Next, look for the Mac App Store on your computer.Ĭlick on the Apple icon in the upper left-hand corner of your screen, and select App Store from the list. We’ve got your back with a guide on how to use Time Machine to back up and restore your Mac. Never tried to back up your computer before? Don’t worry. You can launch it from Spotlight (hit ⌘ + Space) by typing Time Machine into the search box and hitting enter. The point is that while these events are rare, it’s easy to avoid the heartaches and headaches they cause by virtue of being prepared.įortunately, Apple builds a dead simple tool into OS X for backing up your Mac. Upgrading your computer’s operating system can leave it vulnerable: sometimes an important system file gets corrupted, or a pre-installed app interferes with something that the El Capitan installer needs to do.

We say it three times because it’s an important step that way too many people skip. If you need even more room, take a peek at our guide on freeing up hard drive space on your Mac. If you find yourself running low on disk space, be sure to empty your Trash – it’s easy to leave several gigabytes of files in there, never truly deleted. You can check to see what version of OS X you’re running, along with how much memory you have, by going to the Apple icon in the upper left-hand corner of your screen, clicking it, and selecting ‘About This Mac.’

You’ll also want to make sure you have at least 2GB of RAM and a minimum of 8 – 10GB of free space on your hard drive. There are some reports of users modifying a system file that tells the OS whether it’s on supported hardware, and getting machines like the powerful 2008 Xserve servers up and running : but it’s not for the faint of heart, since you run the risk of losing the ability to boot any time your software gets updated. MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer).Luckily, Apple posts a handy list of the models you can expect to be compatible with the new OS: Some older Macs will also be upgradeable, but you’ll need to check in order to make sure.

That means that if your Mac runs OS X 10.10 “Yosemite”, 10.9 “Mavericks”, or 10.8 “Mountain Lion,” it’ll run El Capitan. This is the window that pops up when you click on ‘About This Mac.’

Upgrade snow leopard to yosemite