-
update to Mountain Lion and compatibility with my creative softwares
Hello,
I am a bit conservative and wanted the past couple of years to be sure that I could still work. This is why I am still on Leopard on my MacBook Pro, and using FCP7, Lightroom 2 and Adobe CS4.
Now that Google does not support Leopard anymore, it starts to become really annoying (the videos won’t play in Chrome, to begin with).I am up to the task of switching to Moutain Lion but I am concerned about keeping my production capacities.
Would anyone tell me:
– if all my softwares are compatible (I can’t find info about Lightroom 2)
– how to do this transition easly (if possible) and safelyThanks a lot!
Marianne
-
3 Replies
-
Hi Marianne,
In my opinion, the best route is to make a backup of, then remove your hard drive and replace it with a small SSD, ive been fine with 128GB. Reserve this drive for OS and Apps only. If your MBP can accept it, remove the optical drive and install the OWC Data doubler with a new HDD for your media (when is the last time you put a CD in there?).
Install everything fresh, don’t restore settings from a previous Mac. Of course it’s fine to copy over any individual files you need, by plugging the drive into an external dock. If anything goes wrong, or crucial things are incompatible, no problem, just put the old OS drive back in and continue your work as always.
Out of your listed software, I can only confirm FCP 7 as working on Mountain Lion.
If you do the Data Doubler, you’ll probably need an external DVD drive for all the installs and other uses in the future. To make clean installs a painless process, I’ve been accumulating disc images of all my install DVDs, install files, custom templates etc. and a text document with license keys to a backup drive/USB stick. Just plug it in and start installing everything.
You are wise to be hesitant about just updating everything on a production system, especially one that hasn’t been updated in a while. Many things are likely to stop working if you do so.
Oh, and download mountain lion but don’t install it, find a guide for making a USB drive installer. That way you can install Mountain Lion clean when you put the new drive in, instead of installing over a Snow Leopard install.
-
Thanks for this suggestion. It sounds a bit too hands-on for me so I will look for assistance to perform it.
What is the role of the OWC Data doubler? -
Sure. The data doubler lets you install a second internal hard drive in place of the DVD drive. It’s nice because it lets you keep both the compact portability of a laptop, and have a “standard” two-drive setup. One drive to run the OS and Apps, the other for your media files. You may or may not need it or even want it, just throwing it out there since I like mine so much.
The Data Doubler install is somewhat “hands on”, but they have excellent step-by-step walk through videos. Replacing the hard drive is very straight forward and should be a simple task for whoever you find to do it for you (at least my 2010 MBP was for me).
Bottom line is to keep that working system drive locked in time, so you can go back if necessary.
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up