Does this look right?

"XJDano" (xjdano)
10/21/2019 at 21:51 • Filed to: MacBook

Ok so I’m looking to upgrade my 2007 MacBook. I made some purchases.

So do I basically back it up with time machine , swap the SSD & memory then turn it on and reboot the OS, and then reload the backup from time machine?

I don’t know what I’m doing

And then a SSD

Seagate FireCuda Gaming (Compute) 2TB Solid State Hybrid Drive Performance SSHD - 2.5 Inch SATA 6GB/s Flash Accelerated for Gaming PC Laptop - Frustration Free Packaging (ST2000LX001)

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

More info

DISCUSSION (6)

Future Heap Owner > XJDano
10/21/2019 at 22:12

Ooooh it’s gonna love having all that RAM!

Your process sounds good. You’ll be able to boot from the install DVD, then format and install onto the SSD. After it’s installed, it’ll ask you how you want to define users on the machine, and restoring them from a Time Machine backup is one of the options.

In order to make sure that nothing happens to your backup, I recommend physically disconnecting the backup drive for the OS install, and only plugging it back in when you get to the step where you actually need it.

smobgirl > XJDano
10/21/2019 at 22:14

I don’t have any advice, but I hope other people can help you because I also have a 2007 MacBook and I’d love to be able to use it again.

facw > XJDano
10/21/2019 at 22:16

So personally I wouldn’t want to run an unsupported OS. For OS X/macOS that means the oldest you’d want to use is High Sierra (which isn’t supported on your hardware). I have no idea if Apple lets you install on older hardware than is officially supported. I might look at running Linux or even Windows on it instead. Failing that it looks like you should be able to run Lion (10.7) rather than Snow Leopard (10.6). Even Lion has been unsupported for half a decade though, it’s got to have some bad unpatched flaws.

Also, at $0.10/GB for an SSD vs. $0.05/GB for a SSHD, I’d just get the SSD unless you are quite confident you need that space. A full SSD, even a cheap one should be much faster. I don’t know the Apple ecosystem well, but I’d assume anything you can put a SSHD in would also take a standard 2.5" SATA SSD.

XJDano > facw
10/21/2019 at 22:25

So, what is the risk of using unpatched in supported OS?

Is it more of a walk in the park for hackers?

facw > XJDano
10/21/2019 at 22:36

Basically yes. You won’t get security patches, so known flaws can be exploited. Worse, hackers can often note the things being patched in newer versions to find things to target on older versions. The plus side is that it’s so old, there’s less reason to be looking there anymore, but it’s easy enough to have a script try multiple vulnerabilities to target old versions that doesn’t offer as much protection as you’d want.

You can see some stats here:

Snow L eopard https://www.cvedetails.com/version/111857/Apple-Mac-Os-X-10.6.8.html

Lion https://www.cvedetails.com/version/143035/Apple-Mac-Os-X-10.7.5.html

Basically many more CVEs since they went out of support.

As I say, if I were you, I’d go a different route. Elementary OS is a free (Custom: $0) Linux distribution based on Ubuntu that tries to be macOS-like for example. That does mean you can’t just automatically restore your stuff from the cloud though.

MiniGTI - now with XJ6 > XJDano
10/22/2019 at 01:19

You may need help from someone with an appleID history of OSX updates over the years. Install Snow Leo DVD and run software update to get up to 10.6.8 will get you access to the Mac App Store but if you don’t have newer versions of OSX in your “purchases” history I don’t think you can download the installers there.

Check everymac.com for the highest version you can run

Also some macs can run slightly newer versions of OSX than officially supported with a little hacking.

See also macrumors.com forums and there’s a guy called dosdude that has High Sierra installers patched for older macs.