I should have mentioned that I have custom access also.

At this point, rather than upgrade to Mountain Lion, why not use Time Machine the way I suggested? If all else fails (apart from going to ML), you could reinstall Lion. It refers to 10.7.2 but the principle is the same. Then, use Software Update to get you up to speed.

Jon

macOS 11.7.10, iMac Retina 5K 27-inch, late 2014, 3.5 GHz Intel Core i5, 1 TB fusion drive, 16 GB RAM, Epson SureColor P600, Photoshop CC, Lightroom CC, MS Office 365