OLDER MBP OS UPGRADE

[HarleyMan]

I have a late 2008 15" MBP with 8Gb of Ram, running OSX 10.8.5. She is a good old girl but I'm running into limitations (Particularly Adobe CC) in upgrading to newer versions of software, receiving error messages stating that that update is requires OSX 10.10 or 10.12, or some newer level OSX than I have.

I have heard of people having serious troubles after upgrading on these old girls. Slowdowns and other problems, wishing they never upgraded to the newer OSX, and I think I remember hearing that you can't go back if there are problems with the OSX upgrade.

I really could use the software updates, but I can't have a problem that inhibits or reduces the operation of my computer, I use it daily.

I get weekly prods from Apple that updates are available and it wants me to upgrade to the newest, latest and greatest (?) OSX Sierra.

Im good at operating macs and using software. Troubleshooting, or internal problems, not so much so I'm not looking to create trouble.

So I would appreciate the opinion of those well versed in the mechanics of this area of hardware/ OSX compatibility. Will the old girl handle an upgrade to Sierra, am I opening a Pandora's Box of problems, or do I have any other options that might work better for me?

Thanks in advance for your time and assistance.

 

[keysofanxiety]

Providing you upgrade the hard-drive to an SSD, it should be smooth on the latest operating system. However if you're still on the original hard-drive, it will run very slowly.

 

[bcave098]

This computer is not compatible with macOS Sierra. You can, however, install OS X El Capitan. I'd second the recommendation of having an SSD over a spinning HDD.

 

[matram]

If you get a new SSD you could clone the old disk to the new SSD. Then swap in the SSD. That way you could always swap back to the old HDD if you are not happy.

Alternatively take a full back-up using Carbon Copy. Then you can revert to the backup.

I honestly do not have a lot of experience with this on the Mac world but used disk clones and snapshots a lot in the Win / Unix world for "safe" testing. Best of luck!

 

[HarleyMan]

Providing you upgrade the hard-drive to an SSD, it should be smooth on the latest operating system. However if you're still on the original hard-drive, it will run very slowly.

Thanks, Im looking at OWC/Mac Sales at their SSD, and they seem to have a lot of support and assistance for the changeover. Ive bought and had good luck with their products before.
[doublepost=1485280474][/doublepost]

This computer is not compatible with macOS Sierra. You can, however, install OS X El Capitan. I'd second the recommendation of having an SSD over a spinning HDD.

Thanks for the quick reply and the second on the go to SSD. I have been told that El Capitan is as high as I can go , but that should get me a few years before the technology runs away from me again. Since they are only pushing Sierra for the automatic update, can I get El Capitan as a free upgrade from somewhere?
[doublepost=1485280554][/doublepost]

If you get a new SSD you could clone the old disk to the new SSD. Then swap in the SSD. That way you could always swap back to the old HDD if you are not happy.

Alternatively take a full back-up using Carbon Copy. Then you can revert to the backup.

I honestly do not have a lot of experience with this on the Mac world but used disk clones and snapshots a lot in the Win / Unix world for "safe" testing. Best of luck!

Thanks for the info!

 

[bcave098]

Thanks for the quick reply and the second on the go to SSD. I have been told that El Capitan is as high as I can go , but that should get me a few years before the technology runs away from me again. Since they are only pushing Sierra for the automatic update, can I get El Capitan as a free upgrade from somewhere?

Yes. Click the link I provided and look for "Get El Capitan from the App Store"