The HD in there should definitely be replaced just due to age, and preferably replaced with an SSD so you can get some decent performance out of it.

but your information suggest that hard drive may be dying (or you're not used a nearly decade-old computer and how slow it will be by comparison to modern ones). You can then use that to wipe the hard drive and install a fresh, clean OS X install. To rehab that machine as much as you can, you can order a 10.6.8 Snow Leopard DVD from Apple for $20. Again basing my opinion on the scant information/speculation you've provided, and without knowing anything about how computer-savvy your mother is, it could certainly be made to run pretty well with some modest investments - but the machine is approaching obsolescence rapidly, and I think we agree that we don't want your mother to have a bad experience.

Let me be frank - unless you're not getting on particularly well with your mother, this would not be a good machine to give her. There are **17** models of Mac with that model number - can you not give us more data from the 'About this Mac' selection of the Apple Menu?Īssuming your guess is right about 2006-2007, it would be unlikely to go any farther than Lion (10.7.5), and may only be capable of using 3.3GB of RAM. I don't know how to do this for our A1181 macbook.Ĭan anyone advise me on what is the latest OS (Yosemite, Mountain Lion, 10.7, 10.8, 10.10, etc) that the A1181 is capable of running/installing and how I would install it? Are these OSX disks sold at the Apple store? And how I would go about wiping the hard drive clean and optimizing as I would a Windows computer by reinstalling the OS? Thank you so much for the help! I admit I have tons of experience with Windows, and to do something similar on Windows I would just reinstall Windows 7 from an OS boot disk/USB, and delete the system-old folder to start anew. I wish to completely wipe it clean and basically start the computer over from factory settings, as in re-install the operating system, clean-slate the hard drive, and optimize the computer to run at maximal speed (it's very sluggish right now). I've backed up ALL the possible files on it on an external hard drive and USB (documents, photos, music, school/homework files, etc). I want to refurbish it for my mom who wishes to use it. It was distributed by a college my sister attended, but the school did not require its students to return the laptops, so we kept it. If it helps: it is possibly the first of the Macbook line, all white, 13-inch, designated A1181. I have a Macbook A1181 model, possibly early 2007 or 2006 (I'm unable to tell except that it is A1181).

Macbook pro a1181 supported os