Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Mountain Lion Edition

Hardware Requirements

For starters, you need to make sure you and your Mac have what it takes to handle Mountain Lion—specifically:

• A Mac that’s not a geezer. Mountain Lion can run on the iMac (mid-2007 or newer), aluminum MacBook (late 2008 or newer), plastic MacBook (early 2009 or newer), MacBook Pro (mid-2007 or newer), MacBook Air (late 2008 or newer), Mac mini (early 2009 or newer), or Mac Pro (early 2008 or newer).

• Snow Leopard or Lion. Your Mac has to be running Lion or the most recent pre-Lion software version, Mac OS X 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard). (The main reason: You need the App Store to get Mountain Lion, and the App Store debuted in Snow Leopard.) Even if you already have Snow Leopard or Lion, run Software Update to make sure you have the latest version.

  If you don’t have Snow Leopard, then the cost of Lion just went up. You’ll have to buy and install Snow Leopard ($30) and then buy and install Mountain Lion.

• Free storage space. You need at least 8 GB free on your hard drive or flash storage to install Mac OS X 10.8.

• A lot of memory. Apple recommends at least 2 GB of memory, but OS X absolutely loves memory. For the greatest speed, install 4 gigabytes—more if you can afford it. (And these days, you probably can.)

  POWER USERS’ CLINIC: Reinstalling: Tricks of the Trade

  You can install Mountain Lion on as many Macs as you own, all for the same $20. To install it on a second Mac, for example, open the App Store. Click the Purchases tab at the top. You’ll see your previous Mountain ...