From Snow Leopard to El Cap....How???

[Wild-Bill]

i have friends with a 2010 Mac Mini, on 10.6.8, with a Time Machine backup in a MiniStack Classic. The Mini's HDD is the standard 320GB. Machine has 4GB RAM.

I am going to install a new SSD and 8GB of RAM for them as well. How should I proceed with El Cap?

A) Swap drives, Install El Cap clean on SSD, then restore from TM backup (or use Migration Assistant????)
B) Upgrade install El Cap on existing HDD, then clone drive to SSD, then swap drives out
C) Clone HDD to SSD, swap drives out, upgrade install El Cap

I'm concerned about them losing their pictures in iPhoto from the move to El Cap, concerned about them losing their music & playlists, and their movies. Not sure what kind of havoc the move from SL to EL C is going to cause.

Thanks

 

[KALLT]

Making a backup prior to the upgrade is definitely not a bad idea. I would clone the hard drive to the SDD and swap the devices first, then install El Capitan. A clean install with a migration is not really worth the effort in this case, since it will move over your libraries anyway and your system folders will have been ‘cleansed’ by the El Capitan upgrade. You will have your hard drive as a direct backup.

 

[BrianBaughn]

Upgrading the SL system does include the possibility that old, third-party "stuff" that doesn't work properly anymore can end up in the system.

If you're not sure what your friend has installed in the last few years and you want to be sure that something like that doesn't happen and also eliminate the possibility of old User Account corruption being carried over, then start from scratch and don't use Migration Assistant.

Otherwise, you can just do the update as KALLT has suggested and hope nothing like that happens.

if your friend has Office 2011 installed be prepared to re-enter the product key.

 

[Ebenezum]

I recommend first making a list of all software that is installed and checking compatibility, its quite likely some /most of them wont be compatible with 10.11.

Furthermore I am curious why your friend wants to upgrade to newer OS? Given the Mac Minis age it might be better to stay in 10.6.8 unless your friend needs software that wont work in 10.6.8... SSD will help but 10.11 will be more demanding than 10.6 for the processor and GPU.

 

[Partron22]

Fresh install.
Bring documents, music and video folders over manually.
Only reinstall the Apps you currently need.
Snow Leopard to El Capitan is a big leap.
If not careful, you'll end up bringing over all sorts of System and App files you don't need anymore.
I've not been impressed with Migration Assistant's ability to discriminate between what's important, and what's outdated.
You'll end up having to reset some prefs manually, but won't end up with a hodgepodge of outdated files, folders, databases etc. on your new Mac.

 

[Wild-Bill]

Thanks to all for your input. I am going to follow KALLT's advice. I'll first install the new memory, then clone the HDD to the new SSD (will probably be pretty slow since the mini only has USB 2.0), then I'll swap the drives out, and then upgrade install El Capitan. They don't have a lot of 3rd party apps so I'm not anticipating many headaches there.

 

[KALLT]

Thanks to all for your input. I am going to follow KALLT's advice. I'll first install the new memory, then clone the HDD to the new SSD (will probably be pretty slow since the mini only has USB 2.0), then I'll swap the drives out, and then upgrade install El Capitan. They don't have a lot of 3rd party apps so I'm not anticipating many headaches there.

Just for your information, any obsolete system components will be moved to Macintosh HD > Library > SystemMigration upon installation of El Capitan. The system locations will only contain the stuff that Apple wants there. You can inspect what the installer moved out of the way and recover it accordingly or delete the SystemMigration folder (it is not used by the system anymore). The upgrade should not touch your personal files. At most you will find that some applications will no longer work, but it should be easy to update them or uninstall them and find alternatives.

 

[Wild-Bill]

Thanks again for the info. I only needed to update their Firefox, Onyx, and they needed to find their serial for Office 2011. The only hiccup was the fact that the new Samsung Evo SSD wasn't initialized. So, when I initially tried the cloning operation with the SSD in my external USB enclosure, the Mini did not detect it. I ended up installing the SSD into the Mini, put the old HDD in the enclosure, option-booted to the hard drive, cloned it to the SSD, disconnected the enclosure, repaired permissons, and then installed El Cap.