0

My friend has a Macbook pro bought at 2006 (she thinks). The CPU is Intel. She did a clean install from the disc and is currently running 10.4. What's the latest OS she can upgrade to? How do I upgrade for her? Is it possible to update online or does she have to obtain a disc?

I actually want to set up a dual booting system (OS X and Windows) for her but information in how to set it up is scarce. It seems like Apple no longer provides Bootcamp for the OS. It's said that Bootcamp is not strictly necessarily and you can use disk utility to partition NTFS. But I only find its disk utility to be able to format OS X file systems. So I figure maybe I should update to the latest possible OS to find better dual booting information.

Any help appreciated, thanks.

Improve this question

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
1

Building on @Eric's answer: you can still buy 10.6 ("Snow Leopard") install disks from Apple's online store (link) for $19.99. If your friend has the MacBookPro2,2 model (with a Core 2 Duo processor), they could also run 10.7 if they want, but I think that's only available as a download from the App Store... which is only available in 10.6.6 and later. So I think they'll need to buy 10.6 anyway, and frankly I'd be tempted to just stick with that even if the Mac could run 10.7 -- Apple made some changes I don't particularly like in 10.7 (which they then cleaned up in 10.8, that's not an option here...)

Improve this answer
4
  • store.apple.com/us/product/MC573Z/A/mac-os-x-106-snow-leopard It looks like 10.6 is still available. Is the only way to upgrade to 10.6 is through the discs? Is there a way to download it over the net?
    – huggie
    Commented Mar 15, 2014 at 15:22
  • @huggie Nope, 10.7 was the first version available as a download. BTW, it looks like if you want 10.7, you have to buy it online here, then use the content code you get to download it in the App Store... which is only available in 10.6.6 and later. So you have to buy the 10.6 disks in any case.
    – Gordon Davisson
    Commented Mar 15, 2014 at 15:50
  • Thanks man. I think I have a 10.6 somewhere when I bought a mini. I just need to find it.
    – huggie
    Commented Mar 16, 2014 at 0:51
  • @huggie That disk probably won't work. The install disks Apple shipped with computers generally included the bundled software for that specific model, and therefore were configured to only work on that specific model. Your friend will need a generic install disk.
    – Gordon Davisson
    Commented Mar 16, 2014 at 5:16
2

To try to answer the OS question, I downloaded a copy of MacTracker which indicates there are two different Mac Pro models circa 2006.

The older one with model identifier MacBookPro1,1 can only run up through Mac OS 10.6.8. The slightly newer one, with model id MacBookPro2,2 can run through Mac OS 10.7.5.

One way to find the model id is via System Information. Unfortunately, I can't remember if that was around in 10.4 or not. In more recent OS versions (10.6 - 10.8 as far as I know, and likely 10.9), you can get to System Information via the About this Mac menu and then clicking the More Info button. On my system (10.8.5) it's in /Applications/Utilities, so hopefully you'll be able to find it there.

As far as dual booting goes, I'm not familiar with using Boot Camp, but would VirtualBox or some other virtualization solution do the trick? Running Windows windows next to Mac windows always makes me smile ;)

Hope this helps...

Improve this answer
2
  • 1
    System Information has been around forever, but used to be named "System Profiler" (its name changed in 10.7 IIRC). BTW, you can tell these models apart from the "About This Mac" without even opening System Profiler: just check the "Processor" field; if it says "Core Duo", you can only use 10.6.x; if it says "Core 2 Duo", you can use 10.7.
    – Gordon Davisson
    Commented Mar 15, 2014 at 14:49
  • Great, it's core 2 duo. I think I would prefer dual boot over VirtualBox especially given that it's an old system. But of course that's an option.
    – huggie
    Commented Mar 15, 2014 at 15:19

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .