Can't install Snow Leopard on Mac Mini with 10.5.8.

I'm trying to install an upgrade copy of Snow Leopard from Apple on my Mac Mini running 10.5.8. I bought this system used and the volume says ";" and the error log code is 21. Seems it can't find valid softward ID to continue or the path is different. Not sure where to go with this.

If your mini meets the specifications for Snow Leopard (an intel processor and 1GB or more of memory)
then go here to buy snow leopard
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC573Z/A
It's possible that the upgrade disk you have is specific to particular Mac models.

Similar Messages

Can I install Snow Leopard on Mac Mini Server hardware?

What I would like to do is buy the Mac Mini Server but I don't need the server OS. I want the desktop OS on the Mac Mini Server. Will installing Snow Leopard on the server hardware be just like installing it on a regular Mac Mini?
Or should I just wait and see how Lion shakes out?

Thanks Indy, I already had proceeded the installation according your tip. Just an objection related to the updates: I was able to install the OS updates only while in target mode, as when I made 2 attempts to update the version 10.6.6 to the current one (10.6.7 - the combo one and the MBP version too) it was not permitted. I had to plug the FW cable into the MBP again and update the Mini's OS (using the special MBP version of 10.6.7) in target disc mode. I want to use the Mini as a media server and intend to install Windows 7 on the other HD which now hosts the server OS. However, according to one poster (Sven G) there are some problems (I don't know exactly what they are) related to Boot Camp software. Have you any information about these problems?
I have maintained both OS (standard and server) living side by side on the Mini, is there any problem with that?
Again many thanks, you were succinct, right to the point, and your tip just proved itself correct.
Cheers
Marola

Install snow leopard on mac mini with broken DVD Drive

I want to upgrade the OS on my mac mini but the hard drive keeps kicking out the disk - I read that I "might" be able to fix this by using a DVD cleaner but I am not overly optimistic about this fix. I have an external USB drive and a Windows PC to work with so I am wondering if I can use the DVD drive of the PC to copy the install disks to the external drive and then perform the instal from the external drive. I have been reading posts and can find advice on how to copy the Leopard install discs using another Mac or by using the remote disk feature - but since I don't have another Mac, these are not currently options.
Thanks

1. Clean your drive and reset the > PRAM, then try upgrading with the Mac Mini's drive.
2. Try out that external USB DVD drive, some will work if they are not OS X compatible.
3. Your PC might work, see > DVD or CD sharing: Using Remote Disc

Need help installing snow leopard on mac mini 10.5.8 intel based

I need help need help installing snow leopard on mac mini 10.5.8 intel based so if u kno how pls message me thanks
<Email Edited by Host>

You need to purchase the upgrade disk (it is a DVD). Then just put it in and run the installer. When it was first released it was $29 USD, do not know if the price has changed or not.
The usual precautions about backing up your data apply. In fact I would recommend either making a Disk Image of your current boot drive or using something like Carbon Copy Cloner to copy it to an external drive. I upgraded 5 machines from Leopard to Snow Leopard without any issues, but better to be safe than sorry.

Installing Snow Leopard on Mac Mini Server

I recently purchased a 1Tb 4Gb Mac Mini Server, running Snow Leopard Server. I want to use it as a central repository for my other macs: storing music, movies, backup, screen sharing (it's hooked up to my 32-inch TV) but I also want to be able to run Logic Pro, Ableton Live, etc. I also have a Macbook Pro running Snow Leopard Client, which contains all of my programs, plugins, data, etc. I realize that Snow Leopard Server does not have migration assistant, so I have tried to install a retail copy of Snow Leopard onto the secondary drive, but when it gets to the restart stage it crashes every time. I think this is a firmware issue, because the Mac Mini has a different hardware configuration to other macs. I do not have access to the mid-2010 Snow Leopard Client for Mac Mini which would allow me to install Client and use migration assistant from there. What I would like to know is:
1/ Can I manually migrate my plugins/settings/programs to the server? If so, how? What is most crucial (and what I don't understand) is copying my audio units and audio programs (e.g. Logic Pro, Pro Tools). Because of the firmware issue, it seems more difficult than cloning my MacBook Pro to a time machine HDD and running from there... I would really like to purely clone my MacBook Pro, because I am very happy with the way it is set up.
2/ Should I just wait for OSX Lion (July/August) which seems to be a combined server/client os, install that on both machines and run migration assistant from there?
3/ Is there another method I can use? Something I am overlooking?
Thanks in Advance.

Thanks for your reply. I talked to the Apple Support again and they told me the server edition could only be used on that OS and if I wanted to use it as something else I could chose not to use the server applications, or buy a regular Mac mini. And that was all they said. Interesting since it was one of their sales persons who told me I could install Snow Leopard.
Anyway, I got hold of a client disc and it all worked like a charm.

Can't install snow leo on mac mini

I want to upgrade my mac mini from leopard to snow leopard with the install disc that came with my imac i5.
mac mini specs : 1,83 GHz intel core 2 duo
2 GB 667 MHz ddr2 sd ram
GMA 950 gfx card
500 GB HDD with 245 GB free
According to apples system specs i should be able to install snow leopard on this machine but i get a message when attempting to install that snow leo can't be installed on this system?
I tried this via disc in finder and via push c at startup,both give same warning.
What other options are there?How to install snow leo then?

Hi Red_viking;
Yes that is true. The DVD that comes with a Mac is set up specifically for that Mac and can not be used on another.
Allan

Can I install Snow Leopard on my Macbook with a Windows-formatted Hard Drive?

Well my macbook's screen broke and I need to wipe the data off my hard drive. I popped my hd out and deleted the partition using my PC. Formatted it with NTFS and proceeded to secure wipe it by using One Pass Zero technique. If i got my macbook screen on it, will I be able to freshly install a Snow Leopard on the hard drive?

Hi,
If your NTFS volume was formatted under a GUID partition, this drive should be selected as a valid destination during a Snow Leopard Install from the DVD.
Cheers

How can i install snow leopard on my mac G5 using a command line and booting from an external usb rom, since my disk i have is not a bootable media

How can i install snow leopard on my mac G5 using a command line and booting from an external usb rom, since my disk i have is not a bootable media

Hi.
You simply can't. Snow Leopard is compiled in Intel binary only.
Good Luck.

Can't install Snow Leopard on a MacBook

Hi guys...
A friend of mine brought me his Macbook to fix it because the hard drive was making sounds and now won't boot.
The drive in fact is bad, it barely mount, makes noises, etc.
I've replaced the internal hard drive for a Toshiba 320gb SATA 3.
The thing is that apparently the DVD doesn't recognize my drive and of course, i can't install Snow Leopard.
My question is, is this a problem with the new drive?. I believe that being a SATA3 could be causing the problem.
Second question... Can i install Snow Leopard (somehow) using my Mac mini?
Thanks so much and i hope you can help me.
Regards.
Francisco.

Hi!!
>I've used another internal hard drive and installs correctly<
Using the DVD installer?
Yes
So it boots with another hard drive in there but ejects when you put the Toshiba in there?
Yes but it only make sense if the DVD would create a temporary partition or something in order to install the OS.
>Could it be that the drive is SATA3? <
Even so it would be downwards compatible.
I though so too
>or maybe the hd is bad?<
That would make more sense.
I'm going to clone the installation that went OK in order to see if it's actually my internal drive the problem.
Could it be the manufacturer?
Thanks so much and i'll let you know.
Regards.
Francisco.

Can I install Snow Leopard now?

I previously asked a similar question, but can I install Snow Leopard 10.6.3 in a VM, update it to 10.6.8, and then copy files to a partition on my hard drive? I have 10.6.3 retail version. (mid 2011 iMac)

How To Run Snow Leopard On A New Mac
This does not apply to new Mac Minis or MacBook Airs. When newer models are introduced that also require Lion for hardware support, the techniques described below will no longer work with the possible exception of using Parallels 7.
What has to be done:
1. Create a new partition on the hard drive.
2. Get a clone of a 10.6.8 Snow Leopard system. Put the cloned Snow Leopard
        system onto the new partition.
Step One: Create a new partition on the hard drive
To resize the drive and create a new partition do the following:
1. Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the
               COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart
               the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until
               the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the
               downward pointing arrow button.
          After the main menu appears select Disk Utility and click on the Continue button. Select the hard drive's main entry then click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
2. You should see the graphical sizing window showing the existing partitions. A portion may appear as a blue rectangle representing the used space on a partition.
3.           In the lower right corner of the sizing rectangle for each partition is a resizing gadget. Select it with the mouse and move the bottom of the rectangle upwards until you have reduced the existing partition enough to create the desired new volume's size. The space below the resized partition will appear gray. Click on the Apply button and wait until the process has completed. (Note: You can only make a partition smaller in order to create new free space.)
4.           Click on the [+] button below the sizing window to add a new partition in the gray space you freed up. Give the new volume a name, if you wish, then click on the Apply button. Wait until the process has completed.
You should now have a new volume on the drive.
It would be wise to have a backup of your current system as resizing is not necessarily free of risk for data loss. Your drive must have sufficient contiguous free space for this process to work.
Step Two: Obtain a clone of a Snow Leopard system:
You will need access to a Mac already running Snow Leopard. You will need a 16 GB USB flash drive or an external hard drive to which you can clone the Snow Leopard system from the Mac that has Snow Leopard installed. Alternatives are:
Option One:
Install a new Snow Leopard system onto a USB flash drive. Boot the Mac used for installing with the USB flash drive. Update the flash drive system to 10.6.8 using the Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1 to update Snow Leopard. Verify that you can boot the Mac with the USB flash drive.
Take the USB flash drive to your new Mac and try booting from it. If it works then clone the system from the flash drive to the newly made partition:
          Clone using Restore Option of Disk Utility
1. Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
4. Check the box labeled Erase destination.
5. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination
      entry field.
6. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
7. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the new partition on the internal drive. Source means the USB
flash drive.
Option Two:
If you have a large enough external drive you can erase and use, then it would be easier to just clone the entire Snow Leopard system from the source Mac computer to the external drive.
          Clone using Restore Option of Disk Utility
1. Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
4. Check the box labeled Erase destination.
5. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination
      entry field.
6. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
7. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the external drive. Source means the Snow Leopard Mac's
internal drive.
After cloning verify that it will boot the source Mac. If so then take the external drive to your new Mac boot with it. If all is well then restore the clone to the new partition on your new Mac:
          Restore the clone using Disk Utility
1. Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
4. Check the box labeled Erase destination.
5. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination
      entry field.
6. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
7. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the new partition on the internal drive. Source means the external drive.
You will need a retail copy of Snow Leopard. If you need to purchase Snow Leopard contact Customer Service: Contacting Apple for support and service. The price is $29.00 plus tax. You will receive physical media - DVD - by mail.

Can't install snow leopard on partition after upgrading to lion

I rushed out too early to install Lion via Apple Apps store. Now, I realize that Rosetta is gone and so are my options to use older apps. As I was reading on the web and Apple Support, I have tried various things and get a window saying that I can't install snow leopard.
I have never partition my hard drive, but using disk utility I created a partition called "Snow Leopard." It divided my HD in half which is okay. I closed the disk utility window, rebooted holding down the "C" key, and saw the OS X Install DVD. When I select it a window pops up saying, "You can't use this version of the appl inst Mac OS X with this version of Mac OS X. You have installed Mac OS X 23.1.1."
Before downloading lion, I made a backup of my existing HD using Time Machine to an external HD. When I open up a saved version dated a month ago, I see that the applications that were working in snow leopard now have the icon circle saying that it is not supported by lion. This is strange since I used Time Machine to back up my HD, then turned off the app before downloading lion. Even older versions saved on the external HD show the circle.
I read about lion and the "Recovery HD," but when I hold down the Command-R key nothing happens when I restart my computer. It also talks about using the option key but that does not work. It talks about reinstalling lion using this system, but I don't see it working.
How can I install snow leopard on my new partition, then I would go to "Software Updates," to get the latest version, or use one of the versions on my external HD to have both operating system.
Thanks,
DaisyMay

Hi Scottiemn,
As I was trying different things to make a partition on my HD, I made notes as to what I did, and I finally got it to work. I will try to explain what I did.
Before installing “Lion,” I backed up Snow Leopard using Time Machine to my external Seagate HD. I installed “Lion,” and found out that I could not use some of my old apps, so I did the following.
Since I am running “Lion,” I opened up disk utility and selected my MacHD (1TB), then I selected partition, and it showed “Macintosh HD” under the partition information name. I believe I selected the plus, + and it divided my HD space in half, and I named it Snow Leopard.
I then installed the Snow Leopard DVD, and restarted my computer holding down the “C” key, I held it down for about 30 seconds or more and then took my finger off of the key. As I waited I finally saw that I was on the install DVD, and on the top menu bar I saw “Utilities.” I had my external Seagate HD mounted on my desk top before I restarted my computer, I selected the “Utilities,” on the menu bar and it gave me the option to back up from Time Machine, I selected my external Seagate HD to the newly created partition I named Snow Leopard and I said “Yes.” I followed the instructions and after it was done, I went to the menu bar and selected System Preferences, System, Startup Disk, and selected to start up with Snow Leopard. On my desktop, I can see two Hard Drives, one is Macintosh HD with “Lion,” and the other is Snow Leopard.
Then, I started up my computer and I was on the Snow Leopard partition and I saw all of my apps working. I then went back to the menu bar and selected System Preferences, System, Startup Disk, and selected to start up with “Lion,” and restarted my computer and I was running “Lion.”
I am not sure why I was not able to use the DVD of SL before, but somehow I got it to work, and I hope that I have explained what I did above.
One thing, when I installed “Lion,” from the app store, I did not make a bootable DVD of the application. I went back to the app store and downloaded “Lion” again and kept it in the dock until I got Snow Leopard to work. I burned a DVD of “Lion,” and so I have a backup of it.
Since my Seagate HD has only 250 GB of space and it is an EIDE HD 7,200 rpm using an OWC Mercury Elite FW400/USB2 with the Oxford chipset 911 enclosure which I bought in 2008, I decided that since I now have my 27 inch iMac quad core i5 with 1TB that I needed a larger hard drive.
I researched the web and decided to go back to OWC and just bought a 2.0TB OWC Mercury Elite Pro “Quad Interface” 64MB with eSATA/FW800/FW400/USB2.0 with 7,200 rpm speed for $219.00. I partitioned it for Time Machine, and Carbon Copy Cloner.
I ran Time Machine, and both partitions “Lion, and Snow Leopard” are on the Time Machine partition and both HD’s are under the Carbon Copy Cloner.
I am self taught on my many iMac’s over the years, and I go to the forums to ask questions and follow the helpful hints to resolve my problems. I carefully try different things and write down what I did so I don’t repeat things.
I hope that I have explained what I did, and hopefully it will work for you.
When I want to run SL, I select in the System Preferences to start up from that disk, when I want to run Lion, I go back and select that and start up my computer running Lion.
Since I have many old apps that Rosetta uses to open them up in SL I wanted to keep that operating system. I will go back now that I have everything working and see if I really need them. I won’t rush to remove my SL partition that I created, but in time if I don’t need the older apps then I may clean out my system and just run Lion.
I run Lion now all of the time, but when I need to go back to SL, I now have the option.
Good Luck,
DaisyMay

How can i install snow leopard together with lion, on a Lion based MacBook Pro ultimo 2011

Hi
How can I install Snow Leopard on a Lion Based MacBook Pro ultimo 2001. I will both have installed Snow Leopard and Lion on my computer, but how can i do that?
I have purchaded Snow Leopard, but I can installed it
Pls can anyone help me
Best regards and merry christmas
Robert

Apple figures that having supported PowerPC code for the last 6 years is enough so they dropped it.
Why should they have to support some that old forever? It doesn't make good business sense to support some that so few will use.
If you must play those games, my suggestion is to get an older Mac that will support PowerPC. It is going to be a difficult task to get Snow Leopard to run on a new Mac.
Allan

After installing a new hard drive can I install snow leopard directly from snow leopard disc

After installing a new hard drive can I install snow leopard directly from snow leopard disc. Or do I have to install previous versions first. iMac 7.1 (2007) 2.8ghz

You can install directly, assuming the disk is newer than your computer and not designed for a different Mac, but doing so won't install iLife.
(64305)

I have a new time capsule, want to use it in conjunction with iMac G5 and MacBook; laptop runs Snow Leopard but G5 can't install Snow Leopard, is stuck at OS 10.4.11. Am I doomed? Can anyone advise me? Thanks..

I have a new Time Capsule, want to use it in conjunction with an iMac G5 and a MacBook. MacBook runs Snow Leopard, but G5 (lacking Intel processor) can't install Snow Leopard, is stuck at OS 10.4.11. Am I doomed? Will appreciate any advice. Thanks.

you should still be able to get a copy of Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard), which should run on your G5.

Can I install Snow Leopard in my new 2013 iMac???

Hello:
Can I install Snow Leopard in my new iMac (2013)?
Or will have problems with drivers of new iMac???
Maverick is a potato!!! 200 New features but 200 or 300 lost features too !!!
Thanks.
Joseba

Free updates to Pages and Numbers are available from the App Store. Sharing your iPhoto Library is another matter, discussed in iPhoto for Mac.

Can't install Snow Leopard on Mac Mini with 10.5.8.

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