Also, when you do a clean installation of the Mac OS, it creates that partition for you.ģ. The differences between them is 1) Cost: SuperDuper! costs $27.95, and Carbon Copy Cloner costs $39.95, 2) Carbon Copy Cloner backs up the (hidden) Recovery HD partition (mentioned below), whereas SuperDuper! does not. I use SuperDuper!, and I could not live without it! But there are other folks who 'swear by' Carbon Copy Cloner. So, you will be able to boot your Mac from that external backup with either of them. Given that it will be best if you do a clean installation of whatever Mac OS you upgrade to, it would be best if you use either SuperDuper!: )Įach makes a bootable backup/clone of your 'system'.

Second, software for backing up: The Mac OS comes with Time Machine for backing up. If you want to use an SSD (faster, but more expensive), a 500 gig/512 gig model should be enough. If you use a traditional hard drive, a 1 TB should be easily big enough. Backups: First, of course, you'll need to purchase an external drive. One place to look is your downloads folder.Ģ. Do as much disk cleanup on your own as you can. How are you using all that space? It might be wise to either 1) do some serious disk cleanup on your own, or 2) install a large drive inside your machine.ġ. 13 Gig out of 170 gig is not much free space. For that, you'll need some 'tools', along with making backups.ģ.

With such a leap, it would be best if you do a clean installation of the newer Mac OS. You are taking quite a 'leap' on updating your Mac OS, from OS 10.7.5 to OS 10.13.6 (High Sierra), or OS 10.7.5 to OS 10.14.x (Mojave). These links describe which Macs can run each of those:Ģ. Your Mac can run both High Sierra (OS 10.13.6), and the next Mac OS, OS 10.14, Mojave.

Wise disk cleaner 10.7 1