No clue how to go about this...

[r00]

So I have a hackintosh that I have been using on 10.7.4 for almost a year now, but I would like to upgrade to Mountain lion (and then mavericks later) but I haven't yet because I really need the computer working and I'd hate to mess something up. It was such a fiasco initially to just get it running: it wouldn't boot with graphics enabled for the first two weeks, finally got it to boot somehow (don't even know how) and it still doesn't have core graphics working (like if I add a widget I get no ripple effect) and sound didn't work for a month and all of a sudden turned on one day with no changes from me.

Edit: Right now system is showing up as Mac Pro early 2008, should I change this? How do I go about changing this?

System is:

GIGABYTE GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 Firmware 10
GIGABYTE Ultra Durable VGA Series GV-R685OC-1GD Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready
Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost)
CORSAIR Vengeance 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
1 TB Seagate Barracuda
Sony DVD drive

Is there anything in particular I should look out for when I update to 10.8? I have regular backups from Time Machine, should I also clone my drive somewhere?

I have already downloaded multibeast 5.3.1 and the proper DSDT for my motherboard and firmware. I only have 10.8, so I would need to update to 10.8.4 afterwards - should I bother running multibeast and DSDT or just install 10.8, update to 10.8.4 with the downloaded upgrader and THEN run multibeast and DSDT?

I am just super freaked out that I will mess something up and brick my hackintosh lol

 

[Mr_Pie_Guy1234]

Best thing to do would to do a clean install on a separate partition then move your files over manually. Your hardware should be perfect for hackintosh, and I don't think you'll be having any problems in the future. Only thing is that your video card isn't exactly supported, so use the built in graphics when you're in the installer and before you install the correct drivers.

 

[UrbanBard]

The safest thing to do, since you need a working system, is to buy a second disk drive and format it to load with Mountain Lion. Get it working and then transfer your files. We're talking about $65 for a 1 terabyte drive from amazon. Cheap insurance.

An extra drive is always handy. If both are BIOS bootable then if something happens to your main drive, you automatically boot into your secondary. You can transfer some files and get back to work, then fix the problem when you have spare time.

Mac Pro 3.1 is one of the more stable systems. No need to change it.

Using 10.8 is fine. Use the combo downloader from Apple.com rather than app store to upgrade to 10.8.4. You look like you'll do fine.

 

[alessandrolameiras]

you will need reinstall the ¨AppleACPIPlatform.kext¨and the sound with ALC 889 with the newer multibeast after update to 10.8.4 ..

 

[r00]

you will need reinstall the ¨AppleACPIPlatform.kext¨and the sound with ALC 889 with the newer multibeast after update to 10.8.4 ..

lol you lost me there...

 

[r00]

Best thing to do would to do a clean install on a separate partition then move your files over manually. Your hardware should be perfect for hackintosh, and I don't think you'll be having any problems in the future. Only thing is that your video card isn't exactly supported, so use the built in graphics when you're in the installer and before you install the correct drivers.

my video card isn't supported? that may explain my problem... I bought it because it was on one of the lists of "approved" cards - where could I look for drivers for it?

 

[r00]

The safest thing to do, since you need a working system, is to buy a second disk drive and format it to load with Mountain Lion. Get it working and then transfer your files. We're talking about $65 for a 1 terabyte drive from amazon. Cheap insurance.

An extra drive is always handy. If both are BIOS bootable then if something happens to your main drive, you automatically boot into your secondary. You can transfer some files and get back to work, then fix the problem when you have spare time.

Mac Pro 3.1 is one of the more stable systems. No need to change it.

Using 10.8 is fine. Use the combo downloader from Apple.com rather than app store to upgrade to 10.8.4. You look like you'll do fine.

While i certainly see the value in a 2nd drive... I really cant afford one right now. I have a few (older but still working) laptop SATA drives laying around but I really don't want to run my system from one of those... I suppose I could always install and setup as a test and once I know what worked go back and upgrade my 10.7.4 drive from there... does that sound like a reasonable middle ground between what you recommended and just doing a straight upgrade?

 

[r00]

So in doing a little tinkering today I found a few more things that I find alarming: the audio only works when connected to the "front" audio port on my tower... If I try to put it directly into the green audio out on the back of the tower no sound... If I unplug the front audio cable from the motherboard and plug the speakers into the back of the tower still no audio...

My USB 3.0 ports are not working at all... I know that 10.7.4 has no USB 3.0 support, but I would suspect that they should be working as 2.0 ports but when i plugged into them I got nothing at all.

 

[UrbanBard]

"I suppose I could always install and setup as a test and once I know what worked go back and upgrade my 10.7.4 drive from there... does that sound like a reasonable middle ground between what you recommended and just doing a straight upgrade?"

Sure. The point is not to screw up what works now. A laptop SATA would be an expedient. Once you got it working right, you could use Restore in Disk Utility to create a clone on your primary disk drive. That should be safe to do. Then, you could use the laptop SATA as backups.

I'd suggest to let the tinkering wait until you have a copy of Mountain Lion working.

 

[r00]

"I suppose I could always install and setup as a test and once I know what worked go back and upgrade my 10.7.4 drive from there... does that sound like a reasonable middle ground between what you recommended and just doing a straight upgrade?"

Sure. The point is not to screw up what works now. A laptop SATA would be an expedient. Once you got it working right, you could use Restore in Disk Utility to create a clone on your primary disk drive. That should be safe to do. Then, you could use the laptop SATA as backups.

I'd suggest to let the tinkering wait until you have a copy of Mountain Lion working.

How exactly can I go about cloning the laptop drive over to the original drive? Won't it overwrite all my old data? Or are you suggesting that I overwrite all my old data, and then restore from a backup?