Well hello there. If you’re reading this, you’re either very interested in upgrading to OS X Lion, or someone who subscribes to my RSS Feed and has no idea what I’m talking about.

If you’re the former, welcome. If you’re the latter… well, you may want to skip this post.

Step One: Make sure you run system update before doing anything

There is a very, very important item you need to install: Migration Assistant Update for Mac OS Snow Leopard. Why? Well, here’s what Apple has to say:

This update addresses an issue with the Migration Assistant application in Mac OS X Snow Leopard that prevents transfer of your personal data, settings, and compatible applications from a Mac running Mac OS X Snow Leopard to a new Mac running Mac OS X Lion.

Important. Do this first, and thank me later.

Step Two: Don’t be a wang – make a bootable disk image of your current OS X install

Like the really large, all-caps text above says: please, don’t be a wang. I don’t want to hear you complaining that you messed something up because you didn’t follow these instructions. I’m trying to do you a favor and this is how you repay me? I digress.

I recommend the best app in the known universe for creating backups, Carbon Copy Cloner. Use other software at your own peril.

If you’re like me, and have a bus-powerd 640GB USB 2.0 drive, it may be helpful to take everything on that disk and place it into a new folder to contain the files. Why? Well, just in case something gets written over because it has the same name as a directory you’re copying over from your System Disk (Applications, Library, Users, et cetera). I’d err on the side of caution. Remember – this is just a temporary situation. You can always delete the system files after you feel comfortable with OS X Lion.

(I call my bus-powered drive Busdriver — not because I thought of a school bus, but because it spits hot fire.)

Step Three: Wait for apple to unleash Lion to the App Store

You’ve made your bootable disk. Now, you get to wait. And while you’re waiting, you may as well browse YouTube for that new Rebecca Black music video. Or make yourself a sandwich as you ponder just how racked Akamai will be serving Lion to everyone via the App Store.

EDIT: Lion is in the App Store!

Step Four: Make a OS X Lion Boot Disk

You’ll probably want to install Lion on other machines you own. I know that I do. My wife’s MacBook will need a copy, and waiting to download a new copy could take forever with all you fanboys slurping down precious bandwidth.

Fortunately, this is easy. MacRumors has a pretty straightforward guide. The gist:

• Once Lion is released, purchase and download it from the Mac App Store.
• Locate the OS X Lion installer and right-click on it. Select ‘Show Package Contents’.
• Inside the ‘Contents’ folder, there is a ‘SharedSupport’ folder. Inside that is the Lion Installer. It’s called ‘InstallESD.dmg”.
• Copy ‘InstallESD.dmg’ to the Desktop by clicking and dragging it while holding down the Option-key. You should see a little green plus icon if you did it right.
• Open Disk Utility. Head to the Go menu in the Finder and select ‘Utilities’. Disk Utility should be in there.
• Click the burn button.
• Select ‘InstallESD.dmg’ from the Desktop, insert a blank 4.7GB DVD and wait. Once it’s finished, you’ll have a shiny new Lion install DVD.

That’s it!

Enjoy OS X Lion!