Install Snow Leopard without Leopard

I have a MacBook, which was running Leopard.
It got corrupted, and even I want to upgrade to Snow Leopard. So I purchased Snow Leopard Retail Box.
Now, I want to install Snow Leopard, but I cannot start Leopard. How can I perform clean install of Snow Leopard, without needing Leopard.
Videos Links are welcomed too.

Do you have the $29 Snow Leopard DVD or the $169 Boxed Set? If the former then do this:
Clean Install of Snow Leopard
Boot the computer using the Snow Leopard Installer Disc. Insert the disc into the optical drive and restart the computer. After the chime press and hold down the "C" key. Release the key when you see a small spinning gear appear below the dark gray Apple logo.
After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select the hard drive entry from the left side list (mfgr.'s ID and drive size.) Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window. Set the number of partitions to one (1) from the Partitions drop down menu, set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled, if supported), then click on the Partition button.
When the formatting has completed quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed with the OS X installation and follow the directions included with the installer.
When the installation has completed your computer will require a restart after which you will be running a fresh install of OS X. You can now begin the update process by opening Software Update and installing all recommended updates to bring your installation current.

Similar Messages

Can i install snow leopard on Macbook without using Time Machine?

Hi, I've backed up my files using SuperDuper and made 2 copies of my data on 2 usb sticks. Do I also need to use Time Machine to back up my files aswell, in order to update osx and install snow leopard?? If I've already got my 2 copies of my files on usb sticks, isn't that enough backing up? Any suggestions will be appreciated thanks!

aprilsviv wrote:
Thanks for answering, so did you manage to upgrade your mac with snow leopard without using time machine? I'd just like to make sure I'm doing the right thing.
To clear up some possible confusion, you don't need any backups (Time Machine or otherwise) to upgrade a Mac from an earlier OS version to Snow Leopard. To do that, just follow Apple's instructions to launch the "Install OS X" app on the Snow Leopard DVD, which upgrades the OS to Snow Leopard without changing your user settings, erasing or changing your user files, & so on. It is an easy process & generally works quite well.
The backup(s) are in case something goes wrong, which is unlikely but not impossible. You should regularly be backing up at least your important user files to an external device whether or not you upgrade ("important" meaning anything you can't afford to lose) since hard drives can fail without warning or other calamities might destroy some or all of the data on them.
At upgrade time, bootable clones like SuperDuper! makes are especially good insurance against any unforeseen upgrade problems: if something goes wrong you can just clone back to the internal drive & return to the pre-upgrade state, without having to hassle with installing anything.

How can I install Snow Leopard on my 15" MacBook Pro without using its DVD drive?

How can I install Snow Leopard on my 15" MacBook Pro without using its DVD drive?

I'm assuming your dvd drive is broken? if you have a thumb drive large enough (8GB or better), you can use another computer to make a bootable image from the install dvd to the thumb drive. then you can install from the the thumb drive.
Ihttp://www.maciverse.com/install-os-x-snow-leopard-from-usb-flash-drive.html
that's a step by step walkthrough.

My MacBook shuts down without warning. Recently installed snow leopard. Battery is fine. Any ideas?

My MacBook shuts down without warning. I recently installed Snow Leopard and increased my RAM/Memory. My battery is fine. When I took it to the Genius Bar and they ran a diagnostic, nothing showed up. It appeared fine and did not shut down during the time I was in the Apple Store. Of course, once I made the two-hour drive home, my computer shut down within two minutes of using it. Any ideas? Do I need a new computer? This one is about 5 years old.

Sounds like a buggerd battery chip. If the MacBook turns off at a certain percent all the time, then your battery's status chip is damaged and is (quite literally) lying to Mac OS X.
If it is actually hitting 0%, then temperature could be an issue or a there may be an issue with the battery itself.
My advice: you may need to get a new MacBook as a new battery for 2006-model MacBook may be hard to come by (and defintiely no warranty support from Apple).

Will it work to un-install Snow Leopard (booting from original disks) and then reinstall, then upgrade without erasing hard drive on iMac?

I have both a bootable backup exernal hard drive and the original system disks. I have read on these support pages that you cannot get snow leopard freshly installed without erasing the whole whole drive since the original installation disks are older than the current updated version. I have also read here that it is possible to get the system newly installed (though it's wise to have a back up of the rest of your files). I need to know which can work. Is there an un-install function after booting from a different source? If I can get the system filess off the main hard drive and then install Snow Leopard from my original disks, then go through the upgrades, and end up with the rest of my files intact, that would be wonderful. I have all the adobe design premium software on the system with their updates and would like to not spend hours and hours restoring it all. And since I don't know where all the little bits and pieces of the Adobe programs get installed, perhaps it won't work anyway?
thanks,
Kahty

I have read on these support pages that you cannot get snow leopard freshly installed without erasing the whole whole drive since the original installation disks are older than the current updated version.
That is incorrect. You can install an older version of the same OS over itself. With Snow Leopard and later, unless you intentionally select to erase the drive, the OS removes and replaces all remnants of the current OS and leaves all of your third party apps, personal files and settings intact.
I have also read here that it is possible to get the system newly installed (though it's wise to have a back up of the rest of your files).
That is the correct information.
Is there an un-install function after booting from a different source? If I can get the system files off the main hard drive and then install Snow Leopard from my original disks, then go through the upgrades, and end up with the rest of my files intact, that would be wonderful.
No, there is no way to remove just the OS files from a drive. At least, not in any manner you could call easy. There are thousands of hidden files and folders related to UNIX. Many apps won't even run correctly, or at all, if they're not on the same drive you are starting up to. So trying to separate your third party apps from the drive the OS is on is not a good idea.
I have all the adobe design premium software on the system with their updates and would like to not spend hours and hours restoring it all.
If your end goal is to simply get the contents of the external drive onto a new internal drive in a bootable form, you can use Disk Utility to clone the drive, or use one of two excellent third party apps; SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner.

Before I install snow leopard, I tried to move tiger into the external harddrive. My mac says it can't do because it is the OS X. So I installed snow leopard without removing tiger. After that, my computer often freezes. How can I remove tiger?

Before I install snow leopard, I tried to move tiger into the external harddrive. My mac says it can't do because it is the OS X. So I installed snow leopard without removing tiger. After that, my computer often freezes. How can I remove tiger? Or How can I prevent my mac from freezing?

McHagihara wrote:
Before I install snow leopard, I tried to move tiger into the external harddrive. My mac says it can't do because it is the OS X. So I installed snow leopard without removing tiger. After that, my computer often freezes. How can I remove tiger? Or How can I prevent my mac from freezing?
When you installed Snow Leopard, Tiger was replaced, leaving your programs and files intact.
What is causing your freezing problem is unknown, you can take Kappy's advice and remove everything, but you lose your files and free iLife programs that came with Tiger/new machine.
The 10.6.3 disk you "upgraded" with has the full 10.6.3 on it, but no free iLife suit, so a erase and install will remove what you already have installed.
You can try to locate your problem without the erase and install method by running through this list of fixes.
Step by Step to fix your Mac
But before you do anything, backup your personal data off the machine to a extenal drive and disconnect.
Most commonly used backup methods
Because if you have to follow Kappy's advice and wipe and install 10.6 fresh, it will cure your problem in nearly 99% of cases, but you have to rebuild everything. All programs and files.
How to erase and install Snow Leopard 10.6
If this is all too much for you, then STOP and call a local PC/Mac service or competant friend to assist you.
Yuo might need to install more RAM into the machine to make 10.6 run better as well.

Need help in installing Snow Leopard without DVD drive

Hi,
I have a White Macbook 2008 model with 2.1 ghz processor and 1 GB Ram. The dvd rom is not working in my machine. It spits out the dvd's 99 out of 100 times.
I need to upgrade from 10.5.8 to 10.6. Apple has sent me a single disk to install snow leopard.
I am not willing to invest in new dvd drive either internal or external. Needed help on ways to install snow leopard please apart from using the dvd option.
I do have a Firewire 400 cable but i do not know anybody anymore who has a mac machine with 400 port.
Hence the cable is also useless and i cannot connect to anyother macbook and do the install using their drive.
Please suggest.
Regards,
Rahul

There are no direct options. Find a friend with a Mac that has a working optical drive. Buy an 8GB USB flash drive. Partition and format it for the Mac then clone the mounted DVD to the flash drive. Take it back to your computer and boot from the flash drive.
Boot Using OPTION key:
1. Restart the computer.
2. Immediately after the chime press and hold down the
"OPTION" key.
3. Release the key when the boot manager appears.
4. Select the disk icon for the flash drive.
5. Click on the arrow button below the icon.

Installing Snow Leopard on New Internal SSD (without External drive)

All,
I have been searching and searching for a sufficient answer for this question, but have come up short thusfar. So any help or direction would be greatly appreciated.
Basically I have an early 2009 MacBook Air (RevB) with a 128 GB HDD (not SSD). It has been painfully slow the past few months, and with the move to SSD for the new Air's - I've decided to swap my older HD for a new 64GB RunCore SSD (using the online guide from iFixit). However, as the MacBook Air inherently has no DVD drive - and the new HD will completely blank and not allow for the DVD Sharing to take place, I'm a bit stuck.
Here's where the complication sets in - I do not have (and would really rather not purchase) an external Superdrive or external DVD drive just for this one process. However, I do have a MacBook Pro that I would like to use to install Snow Leopard onto the new blank internal SSD.
Finally, I would also like to install Snow Leopard cleanly (i.e. not cloning my existing MacBook Air HD first).
Therefore, my BIG question (in three parts is:
1) Can I install Snow Leopard onto the new internal SSD before I install the new SSD itself into the MacBook Air (i.e. the new internal SSD comes with an external enclosure to presumably allow for cloning prior to installation). Therefore, can I just install Snow Leopard from my MBP's Superdrive to the new SSD using the new SSD + Enclosure as an external HD?
2) When complete, and then installed in the MacBook Air, will the new internal SSD boot correctly?
3) Finally what formats should I go for (GUID, Journalled, etc.) - or is that not really applicable in this case?
Hopefully that all makes sense...?
And thanks in advance!
-Eddie

Okay just copied this from a tutorial on how to do it.
*OSX 10.6 method for bootable USB key install*
Insert your retail DVD into drive.
Plug in usb key. I recommend getting at least a 16gig drive so you don’t run into capacity issues.
Open Disk Utitlity. Locatied in Applocations/Utitilties/DiskUtitily.app
Partition the USB drive and select GUID in the options so it will be bootable on a Mac.
Select restore and drag the image of the DVD on the left into the input path.
Drag the USB drive into the destination drive.
Click the restore button.
Sit back and relax cause you will be waiting for about 20-30 mins for the key to be formatted properly.
Hope this helps

Install Snow Leopard without CD

Hi
I bought a Macbook pro, and the previous owner formatted the whole HD. So, there is no operating system anymore in there.
Now, i wanna install OS Lion and then upgrade to yosemite. But i have no CD for snow leopard. I saw i can order from store, but i dont wanna wait till they ship...
Is there any other possibility to be able to boot the macbook and install an OS?
They said from apple i can go to the genius bar, they will upgrade for free to yosemite and install me snow leopard. but i have to wait a week.
What can i do?
Thank u

Okay, that's what we needed to know. Your Mac came with Snow Leopard, 10.6.6. I guarantee you cannot install the retail 10.6.3 version of SL on that Mac. The version you need were on gray DVDs that came with the Mac, and were supposed to stay with it. If the seller no longer has them, you'll have to get replacement disks from Apple.
Call Apple customer support and let them know you need to purchase replacement OS disks. They will ask for the Mac's serial number to make sure you get the correct ones. Typically, there are two disks. Pretty much the machine specific version of the OS on the first disk, and all of the bundled software such as Garageband and such on the other. Expect to pay about $45 for the two disks.
After you finally get the disks and install Snow Leopard, you'll be able to create an App Store account. Then download and install Yosemite.

Can't install Snow Leopard on MacBook Pro - DVD won't mount

I am unable to install Snow Leopard on my MacBook Pro as the DVD won't mount. This is an early 2008 vintage MacBook Pro, intel core duo...
I'm using a OS X Snow Leopard install DVD (family licensed). This DVD has been used to install 3 other Macs in my house without a problem (about a year ago), but cannot be used to upgrade my MBP. Actually, this disk mounted on the MBP exactly once - inserted with system up, the disk mounted. Upon running the installed (a year ago), the computer restarted but hung in boot. After getting the disk ejected and the computer restarted, the disk would never mount again. I've defered upgrade for a year but at this point need to upgrade my MBP at least to Snow Leopard and possibly Lion.
The problem doesn't seem to be with the DVD, since it continues to mount fine in other computers, and in fact a borrowed Snow Leopard DVD also will not mount on the MBP.
BUT ... the problem also does not seem to be with the optical drive in my computer, as it can read & mount the install/restore disks that came with the computer as well as other CDs and DVD ROMs. Only the Snow Leopard install DVDs fail to mount.
I've also tried mounting the 10.6 install DVD on my Mac Pro desktop, making it available over the network (ethernet) with DVD/CD sharing. I can mount the remote disk from my MBP that way, but when I launch the installer, the application launches (its own menus are displayed, I can quit from menu, for example) but does nothing -- no windows open, nothing.
I've also tried "Remote Install" (again with the DVD made available with the Remote Install MacOS X application on my desktop), but when I boot the MBP with option held down, the remote disk is not available as a startup disk.
Zapping the PRAM did not help.
Am off to the store to get an optical drive cleaning kit and a blank DVD big enough to burn a new disk image, but would appreciate any further ideas at this point....

Solution that worked: Copy the Install DVD to a USB flash drive and boot from that.
http://www.maciverse.com/install-os-x-snow-leopard-from-usb-flash-drive.html
Up and running with Snow Leopard now and working on the updates.

Problem installating Snow Leopard on old Macbook Pro with Intel Core 2 Duo. After creating partition on internal hard disk (Extended Journaled), installation starts but stops at half of the progress bar. Screen asking Restart appears.

Hello:
I have tried installing Snow Leopard via the installation disc on a Macbook Pro (2007) with an Intel Core 2 Duo, but I the installation has failed more than 5 times.
I have first formatted and partitioned the internal hard disk with Mac Os Extended Journal format.
Once the installation starts, it starts without a problem unti lthe progress bar gest until half completed then a screen asking for a Computer Restart shows up.
It asks to press the power button for some time until it the computer shuts down and then, press again to turn it on.
Once turned on, the installation disc gets readed, the installation screen appears again and asks again to start the whole installation process form the beginning.

Then you have a Hardware Problem.
Your system is Crashing part way through the install and Re-Booting because of the crash.
Could be the drive itself or it could be some other hardware part in your system. Like the RAM.
To check if it is the internal drive connect an External drive to the system by USB and do the install on that external. If the install completes then it more then likely the drive is bad. If it crashes again then it is more then likely some other piece of hardware in your system.

HP Officejet 7410 All-In-One Doesn't work after installing Snow Leopard

installed Snow Leopard yesterday ....my HP 7410 printer doesn't work properly ....take a look at the response the HP Service Center gave me:
+Hello Charles,+
+Thank you for contacting HP Total Care.+
+I understand from your email that you want the 'HP Officejet 7410 All-in-One Printer' software driver for 'MAC OS X 10.6'.+
+I appreciate for the opportunity to assist you.+
+*Charles, I regret to inform you that the unit does not support the operating system. I recommend you change the OS to Microsoft Windows to avail the unit software driver.*+
+I will be more than happy to assist you when you change the OS.+
+For information on keeping your HP and Compaq products up and running, please visit our Web site+
at:
+http://www.hp.com/go/totalcare+
Sincerely,
Sentinaro
+HP Total Care+
+Our advice is strictly limited to the question(s) asked and is based on the information provided to us. HP does not assume any responsibility or liability for the advice given and shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, special, incidental or consequential damages in connection with the use of this information. Always back upyour data.+
+For more information, including technical information updates, please visit our Web site at http://www.hp.com/support.+
+HP does not require you to send any financial data in your reply to this email. As a prudent reminder, do not insert credit card details or other financial information in any e-mail replies.+

Help! I've spent hours researching this and can't find a solution...
I upgraded 3 Intel Macs in the house to Snow Leopard last weekend. All went differently...but all were successful. I found that the connection to my HP Officejet 7410 (connected wirelessly to 802.11g Airport Express (AEX) network) was "broken". Deleted then "re-intalled". Documents could now be printed. I then found out scan function was "broken". Figured out how to scan with new Snow Leopard "baked-in" driver and Scan tab...different, but it worked.
Then, tonight, on the eve of my birthday, I was given the green light to purchase an Airport Extreme 802.11n (dual-band) base station (AEBS). I set it up and got 2.5X speed on the two 802.11n laptops in the household. Glorious! Then I went to work to ensure print and scan functions were still operational. Tried to re-connect HP OJ 7410 to wireless network...when it found the network it asked for the "WEP" key (on previous AEX network I was secured utilizing WPA2/Personal)...I entered the WPA2/Personal password (same as previous network) and got the error message "Key must be 5 or 13 characters OR 10 or 26 length with 0-9 and A-F (hex)". So I turned off the wireless radio and instead plugged the 7410 into the AEBS via USB. Deleted the previous queue and re-installed. Found the printer no problem but now without the Scan tab or function anywhere...despite following all the recommendations found both on the HP site and here in the Apple Forums. I print fine. Can't for the life of me figure out what the problem with the now lost again Scan function is.
Only strangeness I can think of is the following: When setting up the network(s), I had the option of naming the 5 ghz band something different. I set mine up with the same name of the 2.4 ghz network with 5ghz in parenthesis (i.e. BobbyG and BobbyG (5 Ghz)).
Sorry for the long post but we need the scan function in the house for my wife's teaching purposes. Any assistance would be GREATLY appreciated.
Very Respectfully,
Bobby G.

Can I install Snow Leopard on a new partition on a Macbook Pro (Late 2011)?

I need to get Pro Tools 9 up and running again after I migrated from PC to Mac, but I know that Pro Tools 9 doesnt work with Lion.. I dont have the money to upgrade to PT10 so my thought was to go downgrade to Snow Leopard to get it working. But I dont want to leave Lion, so my question is if I can make a new partition and install Snow Leopard on the new partition and have both OSs bootable?
The guy in the store I bought my mac from said Snow Leopard probably wouldnt play nice with the mac since its adapted to Lion but I dont trust people that get money for preaching about the constant need for "the latest". So I thought I'd ask the experts instead, so here I am! What do you guys think?

theoretically, it should work - but the guy at the Apple Store is correct....computers that ship with the latest operating system do not support being downgraded.
You might not get past the spinning beach ball & gray screen if you try to boot from the Snow Leopard install disc.
It's worth a shot though if you want to try it. Just don't try to 'downgrade' the current Lion installation back to Snow Leopard. Try instead to create a new partition specifically for Snow Leopard. Disk Utility - select the top HD (probably reads Hitachi something)...select it, click on the Partition tab. Select the top partition, and you should then be able to see the + so you can add a new partition. I would probably make it about 20GB give or take depending on how much space you think you will need - but i believe the Snow Leopard installation by itself takes up around 8-10GB.
Once this partition is created, insert your Snow Leopard installation disc, restart the computer and hold the C key down to start from the install disc. When it walks you through the steps for installation, select the newly created Snow Leopard partition. Install. Be sure to go through all the Software Updates (numerous times) after the installation is done.
You can select which startup disc you want to boot from by holding the Option button down at startup until you see the gray startup manager that shows your Lion partition, Recovery Disc partiton, and your Snow Leopard partition.
If for whatever reason this doesn't work, simply just erase the partition. It likely will not work but you should be able to just erase that newly created partition without any other problems.

Can't Install Snow Leopard on new drive

I'm having a relatively serious problem with upgrading my hardware. I have a Mac Pro tower with an empty HD slot into which I installed a new drive which mounts properly.
My plan was to simply move everything from the old hard drive to the new one, using Disk Utility's "Restore" function.
That seemed to work fine, but when I restarted and attempted to switch startup disks, selecting the new drive caused an immediate kernel panic (the grey screen saying "You need to restart your computer") which was preceeded momentarily by some very strange dos-like text in the upper left hand corner of the screen.
So after several attempts, I gave up and tried to simply install snow-leopard on the new drive. That never even got started. While the snow leopard installer would happily install the OS on any of my external drives that had enough free space, the new drive (despite the fact that it was mounted on the system) would not even show up in the list of drives to select in the Snow Leopard installer.
I checked the formatting of the drive, and it seems to be the same as both my current startup disk, and the external drive that the OS could be installed on.
How can I move my entire system to this new drive without causing instant kernel panics? Thanks in advance for any help!
Cheers,
Ari

Interesting. Yes, I think that is what macjack had in mind. However, after doing what macjack said, your drive would be erased Mac OS X extended (journaled), and, after shutting down disk utility, you could just continue the install you would have started. At the end of the install, you could restore your files, data, settings, and apps from your other drive. The choice, of course is yours. If I were doing it, I would perfer the first alternative.

Can't Install Snow Leopard on MacBook Pro 2010 15"

Recently my computer has stopped working for one reason or another (i had windows in bootcamp and i removed it, then my Mac OSX lion began playing up). I wiped my disk hoping to install Mac OSX Snow Leopard from the origional disk, and then later windows. I partitioned the disk, installed windows (without the drivers) and then attempted to install Snow Leopard. However, partway through the install (not very far) it just stops and says it cannot instal. A time machine backup with previously worked now does no work and prodices a huge error report. My goal is just to completely wipe my computer and start a fresh with Snow Leopard. Can anyone help?

I've done that, ive reformatted the disk lots of times, but every time it fails on the install.

Install Snow Leopard without Leopard

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for