Would love help upgrading from 10.6.4 to 10.9

[lucitedragon]

Hey all. I've been doing a lot of reading trying to nail down the best way to make the transition from 10.6.4 to 10.9 and my head is literally swimming. I've read some good articles but also gotten a decent amount of conflicting information, so I thought I'd ask all of you.

I would imagine I should start off by cloning my current start up drive so that I have something to fall back on in case I botch things horribly. I understand that prior to 10.6.8 you can't boot off of a Time Machine backup so I'd need to clone my current start up drive some other way. Carbon Copy Cloner? Some other method? Does the drive I'm cloning to need to be the same size as the current start up disc?

Once I've got a stable clone, what's my process? I've read that I should upgrade to 10.6.8 first in order to access the App Store and then I can download a free upgrade to 10.9. Is this true? Is that the best way to make the migration? Feel free to just point me toward pre-existing articles that you feel adequately illustrate the steps and the potential pitfalls. My hardware build is one of TonyMac's blessed builds from 2010, specifically build number two here:

http://tonymacx86.blogspot.com/2010_06_01_archive

Might I encounter any problems upgrading to 10.9 given my hardware configuration? Any hardware I should upgrade in the process? I have upped my RAM to 8 GB since the build was completed, but other than that the specs are identical to the link above.

Thanks in advance for any help you're willing to offer. I feel like I've pushed 10.6 as far as it can go. I'm about to be four Revs behind in the OS, and that's not at all where I want to be.

 

[Going Bald]

Hey all. I've been doing a lot of reading trying to nail down the best way to make the transition from 10.6.4 to 10.9 and my head is literally swimming. I've read some good articles but also gotten a decent amount of conflicting information, so I thought I'd ask all of you.

I would imagine I should start off by cloning my current start up drive so that I have something to fall back on in case I botch things horribly. I understand that prior to 10.6.8 you can't boot off of a Time Machine backup so I'd need to clone my current start up drive some other way. Carbon Copy Cloner? Some other method? Does the drive I'm cloning to need to be the same size as the current start up disc?

Once I've got a stable clone, what's my process? I've read that I should upgrade to 10.6.8 first in order to access the App Store and then I can download a free upgrade to 10.9. Is this true? Is that the best way to make the migration? Feel free to just point me toward pre-existing articles that you feel adequately illustrate the steps and the potential pitfalls. My hardware build is one of TonyMac's blessed builds from 2010, specifically build number two here:

http://tonymacx86.blogspot.com/2010_06_01_archive

Might I encounter any problems upgrading to 10.9 given my hardware configuration? Any hardware I should upgrade in the process? I have upped my RAM to 8 GB since the build was completed, but other than that the specs are identical to the link above.

Thanks in advance for any help you're willing to offer. I feel like I've pushed 10.6 as far as it can go. I'm about to be four Revs behind in the OS, and that's not at all where I want to be.

Please follow the rules and put your hardware in your profile and/or create a sig. Links fail - as has the one above.

If you are working a 2010 customac, presume it is P55 board, Core i-8xx CPU or a X58 board and a Core i-9xx CPU and a 9800GT or GT260/285. Your best bet is to get another drive, size no matter as long as your current usage will fit - a 32Gb USB flash will work if it comes to that. Suggest you offload all files like documents, pics and videos to off line storage before cloning. Use CCC or SuperDuper to clone. Run MultiBeast or the stand alone Chimera installer to make the drive bootable. Set it aside.
If you are not currently on 10.6.8, then you need to run the 10.6.8 update (combo) to get the app store. Launch the app store and download Mavericks. Download and run UniBeast to create a USB installer. Boot the installer and install. You can either install over SL or choose to install clean. Personally, I would get a SSD and install clean. Gets you best upgrade you can get without replacing entire board/CPU/GPU/RAM.

 

[lucitedragon]

Crap. Sorry about that. I missed a bit of the link. This is my hardware:

MB - Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD4
Processor - Intel Core i7-860 2.8 GHz
Graphics - EVGA GTX 260 Core 216
RAM - OCZ DDR3 PC3-12800 Gold Low Voltage Dual Channel (4x2GB)

 

[totenkopf4]

lucite

suggest you update your signature - user profile with your hardware info....

that way when you post it will automaticly be in the post.

Also after you update to 10.6.8 you should apply a Software pack that Apple has for SL...before you make the Mavericks USB,

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1512

this has help users make the UniBeast thumb drive when they ran the UniBeast program....