Advice & assistance with upgrading from 10.6.8 to 10.9.1 please?

[bamim2]

I built my system (with help from several people on this site) a couple of years ago. Of course, the week after I bought Snow Leopard from Apple, they put out a new OS & I decided at that time it was going to be a LONG time before I would update/upgrade my version of OSX so I couldn't get pinched again. Well, the time has come that I now feel the pinch of things that are no longer supported with SL. Several more OSX versions have come & gone. This site has been solid & supportive throughout. I built my system from info gathered on this (well, the Original Tonymacx86) site, but I had to make about 10 modes that somebody else had figured out & just basically followed other people's EXCELLENT trailblazing advice, to make MY system work. That said, once I got it working I have NEVER had a problem with it that I didn't cause myself. OK. I'm honest. I've seen things moving & shot, only to find out that it was my own foot. I am an Engineer by education & Musician by birth. I was once told that if you're not breaking things, you're not learning. I must say, I HAVE learned quite a bit.

I will now get to the point...

I would sure appreciate it if somebody (many somebodies) would be kind enough to point me in the right direction of the list of what I REALLY need to do & be aware of to upgrade from SL 10.6.8 to Mavericks 10.9.1, please.

If there are detailed instructions somewhere here, THAT would REALLY be cool. What types of things do I need to be aware of, watch out for, etc? What are the gotcha's etc?

I've spent the last hour or so looking around this site (before & while writing this post) to see if I can find this info myself, but there's a LOT of stuff here & I know there are many people who know this site MUCH better than I do, so I'm hoping that people will be kind enough to share their knowledge of where things are.

When Tony moved the site years ago it looks like I didn't update my profile, so the list of system hardware is no longer here, so I'll start by listing that.

Motherboard = Gigabyte GA-Z68A-D3H-B3
CPU = Intel 3.1GHz Core i3
RAM = 16GB DDR3 Corsair
Video = 1GB EVGA NVidia GeForce Galaxy 210
HDD = 1.5TB Seagate

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THANK YOU!!!

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[totenkopf4]

Bamimm...

Your specs

Motherboard = Gigabyte GA-Z68A-D3H-B3
CPU = Intel 3.1GHz Core i3 PLEASE LIST THE INTEL CPU MODEL NUMBER
RAM = 16GB DDR3 Corsair
Video = 1GB EVGA NVidia GeForce Galaxy 210
HDD = 1.5TB Seagate


These should be added to the User Profile and its easy to do...
Right click on your user name under the Search box and then open in new window ... edit your Build Signature and add this info to that area - that way it will be that any post gets your build signature.

Ok - the best way to do this is to Clone the current Hard drive to a newer drive and then upgrade that though the UniBeast method.

For cloning we did an article on that
http://www.tonymacx86.com/173-backup-solutions-your-mac-customac.html

Here is one link as well - http://www.tonymacx86.com/general-h...loner-really-make-bootable-hackintosh-hd.html

What ever method used to make a clone HD you will need to install a Boot Loader onto it .

Of course this method moves all data not just the OSX.

You may have a Boot0 issue as newer hard drives today are now make w 4k sectors not the 256 k sectors that were done when you did your original build. We have a fix for that and w a working hack its even easier.

Now the other method is to use a 2nd drive and install SL again onto it as you did originally, which means you need to use the old iBoot MultiBeast and DSDT file.

This way you keep your system working while you build a mavericks 10.9 system and have a working Hack,

You can or should get the OSX mavericks 10.9.1 file and make the USB stick for it as well.

 

[bamim2]

Thank you for this info. I have cloned my drive. I used Clonezilla. I don't understand your statement that I'll need to install a Boot Loader on the cloned drive. If I have to do something else to a cloned drive to make it bootable, then it's not really cloned or the drive that I used to clone it wasn't bootable, right?

I am concerned about the Boot0 problem because I actually had to do two installations. I installed to a 1TB drive originally & things were great. No Boot0 problem at all. Then 1 month later my brand new 1TB XXXXing drive crashed & I had to install all over. I didn't even have time to do a back up of the installation before it bit the dust. THIS time I installed on a 1.5TB drive & once I got everything installed & working, I cloned the drive right away.

I had to dd the boot partition block from another SL drive when I originally installed SL on the 1.5TB drive, but since I cloned that drive, I've been able to boot from the cloned drive too. Or did I misunderstand?

Sorry, but how do I find the Model # of the CPU? I've looked in System Profiler, but I don't see anything in there that gives me the Model # of the CPU. Is there some other way to know what it is? Besides looking ON the CPU (not an option) or looking at the receipt or something from when I purchased it? I have several systems with i3 CPU so even looking on the package it came in is not an option.

Also, the UniBeast installation has been running for more than 30 minutes & for more than 20 of those minutes it has said that the time remaining is less than a minute. I assume that means it's hung. Any suggestions on what I should do?

When you say for me to use the UniBeast Method to Upgrade, I'm not sure I understand. Do you mean this one:
http://www.tonymacx86.com/374-unibeast-install-os-x-mavericks-any-supported-intel-based-pc.html

WOOAH! Please disregard the UniBeast thing I mentioned. It just finished successfully. I only left that in this post for anyone looking at this in the future. So they might see that mine took about 40 minutes to install UniBeast on my USB drive. Wow.

Any additional help would be most helpful & appreciated. THANK YOU!

 

[totenkopf4]

Thank you for this info. I have cloned my drive. I used Clonezilla. I don't understand your statement that I'll need to install a Boot Loader on the cloned drive. If I have to do something else to a cloned drive to make it bootable, then it's not really cloned or the drive that I used to clone it wasn't bootable, right?

I am concerned about the Boot0 problem because I actually had to do two installations. I installed to a 1TB drive originally & things were great. No Boot0 problem at all. Then 1 month later my brand new 1TB XXXXing drive crashed & I had to install all over. I didn't even have time to do a back up of the installation before it bit the dust. THIS time I installed on a 1.5TB drive & once I got everything installed & working, I cloned the drive right away.

I had to dd the boot partition block from another SL drive when I originally installed SL on the 1.5TB drive, but since I cloned that drive, I've been able to boot from the cloned drive too. Or did I misunderstand?

Sorry, but how do I find the Model # of the CPU? I've looked in System Profiler, but I don't see anything in there that gives me the Model # of the CPU. Is there some other way to know what it is? Besides looking ON the CPU (not an option) or looking at the receipt or something from when I purchased it? I have several systems with i3 CPU so even looking on the package it came in is not an option.

Also, the UniBeast installation has been running for more than 30 minutes & for more than 20 of those minutes it has said that the time remaining is less than a minute. I assume that means it's hung. Any suggestions on what I should do?

When you say for me to use the UniBeast Method to Upgrade, I'm not sure I understand. Do you mean this one:
http://www.tonymacx86.com/374-unibeast-install-os-x-mavericks-any-supported-intel-based-pc.html

WOOAH! Please disregard the UniBeast thing I mentioned. It just finished successfully. I only left that in this post for anyone looking at this in the future. So they might see that mine took about 40 minutes to install UniBeast on my USB drive. Wow.

Any additional help would be most helpful & appreciated. THANK YOU!

bamin..

Both Carbon Copy Cloner and Super Duper clone the HD for you.
THe Boot Loader or Chimera which is installed by MultiBeast on to a small partition at sector 0,0 is not detected by either program.
test this by cloning a drive and then see if you can boot from it - it should not boot.

then run multibeast and install the boot loader - chimera - to that cloned drive - and run the system utilities function / option in multibeast - then reboot to see if the boot loader gets installed.

Yes the UniBeast program does take a long time and depends upon certain items you select when its installing from the SL DVD.

 

[bamim2]

Again, first & foremost THANK YOU for replying & your help.

I followed your link to the disc cloning post you provided & added a few things, some of which I will share here. As a fairly long time UNIX/LINUX guy, I'm pretty sure the reason that the software that does a "Clone" while the OS is up & running is just not able to copy the boot block WHILE the system is up & running. I've had that problem myself on Solaris UNIX systems & just had to use the "dd" command to copy the boot block, just like the original way we had to do it with Snow Leopard & the Boot0 problem. Hmmm, wasn't that one of the "Grimm's brother's tales"? The Snow Leopard & the Boot0 Problem"? Sorry... back to THIS story.

That said, I've found that booting to a CD/DVD or USB drive & doing the Disc Clone does actually Clone the drive. I have a bootable clone when I'm done. I've used "EaseUS.com Disk-Copy". They make one for Windows & one that works on "Any OS". The second one works great for, well, ANY OS. I've used it many times on my "Hackentosh" & on my Linux systems too. It does take a bit longer than Carbon Copy of something. I think it has to do with booting from the CD/DVD drive. I'm not sure if if uses a 64-bit OS & therefore uses all the RAM on your system etc.

The last time I Cloned my drive was a few days ago & I used Clonezilla to do it. I downloaded the .ISO image of about 160MB & burnt it to a disc in about 5 minutes. Booting from the CD & cloning my 1.5TB drive took a little over 2 hours & gave me a bootalbe clone when I was done. Both apps worked great.

EaseUS disk-copy is here (along with instructions on how to make a bootable CD):
http://www.easeus.com/disk-copy/home-edition/#Title5

It's free to home users, but they need to get a name & email address & send the link. I just tried that link & it provides a .exe file, so it requires a Windows system at some point to be able to make a bootable CD. It has been a couple of years since I made my bootable disc. It does work great in the end, but I'd forgotten it requires Windows in the middle. In the end it's just a CD though.

Here's the link to Clonezilla's .ISO file that I just used a few days ago & it worked great:
http://clonezilla.org/downloads/download.php?branch=alternative

It's open source & Ubuntu Linux Based & is updated quite often. I downloaded the 64-bit ISO image & it made a bootable Clone for me in a couple of hours. It's a bit Linuxy though. When I was ready to clone my HDD I made sure the BIOS had my drives set as the boot drive (source) being Disk 0 & the blank drive (destination) as Disk 1, then I booted to the CD & chose the defaults all the way though. The thing with Clonezilla is that it's got a million choices for IT Pros to use to clone their servers, so it's pretty intimidating for us 'regular' folks.

Carbon Copy or Drive Genius work from a fully booted system & don't seem nearly has intimidating to the regular use. That's for sure. The good thing with the Bootable CD is that once you use it & it works for you, then all you have to do is follow the same steps every time & it gets less & less frightening each time. Plus both of these programs are free for home use. Free is great as long as it works properly.

OK. NOW. I was waiting for your reply (again, THANK YOU!!) to this post to start my upgrade. I've cloned my drive. Verified that it boots correctly. Made the bootable USB drive with UniBeast & MultiBeast. Now I'm going to go see how things work.

One last thing though. Since my cloned drive IS bootble, could I just run the Mavericks Upgrade that I downloaded from the App Store? Or do I need to use the USB drive & upgrade following the instructions on the Mavericks installation link? I don't want to do all this work only to not follow your instructions at the very end & hose things up now.

THANK YOU!!

 

[totenkopf4]

bamin...

One last thing though. Since my cloned drive IS bootble, could I just run the Mavericks Upgrade that I downloaded from the App Store? Or do I need to use the USB drive & upgrade following the instructions on the Mavericks installation link? I don't want to do all this work only to not follow your instructions at the very end & hose things up now.

Well more ways to get the job done .... thanks for that explanation on your cloning methods.

As to the last question - I assume that you have the Mavericks Upgrade located in the Applications folder on the OSX Snow Leopard Disk Volume you want to update. This would be the Normal Step if you have a Real Mac... we dont use this method.
So no we do not just run or launch the Apple Mavericks Upgrade file.
We need to make a Bootable 8 GB USB drive using the Mavericks nstall File and the program know as UNIBEAST.

UniBeast will use the install file that was downloaded and make an installer that we can use on a Hack to boot from and install Mavericks onto.
This is a similar install methods that were done w Snow Leo - iBoot and the Retail SL DVD.
You will find the guide here - http://www.tonymacx86.com/guidebeast.php

 

[bamim2]

Again, MANY THANKS for your help.

Sorry if I got carried away with the disc clone thing. I've used MANY posts from this forum to help solve all sorts of problems & get ideas that have helped me a LOT, so I try to post anything that I actually have knowledge of (not just a theory on), in case it will come in handy for somebody else down the road.

I do have everything in place & ready to shoot myself in the foot. Er I mean, Upgrade. I was just waiting for you to KEEP me from shooting myself in the foot & make a mess of all the work I've done. Thank you. I'll follow the link & then follow the instructions. Hopefully in a few hours I'll have a "New Mac".

I'm pretty excited about this whole thing, but am REALLY trying to take my time, ask lots of question so I'm sure of what I'm doing & do my homework. I know from experience that it's VERY easy to wander off the trail & make all sorts of problems for myself. It's REALLY cool to have a whole website of help though. You've been a LOT of help.

So, I'll take a couple of shots of Tequila, a deep breath & follow the Yellow Brick Road. I mean the link & instructions.

I'll report back here. Hopefully with positive results, but mostly to say thank you & in case others are doing or will be doing something similar. No sense me reinventing the wheel. It seems like there will be lots of people that are or will be doing this same upgrade from SL to M. I'm off... (or so my wife says anyway)

but I'll be back.

 

[totenkopf4]

Again, MANY THANKS for your help.

Sorry if I got carried away with the disc clone thing. I've used MANY posts from this forum to help solve all sorts of problems & get ideas that have helped me a LOT, so I try to post anything that I actually have knowledge of (not just a theory on), in case it will come in handy for somebody else down the road.

I do have everything in place & ready to shoot myself in the foot. Er I mean, Upgrade. I was just waiting for you to KEEP me from shooting myself in the foot & make a mess of all the work I've done. Thank you. I'll follow the link & then follow the instructions. Hopefully in a few hours I'll have a "New Mac".

I'm pretty excited about this whole thing, but am REALLY trying to take my time, ask lots of question so I'm sure of what I'm doing & do my homework. I know from experience that it's VERY easy to wander off the trail & make all sorts of problems for myself. It's REALLY cool to have a whole website of help though. You've been a LOT of help.

So, I'll take a couple of shots of Tequila, a deep breath & follow the Yellow Brick Road. I mean the link & instructions.

I'll report back here. Hopefully with positive results, but mostly to say thank you & in case others are doing or will be doing something similar. No sense me reinventing the wheel. It seems like there will be lots of people that are or will be doing this same upgrade from SL to M. I'm off... (or so my wife says anyway)

but I'll be back.

bamin2

If your will be back - remember that this is the Snow Leopard Forum and that we have other forums to support LION - MOUNTAIN LION - MAVERICKS and others.

SO place you post accordingly based upon what your trying to do.

 

[bamim2]

OK. Even though I said I'd be back, I didn't think I'd be back in a few minutes, but here I am. I'm trying to boot the USB drive & am getting a "Boot1 error". Which I'm guessing means it can't boot to my USB drive. I'm doing some searches here to see if I can find more info, but I thought I would ask here too.

I'm booting to the HDD & will try making the USB drive with UniBeast & MultiBeast as per the instructions again.

I tried booting the HDD once & only made it to the blue screen that comes up right before the desktop & never made it TO the desktop. I have VNC installed on all of the computers on my network, so I was able to VNC in to this system. It looked like my system was trying to run the upgrade. I can't say for absolute certainty though.

Since none of the instructions I've seen on this site say anything about removing the Mavericks Installation app from the Dock, I did just leave it there. I thought maybe the USB drive might need it there to upgrade things. When I did VNC to the desktop, I moved that off of the Dock (I didn't remove the Install app from Applications though). Then I rebooted the system.

Should "Install OS X Mavericks" be in the Dock? Does it matter to the upgrade?

When it came back up, it took a VERY long time to boot up, but I did make it to the desktop. I'm going to try to do the USB boot drive again, but I would SURE like to have some input on what just happened & what you think I SHOULD be doing before I really mess this up.

I'm writing THIS post from a Windows system so I can keep working on the upgrade separately.

THANK YOU!!

 

[totenkopf4]

OK. Even though I said I'd be back, I didn't think I'd be back in a few minutes, but here I am. I'm trying to boot the USB drive & am getting a "Boot1 error". Which I'm guessing means it can't boot to my USB drive. I'm doing some searches here to see if I can find more info, but I thought I would ask here too.

I'm booting to the HDD & will try making the USB drive with UniBeast & MultiBeast as per the instructions again.

I tried booting the HDD once & only made it to the blue screen that comes up right before the desktop & never made it TO the desktop. I have VNC installed on all of the computers on my network, so I was able to VNC in to this system. It looked like my system was trying to run the upgrade. I can't say for absolute certainty though.

Since none of the instructions I've seen on this site say anything about removing the Mavericks Installation app from the Dock, I did just leave it there. I thought maybe the USB drive might need it there to upgrade things. When I did VNC to the desktop, I moved that off of the Dock (I didn't remove the Install app from Applications though). Then I rebooted the system.

Should "Install OS X Mavericks" be in the Dock? Does it matter to the upgrade?

When it came back up, it took a VERY long time to boot up, but I did make it to the desktop. I'm going to try to do the USB boot drive again, but I would SURE like to have some input on what just happened & what you think I SHOULD be doing before I really mess this up.

I'm writing THIS post from a Windows system so I can keep working on the upgrade separately.

THANK YOU!!

bamim

I am not 100 % sure but as to removing the install from the DOCK -
if its in the DOCK then leave it
this should not matter as UNIBEAST will as or look / expect the Apple Installer file to be in the Applications fiolder. Where it should be.