Few Things To Do Before You Download Mavericks And Install

It is always a good option to free some space on your drive if possible before you install the new version of Mac OS X. Since you will also need space for temporary files for the applications you will be using in addition to the OS requirements, you are advised to perform a disk space check on your drive to see to delete unnecessary junk on your device. You can use utility software such as Grand Perspective or What Size in order to assist you to clean up your drive.

Next thing to do is to run a hardware test on your Apple device. If your Mac was released before June of 2013 then you can use the Apple Hardware Test software and for Macs released after June 2013, you shall run Apple Diagnostics software to check for existing hardware issues such as disk errors etc.

The next thing you need to do is something very important. You must create a backup of your Mac and then test this backup. You are recommended to use a software such as Carbon Copy Cloner or Super Duper to clone a backup that is bootable. You can even get away with a Time Machine backup also, but that’s a choice that you will have to make on your own. Your own experience in using Mac devices will tell you that.

Clone Backup For Download Mavericks Install

For a first-timer, the benefit of using a clone backup is you get to easily boot your device with an exact copy of your existing drive in case something goes wrong. The difference in a time machine backup is that it keeps your most recent as well as older versions of documents. After backing up your drive you should also test the backup you have taken to ensure you’re safe in case something goes wrong.

To test a bootable clone backup

Access System Preferences >> Startup Disk Pane to boot (your device from the backup created) >> and verify (success or not).

In order to test a time machine backup, you can restore files in different versions to ensure your document's data is recoverable if something bad happens while the upgrade is processing. Depending on your need you can either use one or both methods to back up your Mac before you upgrade your OS to a newer version, which is, of course, Mavericks in this case.

Guide for Snow Leopard Users For Install Mavericks

For Snow Leopard users, they need to disable File Vault in order to upgrade to download Mavericks. This is a must to do if you’re currently using Mac OS X Snow Leopard version. This is due to the fact that since later Mac OS X versions from Snow Leopard is using an improved encryption technology called File Vault 2. Therefore this really is the best time to embrace the new and advanced encryption for your File Vault. It is always good to have no incompatibilities between your current version and the version you wish to upgrade to, as it lowers the risk of any failures that may occur. So it is best advised to disable File Vault before you start your upgrade to download Mavericks .

Once you’ve successfully upgraded, you can enable File Vault 2 by accessing System Preferences >> Security & Privacy pane of your Mac.

Disabling Third-Party Disk Encryption

The last thing you would need to do is to disable third-party disk encryption if you have installed any software on your current Mac. Security features like encryption play a key role in an upgrade so as was the case with File Vault, it is similarly advised to disable any 3rd party software that you’ve installed in order to enable disk encryption. Because many of these 3rd part software interact directly with your Mac at a system level (OS level), incompatibilities between the two Operating Systems can lead to unnecessary problems leading up to leaving you unable to boot your Mac computer or leaving you not able to access any of your data at all.

This is why disk encryption disabling is key before you run an OS upgrade on your Mac device. Once you’ve safely installed download Mavericks on your device and you’re satisfied with its performance you can once again seek 3rd party disk encryption software that is compatible with your new OS X download Mavericks and enable disk encryption. But my recommendation is the built-in disk encryption File Vault 2 provides advanced encryption features which are really enough for most users. So once you’ve upgraded to Mac OS X download Mavericks, you may need to think again whether you really want to install 3rd party software for disk encryption or whether File Vault 2 satisfies your requirements enough.