2007 iMac (intel) Ok to Start Over?

[BudZMan]

Hello and I'm glad to be back after 8 years! So I upgraded the ram to 6gb and now have an SSD to install in place of the original hard drive. My question is- Is it OK to start over? I want to install the SSD then take the original (Maverick? Mountain Lion?) disks and install on the bare drive from the get-go. There is nothing I need on the current (original) hard drive so is there anything that would prevent me from doing this? All of this is in preparation to continue using this great iMac with the newest El Capitan which I upgraded to on the spinning hard drive and is barely usable. But with the SSD it should be great for another year or 2.
Thanks!
Bud

 

[redheeler]

Lion and later never even came on disks. The original restore disks for your iMac will likely be Mac OS X Leopard 10.5 or possibly even Tiger 10.4.10, you need at least Snow Leopard to be able to upgrade directly to El Capitan.

Unless you have a Snow Leopard disk I recommend creating a USB installer and clean-installing El Capitan without going to any versions prior.

 

[BudZMan]

Thanks. I have the original disk and what I'm trying to accomplish is when the system was new it had iLife with lot's of apps. When I updated to El Capitan it lost a bunch of apps and Apple help said that the programs weren't registered so I had to buy new ones!? Otherwise I would be eligible to upgrade if they were in my 'registered' list. Because I'm replacing the mechanical drive with an SSD that's why I thought I'd reinstall from the disk and upgrade, with the Apps installed. Registering, of course, right after initial install. Hopefully the apps would make it through to the latest and I'd be eligible for the upgrades without purchasing them. They had my initial invoice but couldn't 'find' the software that came with the system. Hmmm..I bought it directly from Apple. Any insight on my plan is appreciated. Still haven't done the teardown and SSD install. Soon, very soon.