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Ideal OS for mid 2009 mac book pro?

Hi all - I have a mid 2009 macbook pro 17" - 4 GB RAM, 500 GB storage (70GB free) running OS 10.9.5

 

I never updated to 10.10 or 10.11 - mainly because I was worried it would actually hurt the performance of my older model mac and not help.

 

Over the last year or so the computer has started to run slow in certain situations - usually when running high memory apps (Logic, iMovie) or after a while of use.  This got me thinking maybe it's time to take the chance and update OS's hoping it may help, not hurt, performance and extend the life of the computer.

 

I know Sierra does not support my model but I can still update to 10.11 El Capitan.  Do you think my computer can handle the OS?  Would it help or hurt?

 

The only special software I use is Logic (v9) - everything else is pretty standard... web surfing, occasional simple movie editing, etc.

 

Thanks,

Hi,

 

A relatively easy way to check it out would be to clone your current internal hard drive to an external HD (or two), boot from it to test it out and make sure everything works as it should, then upgrade your internal HD to 10.11 and see how you like it. If you don't like it, then you can just clone the external back to the internal and you'll be back on 10.9.5. I recommend CarbonCopyCloner to do the cloning. You should also know that 10.9 is no longer supported with security updates, so using it online is more risky; in that way, even if 10.11 isn't as fast for you, it may still be worth the upgrade

 

You could upgrade the external instead, but that won't give you a true feeling for speed, as booting and anything having to access the external HD is slower than when it's on the internal HD.

 

You'd have to go to 10.11 because unless you've had 10.10 on your MBP before, you can no longer download it. See the following for how to upgrade to 10.11: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206886

You MBP supports maximum 10.11.6 officially. Get that from Upgrade to OS X El Capitan - Apple Support . But, if you really want to extend the life of your MBP, replace the HD with a SSD and max out the RAM to 8 GB. That will give you another couple of years on this model. El Capitan is stable and well developed. It was the first since Snow Leopard that was taken to a sixth release, establishing a new baseline. It has most, but not all the features of Sierra and serve us well where we use it in the Server environment as well as the client configurations.

 

HTH

 

Leo

Thanks tjk that all makes sense. 

 

I have my computer backed up via time machine to an external HD - and actually have a long overdue 2nd external on the way right now that I can do a 2nd backup to as a precaution. 

 

Would these time machine backups be sufficient to do what you are describing - booting from them to test they work before trying to upgrade to 10.11, and reverting back to 10.9.5 if I don't like 10.11?  Or is a separate app like CCC necessary?  I don't have any experience when it comes to booting from or restoring from backups on external HDs

In the System Administration world, the word backup means at least three backups: two separate backups on-site and one off-site. That is where data is very important. In your case, for a personal client machine I would recommend the following:

 

The external copies should be tested that you can boot from them by holding down the Alt key during boot up to select which to boot from prior to your upgrading.

 

HTH

 

Leo

It's good to have different kinds of backups, so TM is a good first line of defense. However, by itself, it's not bootable (you cannot boot directly from a TM backup), but when you restore from it, the restored version will be bootable, bringing you back to your original setup on your internal HD Use Time Machine to back up or restore your Mac - Apple Support.

 

For your second backup, yes, a separate type of backup is very strongly recommended. I'd strongly suggest a cloning utility which creates a bootable backup, and in my mind, the best one out there is CCC; I used to use SuperDuper! but have stopped using it as it does not clone the Recovery Partition, while CCC does. CCC is simple to use, and has a 30 day trial period. Just select the Source (your internal drive) and the Destination (the external drive) and click on the clone button. The resulting clone will be able to boot your MBP (but test it, by shutting down > connecting the external drive with the clone on it > holding down the Option key > pressing the power button > waiting for the Startup Manager to appear > selecting the bootable clone > clicking on the arrow and waiting a bit for it to boot, before upgrading your internal OS).

bats8711:

I too have a mid-2009 MB Pro (13 inch) and most certainly agree with all the advice given here concerning upgrades and backup.  I have upgraded my laptop to 8 GB RAM and a 500 GB SSD (Samsung 840 EVO, but the 850 EVO is out now and is supposed to be a better design).  The laptop performs pretty well under El Cap 10.11.6, at least for the standard complement of Apple apps (Mail, Safari, Calendar, Reminders, Photos, iTunes, etc.) and MS Office 2016.  The RAM and the SSD make all the difference in the world; they're not all that expensive and our model laptop is very easy to upgrade.  I wouldn't even bother with updating the OS without first beefing up the hardware.  Later versions of the OS are highly disk-intensive, and an SSD will make the difference between "happy camper" and "hatin' life".   Also, if you disk utilization goes up from 430 GB to 450 GB, you'll already be at the 90% mark.  Consider if this is a good opportunity to jump to 1 TB.

 

My laptop itself is falling apart -- the optical drive stopped working long ago and just today I discovered that the FireWire port no longer works.  Hope that yours is in better shape.  Thinking very hard about switching to a new iMac after the new ones are announced.

thanks for your help

Hello Mike, I was wondering what Ram you used.. I have the exact same model you have but I'm confused on which Ram to buy. I go on the internet and look for ram and I don't see our model (MacBook pro mid-2009) listed anywhere to see which one to buy for this particular model.

最後更新：2017-10-03 11:34:19

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