Upgrading iMac OS?
Discussion
As I used to "work in IT" friends and family seem to think I'm their IT support! A friend asked me to help with a "virus on their "PC" which turns out to be an iMac, and I've never even used an apple PC before 
After working out that it's a rogue extension on the browser, and their paid for McAfee isn't doing anything at all, I tried to install malwarebytes to remove anything dodgy.
The OS is 10.9 and anything I wanted to install would only work with 10.10.
I managed to remove the extensions manually but would like to get their OS updated and get something to do a proper scan. McAfee is failing to load at all since I got rid of the dodgy extensions.
How do I get it to upgrade, and is the iMac compatible? Bear in mind I'm not even familiar with the apple UI!
This is the iMac build
After working out that it's a rogue extension on the browser, and their paid for McAfee isn't doing anything at all, I tried to install malwarebytes to remove anything dodgy.
The OS is 10.9 and anything I wanted to install would only work with 10.10.
I managed to remove the extensions manually but would like to get their OS updated and get something to do a proper scan. McAfee is failing to load at all since I got rid of the dodgy extensions.
How do I get it to upgrade, and is the iMac compatible? Bear in mind I'm not even familiar with the apple UI!
This is the iMac build
Can you click on the storage tab to show what it's got, as whilst it's supported on MacOS 10.15, before you do upgrade, check whether it's got an SSD or a HDD (standard config was 8Gb RAM and 1TB 5400rpm HDD).
If the latter, DO NOT UPGRADE past 10.10 as MacOS since then have been optimised for fast SSDs (2000MBps+) not HDDs (100MBps), and it will become so sluggish your friend will blame you for breaking it.
If it's a 1TB FUSION drive then you may be okay as this has a 128GB SSD which the OS can use for thrashing about.
However, if you 'need' the latest OS, then you'll have to live with the performance hit (or maybe use an external USB SSD instead for OS and apps, and use the HDD for documents/storage).
If the latter, DO NOT UPGRADE past 10.10 as MacOS since then have been optimised for fast SSDs (2000MBps+) not HDDs (100MBps), and it will become so sluggish your friend will blame you for breaking it.
If it's a 1TB FUSION drive then you may be okay as this has a 128GB SSD which the OS can use for thrashing about.
However, if you 'need' the latest OS, then you'll have to live with the performance hit (or maybe use an external USB SSD instead for OS and apps, and use the HDD for documents/storage).
Only problem with that is 10.14 and later are the versions that get security updates
OP, this support page should do the trick. https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT211683
OP, this support page should do the trick. https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT211683
That spec is similar to my mum's iMac which I've just had for the last week because it wouldn't boot up at all.
I couldn't get the OS to boot up so did everything from the recovery section which allows you to do a clean install with Yosemite - the original OS for her model. You can also check/repair the disk from there but despite the disk utility claiming the hard drive was fine, it turned out not to be so.
After a couple of days messing about, I plugged in an SSD via a USB cable but you could also use something like a fast 32GB USB stick. From the clean install screen you can select another drive to install the OS on and then boot into that from the boot manager. I did that to prove it worked and then replaced the drive with an old 128GB SSD, clean installed Yosemite then upgraded from the Apple Store to Catalina. I had to search for the upgrade, left to itself it just looked for updates to Yosemite.
The thing flies now although I suspect that's mostly down the the fact that it's got an SSD in and the original 1TB drive was a 5400 hybrid (?) one.
Having seen how long it took to boot up with Yosemite on the OEM drive even when it was new and presumably OK, I don't think I'd upgrade to Catalina without changing the drive. Do that and the rest of the hardware will easily run Catalina.
I'm no Apple fan myself, but it is impressively fast compared to my W10/i5/8GB/SSD set up.
I couldn't get the OS to boot up so did everything from the recovery section which allows you to do a clean install with Yosemite - the original OS for her model. You can also check/repair the disk from there but despite the disk utility claiming the hard drive was fine, it turned out not to be so.
After a couple of days messing about, I plugged in an SSD via a USB cable but you could also use something like a fast 32GB USB stick. From the clean install screen you can select another drive to install the OS on and then boot into that from the boot manager. I did that to prove it worked and then replaced the drive with an old 128GB SSD, clean installed Yosemite then upgraded from the Apple Store to Catalina. I had to search for the upgrade, left to itself it just looked for updates to Yosemite.
The thing flies now although I suspect that's mostly down the the fact that it's got an SSD in and the original 1TB drive was a 5400 hybrid (?) one.
Having seen how long it took to boot up with Yosemite on the OEM drive even when it was new and presumably OK, I don't think I'd upgrade to Catalina without changing the drive. Do that and the rest of the hardware will easily run Catalina.
I'm no Apple fan myself, but it is impressively fast compared to my W10/i5/8GB/SSD set up.
b2hbm said:
I'm no Apple fan myself, but it is impressively fast compared to my W10/i5/8GB/SSD set up.
Is your W10 install a fresh install though or clogged up with months/years of usage.. I've just done a clean install of Manjaro on my Dell XPS, A lot quicker than the missus W10 Dell XPS. Some of that will be the OS but some will be the fact its a clean install.
mmm-five said:
Can you click on the storage tab to show what it's got, as whilst it's supported on MacOS 10.15, before you do upgrade, check whether it's got an SSD or a HDD (standard config was 8Gb RAM and 1TB 5400rpm HDD).
If the latter, DO NOT UPGRADE past 10.10 as MacOS since then have been optimised for fast SSDs (2000MBps+) not HDDs (100MBps), and it will become so sluggish your friend will blame you for breaking it.
If it's a 1TB FUSION drive then you may be okay as this has a 128GB SSD which the OS can use for thrashing about.
However, if you 'need' the latest OS, then you'll have to live with the performance hit (or maybe use an external USB SSD instead for OS and apps, and use the HDD for documents/storage).
Thanks, that's great advice. I only need to go to 10.10 so I can drop some malware/antivirus on it. All of them I tried said they would only run on 10.10 or later.If the latter, DO NOT UPGRADE past 10.10 as MacOS since then have been optimised for fast SSDs (2000MBps+) not HDDs (100MBps), and it will become so sluggish your friend will blame you for breaking it.
If it's a 1TB FUSION drive then you may be okay as this has a 128GB SSD which the OS can use for thrashing about.
However, if you 'need' the latest OS, then you'll have to live with the performance hit (or maybe use an external USB SSD instead for OS and apps, and use the HDD for documents/storage).
I also need to start telling people I work in a different industry! People seem to assume you enjoy fixing their 10 year old virus infested PC's in your free time. I was mainly a Business Analyst so know nothing about desktop support, let alone Mac's)
xeny said:
Only problem with that is 10.14 and later are the versions that get security updates
OP, this support page should do the trick. https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT211683
But then what's the point in having a completely secure system that never gets used because it take 10 minutes to boot or launch MS Word.OP, this support page should do the trick. https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT211683
AJB88 said:
b2hbm said:
I'm no Apple fan myself, but it is impressively fast compared to my W10/i5/8GB/SSD set up.
Is your W10 install a fresh install though or clogged up with months/years of usage.. I've just done a clean install of Manjaro on my Dell XPS, A lot quicker than the missus W10 Dell XPS. Some of that will be the OS but some will be the fact its a clean install.
The comparison is a gut feel rather than measured numbers, W10 boots quicker but some things (eg email/launch Safari) just felt that bit snappier. Not enough to worry about though and probably the biggest impression was how much faster the iMac ran with Catalina/SSD. Considering how cheap they are now, an SSD is a no-brainer.
cobra kid said:
Out of interest, what does "PC" stand for?
Err, not sure if you're serious, but 'PC' stands for 'Personal Computer'.Mac vs PC is a bit misleading, as they're both 'personal computers'. It would be more correct to say Mac PC vs Windows PC - or just Mac vs Windows...but that then brings the operating system into the argument.
mmm-five said:
Err, not sure if you're serious, but 'PC' stands for 'Personal Computer'.
Mac vs PC is a bit misleading, as they're both 'personal computers'. It would be more correct to say Mac PC vs Windows PC - or just Mac vs Windows...but that then brings the operating system into the argument.
Exactly.Mac vs PC is a bit misleading, as they're both 'personal computers'. It would be more correct to say Mac PC vs Windows PC - or just Mac vs Windows...but that then brings the operating system into the argument.
"A friend asked me to help with a "virus on their "PC" which turns out to be an iMac, and I've never even used an apple PC before"
I think it rather predates that. See https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/887997 , or http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/sec/573/Persona...
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