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How do I upgrade Mac OS X 10.6.8 to something newer?
I have a Mac mini model 4,1 with 8GB of memory. The OS is 10.6.8, which I understand is upgradable up to 10.13. I tried to start with the 10.11 (El Capitan) installer which I have on a USB stick, but it just says the Mac mini's disk cannot be used and refuses to go further.
I have no idea why. I mean, 10.6.8 is on that very disk and works just fine. Can anybody help?
Nelari Said:
"How do I upgrade Mac OS X 10.6.8 to something newer?: [...]Now I'm trying to install 10.11 El Capitan. But I'm getting a bit worried. The installer has been saying "About 7 minutes left" for an hour now..."
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Restore from a Backup:
Have you recently created a backup of your Mac prior to all of this? if so, restore from the backup. If not, then take this as a learning experience, knowing to always backup your Mac, prior making any major change to your device, such as an operating system upgrade.
Boot Once More to Upgrade:
If no backup, then try installing High Sierra Instead:
Option + Command + R: Upgrades to the latest macOS that is compatible with your Mac.
Nelari Said:
”Yes, this is an older device. On the other hand, there is 8Gb of RAM, which I would think is plenty. Maybe macOS installers need more memory than I can imagine. But this upgrade to 10.13 was, very likely, the last I shall attempt. Newer versions seem not to be available.“
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Upgrade to a New Mac:
Upgrading to a much newer Mac seems to be the ultimate way round this. Everything will be upgradable and fast.
Upgrading has Limitations:
But, there will be limits as to what macOS can be installed. Every hard drive will eventually fail. So, keep this in mind, if you plan to upgrade.
The 2010 Mac Mini can run up to macOS 10.13 High Sierra.
Open Safari and click on > https://apps.apple.com/us/app/macos-high-sierra/id1246284741?ls=1&mt=12
Yea' the later macOS installers want to make partition changes to the hard drive.
Someone else might see another option, but so far the best option I see requires using an external drive.
Yes, that is what I did to get the 10.11 installer. It does start the installation procedure, but stops almost immediately, because it finds that the disk (on the Mac mini) cannot start the computer.
Why not? One possibility that has occurred to me is that the Mac mini is currently a dual-boot machine, because there is a partition for Mac OS X and another for Linux. So I can select at boot time which I want to run. 10.6.8 does not seem mind this, but, of course, it was already installed when the Linux partition was made. Is the Apple installer confused by this situation?
I don't have an external drive and have never used CCC or SuperDuper. So I restored the Linux partition to its original - Mac OS X - state, which made it acceptable to the installer. This meant that the partition with the old 10.6.8 stuff was not used; the 10.10 Yosemite system went on the ex-Linux partition. Success, so far.
Now I'm trying to install 10.11 El Capitan. But I'm getting a bit worried. The installer has been saying "About 7 minutes left" for an hour now...
Nelari Said:
"How do I upgrade Mac OS X 10.6.8 to something newer?: [...]Now I'm trying to install 10.11 El Capitan. But I'm getting a bit worried. The installer has been saying "About 7 minutes left" for an hour now..."
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Ethernet:
Connect this to your router, using an Ethernet cable. That should give you more reliability of network connections.
Nelari wrote:
I don't have an external drive and have never used CCC or SuperDuper. So I restored the Linux partition to its original - Mac OS X - state, which made it acceptable to the installer.
If you have user data on the drive, then you really need to have/make some kind of a backup.
This meant that the partition with the old 10.6.8 stuff was not used; the 10.10 Yosemite system went on the ex-Linux partition. Success, so far.
As mentioned earlier, the later macOS installers want to make partition changes to the hard drive. It can't correctly do that or won't do that, if other partitions are getting in the way.
Now I'm trying to install 10.11 El Capitan. But I'm getting a bit worried. The installer has been saying "About 7 minutes left" for an hour now...
What has happened with the 10.11 El Capitan install...?
Again, I still think that you need to backup, erase and reformat the drive, before you can properly move forward and install El Capitan or better yet High Sierra.
Thank you for your concern. No, I have not backed up anything. The simple reason is that there was nothing to back up. That is, there was no personal data on the Mac partition, and I cleaned up the Linux partition before starting this upgrade business.
I really have no idea why the 10.11 installer is stuck with "About 7 minutes left". It's been three hours. I checked the Ethernet connection with another computer, and it was OK.
In any case, if I cycle the power now (the only thing I can think of), will the Mac still boot?
OK, it booted. Granted, only after about 20 tries, and it didn't automatically update to macOS 10.13. But it did complete the update to Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan.
To recap: the mini kept showing the "About 7 minutes left" message until the next morning. Then, I changed one component in our LAN, booted another 5 times or so, and went outside to shovel some snow. When I came back in, half an hour later, 10.11 was ready. Which made updating to 10.13 High Sierra possible.
My theory is that the first update stopped at the 7-minute point because it lost the Internet connection (but why didn't it say so?)
Be that as it may – problem solved!
Nelari Said:
"How do I upgrade Mac OS X 10.6.8 to something newer?: 1[...] My theory is that the first update stopped at the 7-minute point because it lost the Internet connection (but why didn’t it say so?)
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Your System Hanged:
It didn’t say so because your system hanged. Systems hang when they run out of RAM. So, being a much older device, consider upgrading the RAM, if an option. If you don’t want to upgrade it, at least replace the RAM module sitting in your Mac.
Yes, this is an older device. On the other hand, there is 8Gb of RAM, which I would think is plenty. Maybe macOS installers need more memory than I can imagine. But this upgrade to 10.13 was, very likely, the last I shall attempt. Newer versions seem not to be available.
That is what I am using - an Ethernet cable.
How do I upgrade Mac OS X 10.6.8 to something newer?
