely, ranger1.

 

[honestone]

Sorry for all your issues, but correctly dealing with third party software is always a requirement with any Mac OS upgrade. Myself, I have 6 such critical apps, and I will not upgrade to a new Mac OS until updates/upgrades are available for those 6 apps. In fact, for the last two versions of the Mac OS (El Capitan and Sierra), because of two of those 6 apps, I waited for the ".1" version of the Mac OS (ie, v10.11.1 for El Capitan, and v10.12.1 for Sierra).

Also, for the last 5 Mac OS upgrades, I have done a clean, fresh, "virgin" installation of the new Mac OS, and then used Migration Assistant to "migrate"/copy all my needed stuff from my SuperDuper! backup. In all instances (including having updated my 6 apps), everything went smoothly.

 

[theALmighty66]

Thanks everyone! Now I have to figure out how to clear out more space again. I'm so close to quitting using Mac OS X. -ha-

https://www.mac-help.com/threads/ho...imply-by-looking-at-downloaded-images.223331/

 

[Ormond]

I'm so close to quitting using Mac OS X. -ha-

You are not alone. The problem is, what to switch to? Apple used to be the quality alternative, but those days seem to be coming to an end.

I predict it's only a matter of time until some other group of bright young fellows in a garage realize the major players have abandoned quality and there's a big opening in the market ripe to be exploited. That's how Apple was born, and it will happen again sooner or later, but by somebody else this time.

Until then, we can be patient, enjoy the memories, try not to mess with things that aren't broken, and look forward to a brighter future.

 

[theALmighty66]

Well said.

 

[honestone]

I myself have never had any issues when I have upgraded the Mac OS. Of course, I make sure to be properly prepared for the new OS. I already stated above what I do to insure the transition/upgrade goes smoothly, and without a hitch. Unfortunately, a number of folks do not make the effort to do that.

I always use the analogy of owning a ca to owning a computer. If one does not take care of their automobile, trouble will definitely arise. Well, computers are no different.

But, to each their own.

 

[theALmighty66]

Thank you.