Is my macmini 2011 worth to upgrade to moutain lion tomorrow?

[rockisdead]

2011 macmini basic version with 4G ram installed.

Should I stayed with lion for awhile,entry level mac user.Want to learn x-code,but still as plan no action yet.I've been using windows for 20 years,feel a little bit hard to use mac at the moment,that's all I can say.I'm looking forward,I know it takes time.

 

[philipma1957]

okay you can ;
STEP (1 )go to disk utility

STEP (2) After it is open go to your internal hdd

step (3) turn it into 2 partitions

step (4) load lion onto the 2nd partition

step (5) put ml on the new 2nd partition

 

[n0cus]

Simple.....Yeah

 

[philipma1957]

it takes about 2 or 3 hours and you end up with lion on one half the hdd and ml on the other half. you can pick what to boot from. if you don't pick the mini will go back to the last os that you used.


I have this setup on my older 2010 mini. I have snow l and lion.


I just left one room and my 2011 mini. Now I am on my 2010 mini. see the screen shot. I use this 2010 mini with 2 different osx and when ml comes out I will split the hdd into 3 partitions with snow, lion and ml.

 

[bearcatrp]

Never update your main OS until you know all the software you use works in the latest release. Do what was suggested above and partition your drive to have both, or use an external. I learned the hard way moving from tiger to leopard without insuring all my heavily used apps worked. I usually wait until the 3rd update comes out before switching. By then, most of the bugs get worked out.

 

[philipma1957]

Never update your main OS until you know all the software you use works in the latest release. Do what was suggested above and partition your drive to have both, or use an external. I learned the hard way moving from tiger to leopard without insuring all my heavily used apps worked. I usually wait until the 3rd update comes out before switching. By then, most of the bugs get worked out.

this is the why. and the how of any software upgrade. It is also why mac osx is nice you can have 2, 3, 4 ,5, 6, 7, 8 ,9 boot volumes all on 1 hdd if you want.

I have had as many as 13 different versions of osx on a mac pro.

 

[n0cus]

it takes about 2 or 3 hours and you end up with lion on one half the hdd and ml on the other half. you can pick what to boot from. if you don't pick the mini will go back to the last os that you used.


I have this setup on my older 2010 mini. I have snow l and lion.


I just left one room and my 2011 mini. Now I am on my 2010 mini. see the screen shot. I use this 2010 mini with 2 different osx and when ml comes out I will split the hdd into 3 partitions with snow, lion and ml.

Sorry I didn't mean to respond to you I meant he should. Sorry, but good idea.

 

[mwhities]

2011 macmini basic version with 4G ram installed.

Should I stayed with lion for awhile,entry level mac user.Want to learn x-code,but still as plan no action yet.I've been using windows for 20 years,feel a little bit hard to use mac at the moment,that's all I can say.I'm looking forward,I know it takes time.

To answer your question, yes.

 

[Supra Mac]

Thanks for the step by step Philip. Thats a good option.

 

[thekev]

I would add to back up right before you try to repartition the drive.

 

[philipma1957]

I would add to back up right before you try to repartition the drive.

yes even though it should be routine and easy to add a second partition. cloned backups with ccc or superduper are good to have

 

[thekev]

yes even though it should be routine and easy to add a second partition cloned backups with ccc or superduper are good to have

I only mentioned it as there's a small chance of problems during the process.

 

[Mike Valmike]

2011 macmini basic version with 4G ram installed.

Should I stayed with lion for awhile,entry level mac user.Want to learn x-code,but still as plan no action yet.I've been using windows for 20 years,feel a little bit hard to use mac at the moment,that's all I can say.I'm looking forward,I know it takes time.

ML is supposed to be like Lion in most respects. I suggest doing a full backup (simple enough if you're using Time Machine) and going ahead with the upgrade. You can always revert. For the most part, Mac OS X upgrades are much less of a hassle than Windows upgrades... I was a switcher back in 2007 in the early Intel era so I can definitely respect your uncertainty and wanting not to mess something up due to inexperience. Most stuff about using a Mac ends up making a ton of sense once you unlearn the old Windows way and learn the simple Mac way. It does take a while to acclimate.

Good luck!

 

[philipma1957]

ML is supposed to be like Lion in most respects. I suggest doing a full backup (simple enough if you're using Time Machine) and going ahead with the upgrade. You can always revert. For the most part, Mac OS X upgrades are much less of a hassle than Windows upgrades... I was a switcher back in 2007 in the early Intel era so I can definitely respect your uncertainty and wanting not to mess something up due to inexperience. Most stuff about using a Mac ends up making a ton of sense once you unlearn the old Windows way and learn the simple Mac way. It does take a while to acclimate.

Good luck!

How do you know that reversion to lion is easy?

Have you worked with ML?

Have you done a reversion?

If you have and it is easy he could do it your way.

 

[comatory]

How do you know that reversion to lion is easy?

Have you worked with ML?

Have you done a reversion?

If you have and it is easy he could do it your way.

mmm, restore from timemachine... maybe? sure you can't expect reverse with wiping the system drive first...

 

[philipma1957]

okay I am downloading ml.


i setup my internal ssd to 2 partitions not one. I started the download it is doing it fast 2 mb plus

 

[philipma1957]

download done. I am now running the mountain lion. my internal ssd has the lion on one partition and mountain lion on the other. under an hour to do it with a connection that downloaded around 2mb .

note to mods please forgive the 2x post as i wanted to show enough photos on how to.

 

[Mike Valmike]

How do you know that reversion to lion is easy?

Have you worked with ML?

Have you done a reversion?

If you have and it is easy he could do it your way.

I had to do a reversion from Lion to Snow Leopard on one Mac last time around, because critical third-party software didn't work properly. They since updated and I was able to re-upgrade that Mac. It wasn't trivial but it was a far cry from the absolute agony of a Windows reversion.

 

[philipma1957]

I had to do a reversion from Lion to Snow Leopard on one Mac last time around, because critical third-party software didn't work properly. They since updated and I was able to re-upgrade that Mac. It wasn't trivial but it was a far cry from the absolute agony of a Windows reversion.

I have done lion to snow and it is tricky but doable.

I like my current method better as I can play with the new one and jump back to the old one very quickly. I will soon load mountain lion into my 2010 machine and have it with 3 osx partitions. Snow ,lion and ml.

I was not knocking your method. Just curious to see if you had done ml to l.

Later this week I will try to do a reversion of mountain to lion just to see how hard it is do.

 

[akent215]

If I buy a new 2011 Mac Mini from Frys for $529.00, will I still be able to get a free upgrade to ML or is that only if you buy a new mac from the Apple Store?

Thanks

 

[mwhities]

If I buy a new 2011 Mac Mini from Frys for $529.00, will I still be able to get a free upgrade to ML or is that only if you buy a new mac from the Apple Store?

Thanks

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