Will the snow leopard upgrade work on my tiger macbook

December 27, 2010 2:21 PM

If I buy the $30 snow leopard upgrade, will it work on my tiger macbook?

I got the new Ipod Touch 4th Generation for Christmas! When I plugged it in to my 2007 macbook, Itunes informed me that I needed a newer version in order to use my new Ipod. When I downloaded Itunes 10.1, my computer informed me that I needed to upgrade from OS 10.4 to 10.5.

This oldish article says that the $30 leopard-to-snow-leopard upgrade would install successfully on my laptop. Has anyone tried this recently? I don't want to have to deal with returning the upgrade and waiting even longer to install my new touch.

posted by thanksfive to computers & internet (10 answers total)

Yes. The Snow Leopard disc isn't really an updater, it's the full version of the operating system.

See "Apple's Snow Leopard disc will install on Tiger Macs" from Apple Insider:

Though users of older Intel-based Macs were led to believe they would have to spend $169 to migrate from Tiger to Snow Leopard, new reports state the $29 upgrade disc will work just fine.

In his review of Snow Leopard, Walt Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal, Mossberg reveals that those who have been hesitant to upgrade their Mac will be able to take advantage of Snow Leopard's bargain price, without the need to install the intermediate Leopard operating system first.

posted by bcwinters at 2:34 PM on December 27, 2010

I've done it. It works fine.
posted by twblalock at 2:35 PM on December 27, 2010

Yep, I did the same thing recently too, worked perfectly!
posted by Joh at 2:41 PM on December 27, 2010

Did it last night on my wife's MacBook (same model and scenario as you). No issues whatsoever.

I did Google around before I did it though, and some people do have problems doing this. Do a thorough backup first and then go for it.
posted by quarterframer at 3:18 PM on December 27, 2010

I have read that it requires the machine to have at least 1G of ram.
posted by bonobothegreat at 4:26 PM on December 27, 2010

I did this a couple months ago and it worked fine.
posted by spiny at 5:09 PM on December 27, 2010

Worked for me too.
posted by ms.v. at 5:21 PM on December 27, 2010

I had exactly the same problem you did- 2007 laptop, Tiger, Intel Core 2 Duo, 1 GB memory- and Santa brought me a new iPhone 4 AND a different Santa brought me an iPad. I was about to ask this question myself. Based on the answers to this question, though, I just upgraded with the $30 disc and yay! everything works, it was totally seamless, nothing blew up and I can now actually use my new stuff.

I did backup first, and would recommend you do as well.
posted by charmedimsure at 6:51 PM on December 27, 2010 [1 favorite]

Adding my vote to the "works fine" crowd. Did this on a Tiger machine a few months ago with no issues whatsoever.
posted by Ridge at 8:46 AM on December 28, 2010

Thanks guys! I ordered the snow leopard upgrade.
posted by thanksfive at 9:58 AM on December 28, 2010