Can't run Snow Leopard from CD drive

I just bought a second hand mac pro 5,1 (mid 2010) with no hard drives and no installation CDs.
I bought a 120GB Samsung EVO SSD. I am waiting on an IcyDock to connect the SSD to hard drive bay 1.
In the meantime I'm using an extention sata cable to connect the SSD to the motherboard (HDD bay 1) and powering it via a power adapter to sata power.
I've formatted the SSD using my 2008 iMac to extended (journaled).
I've inserted my Snow Leopard disc (that I bought years ago) into the optical drive restarted the mac holding c to boot from CD.
I hear the disc spinning, the white background with gray apple logo appear but nothing happens. The disc stops spinning. Background stays.
Am I doing anything wrong?
Does the macpro side door have to be closed?
I've contacted apple about needing the original installer discs and they said I could just buy Snow Leopard and use that. I already own it.
Another symptom: If I unattach the SSD and restart the mac holding the mouse button on, the DVD drive doesn't open. It only opens with the SSD attached.

While you're waiting:
Install Snow Leopard into a new partition on your 2008 iMac.
Upgrade it to 10.6.8.
Clone it.
Restore your clone to your SSD for your MacPro.
Install the SSD into your MacPro.
Boot it up!

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Can't boot snow leopard from external drive

I have a copy of snow leopard installed on a separate usb hard drive which I use to run some PowerPC programmes under rosetta. I can attach this USB drive to my Mac Pro and also to an Intel Macbook and choose to start up on this external drive without any issues. However when I try restarting my new 2011 iMac on this external usb drive the machine crashes every time with a kernal panic. Is this problem unique to me or does everyone else have this issue with new iMacs. Mine is a 27" 3.4ghz i& with 12ghb ram installed running 10.72. Is their soemthing I can do to resolve this problem?

I have now solved the problem of being able to boot from either Snow Leopard or Lion on a new Mid 2011 iMac. This is how I did it.
1. Attach an external USB drive to an earlier Mac or borrow one from a friend. In my case I used my 2009 Unibody Macbook (which has Lion installed on it but does allow you to install Snow Leopard on an attached device) Put the Snow Leopard install disc in this machine and tell it to install Snow Leopard on your attached USB Drive.
2. Start up the Macbook (or whatever machine you are using) and get it to restart on the attached USB drive so that it boots up in Snow Leopard. Then when Snow Leopard is up and running on the attached external drive, do a software update to bring it up to 10.68 (the current version). This step is important as I found that if I plugged in the external USB drive into the iMac with only operating system 10.6 installed it would cause a kernal panic on start up when I choose to start up on the external USB drive.
3. With Snow Leopard updated to system 10.68 you can now plug it into your iMac and restart the iMac booting into Snow Leopard from the external USB drive. You do this by either going to System Preferences>Startup disk and choosing the external drive, or by holding down the option key when you restart your Mac and choosing the external USB drive.
4. The next step is to make your iMac dual boot now that you know it can run Snow Leopard successfully from an external USB drive. To do this, go into Utilities>Disk Utility and select your main drive. Select the main disk (with Lion on it) and then choose Partition and choose 2 Partitions. Drag the first partition bundary line down to make the second partition size as small as possible. In my case I had a stock 1TB drive and the smallest partition size it would allow me was 70gb. Create the second partition (assuming you have spare space on your drive to allow this to happen). This will then create a second hard drive icon on your desktop. I renamed mine "Snow Leopard startup".
5. Download the free (and excellent) utility Carbon Copy Cloner and use it to copy your Snow Leopard operating sytem from your attached USB external drive to your new partition.
6. That's it! Now you can choose to start up your iMac from either Lion or Snow Leopard using either method mentioned in 3 above.
7. As a final step I suggest your install your Rosetta only programmes in your new Snow Leopard partition so that you can access them easily and keep them all together.

Can't boot Snow Leopard from USB drive made in Yosemite

Hi all,
I have a brand new macbook pro running Yosemite, but some of the software I have will only run in Snow Leopard.
Running Snow Leopard as a Virtual Machine has been clunky, so I wanted to try an alternative and install Snow Leopard onto an external HD and work from that.
I got hold of the Snow Leopard dmg file and created a bootable USB thumb drive (I did this within Yosemite) to try to install it onto the external HD. I used the instructions here:
http://www.maciverse.com/installing-snow-leopard-onto-an-external-hard-drive.htm l
But when I restart the computer and try and boot from the USB drive, I just get the grey background with dark grey apple symbol, indefinitely. The installation process never commences.
What am I not doing right?
Thanks in advance for any insights.

You can only do what you are trying from a model that can be booted into Snow Leopard. You have a 2014 model that can only be booted by Mavericks or Yosemite. You cannot run Snow Leopard on your machine except in a VM or a Mac from 2010 or earlier.

Running Snow Leopard from External Hard Drive

I have some teacher software that lion won't run. It was suggested to me to run snow leopard from an external hard drive. I have an external WD hardrive for mac. Can someone share with me on how to do it?
Thanks!

Have a look here
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1948

How can i run snow leopard and leopard in my mac?

how can i run snow leopard and leopard in my mac?

First, your Mac model must be able to run Leopard. Second, you would have to partition your hard drive to create a second volume then install Leopard on the new volume using a Leopard installer DVD.

Can i run snow leopard on macbook pro puchased new in 2009?

Can I run snow leopard on macbook pro purchased new in 2009?

The Snow Leopard 10.6 DVD should still be available at this time from Apple for $20. You will have to call Apple Customer Care 1-800-692-7753 or 1-800-676-2775 to purchase it. It may still be in the Legacy Products list. The App Store which is required to download 10.7 Lion or 10.8 Mountain Lion is part of the 10.6.6 update.
If you wait to long and they no longer have any in stock you will have to buy it from eBay or Apple resellers that still have stock. But you will have to pay a premium since the DVDs are no longer being made. Snow Leopard DVDs are already over $100 on Amazon.
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=10.6+snow+leopard&_sacat=0&_odkw=mac+os+10.6 &_osacat=0

I have a new MacBook Pro with Lion installed and I want to know if I can partition the HD so that I can install & run Snow Leopard OS 10.6.8?

I have a new MacBook Pro with Lion installed and I want to know if I can partition the HD so that I can install & run Snow Leopard OS 10.6.8?

Most likely won't run SL unless it's one that was released before Lion went public. Color SL gone from new Macs.
27" i7 iMac 10.6.8 , Mac OS X (10.7.2), G4 450 MP 1.5 GB RAM w/(10.5.8/10.4.11/9.2.2)

Can not run Snow Leopard in 64 bit

Hi there,
I recently bought the Snow Leopard OS for my iMac 2007/2008 model.
Here are the specks on my iMac:
Model Name: iMac
Model Identifier: iMac7,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2,4 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 4 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Bus Speed: 800 MHz
Boot ROM Version: IM71.007A.B03
SMC Version (system): 1.20f4
My question is, how is it that I can not run Snow Leopard in 64 bit – it is an Core2Duo which to my understanding is also an 64 bit processor.
To add to my confusion I’m running the Windows 7 64 bit version on the same iMac via VMware-fusion.
Had some help on this issue before, where this mac-person found an small program on the internet that is suppose to analyse and change some settings so it runs 64 bit - but my model was not supported by some odd reason.
Is here anyone that can reply on my question??
Thanks
Arni

Welcome to Apple Discussions.
I have to admit I'm a little confused. I don't believe your iMac is a Core 2 Duo. The only Core 2 Duo in 2007 was the mid 2007 24" 2.8 GHz processor, all other 2007 iMacs are 32 bit. I would recommend going to this site to see what the specifications are for your machine, simply type in the SN and it will let you know.
http://www.appleserialnumberinfo.com/Desktop/index.php
Regards,
Roger

Can I run Snow Leopard on the new iMac

Apple is warrantying me a new iMac because I have had many problems with my current machine. It's a late 2008 Intel Core 2 Duo 2.66 Ghz machine that I have been running Snow Leopard 10.6.8 on. I have a lot of software that runs on Snow Leopard.
They will be replacing it with a new 21.5 inch iMac running Mountain Lion which will be released in the next week or two. My plan was to partition the hard drive, keep part of it for my current Snow Leopard and gradually migrate over to Mountian Lion.
Alas, they have told me that the new machines will not run Snow Leopard at all so partitioning is out of the question but that I can set up a "Virtual Computer" that will allow me to run Snow Leopard within the Mountain Lion Structure. This will allow me to still use my older software in a setup not unlike the Classic system that the early OSX used. The tech told me I would have to get some 3rd party software to do this but was not much more helpful.
Im looking for some specific info on what I need to do to keep my Snow Leopard viable on my new machine while I gradually migrate over to Mountain Lion.
thanks,
Rob

Here is a post that I assembled for a similar question:
Unfortunately you got caught up in the minor miracle of Rosetta. Originally licensed by Apple when it migrated from the PowerPC CPU platform that it had used from the mid-1990's until the Intel CPU platform in 2006, Rosetta allowed Mac users to continue to use their library of PPC software transparently in emulation.
However, Apple's license to continue to use this technology expired with new releases of OS X commencing with Lion (and now Mountain Lion). While educational efforts have been made over the last 6 years, the fact is that Rosetta was SO successful that many users were caught unaware UNTIL they upgraded to Lion or Mountain Lion.
Workarounds:
1. If your Mac will support it, restore OS X Snow Leopar - not available on the newest iMac;
2. If your Mac will support it, partition your hard drive or add an external hard drive and install Snow Leopard into it and use the "dual-boot" method to choose between your PowerPC software or Lion/Mt. Lion - not available on the newest iMac;
3. Upgrade your software to Intel compatible versions, or find alternative software that will open your data files;
3. Install Snow Leopard (with Rosetta) into Parallels:
[click on image to enlarge]
Full Snow Leopard installation instructions here:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1365439
NOTE: STEP ONE of the instructions must currently be completed on a Snow Leopard or Lion Mac and the resulting modified Snow Leopard.cdr install file can then be moved over to your Mountain Lion Mac for completion of the remaining steps.
NOTE 2: Computer games with complex, 3D or fast motion graphics make not work well or at all in virtualization.
And according to the author, it's not forbidden by the client EULA. Can't say for sure if the same method will work for Mountain Lion, though. He may have updated it here or on MacRumors, but I'm not aware of an update, or whether one is needed.
I do not give legal advice on MacRumors, I do contend that it is a common Urban Myth that the Snow Leopard EULA forbids its virtualization. Further, in the more than one year that I have been offfering my Snow Leopard into Parallels solution, NO ONE has met my challenge during this period of time to show me one, official written statement by Apple that would support the conclusion that Snow Leopard's EULA forbids its virtualization.
The method does work for Mountain Lion, with the proviso of the NOTE above about currently having to do STEP ONE on a Snow Leopard or Lion Mac.

Can I run Snow Leopard and Mountain Lion on the same iMac?

I have a late 2009 iMac with a 1tb hard drive running Snow Leopard. Can I partion the hard drive and upgrade to Mountain Lion on one part and keep Snow Leopard on the other? If not, can I partition my external back-up drive that I use for Time Machine to do the same thing?

Niel wrote:
Parallels will work with Mac OS X Server but not the client version of 10.6.8 or earlier.
(69744)
Snow Leopard client 10.6.8 (with Rosetta) running in Parallels 7 (or 8) in Lion:
[click on image to enlarge]
Full Snow Leopard installation instructions here:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1365439

How can I remove Snow leopard from my Mac, it crash all important programs

Please tell me how I can remove Snow Leopard from my machine & revert back to Leopard 10.5.8
Since I loaded Snow leopard, Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, Quark & Mail all quit over & over again. I never had ANY of these issues before loading snow leopard. I rely daily on the programs I listed. I am not saying once in a while, but constantly; opening the programs, exporting, placing graphics, emailing, you name it, it quits the program I am in. I keep sending apple the crash reports, but I am afraid I have reached my end. (Apple must have a folder fu;l of crashes with my email address in it by now.)
To maintain my sanity PLEASE tell me there is a way to do this without risking loosing any of my data.
I do have time machine hooked up.
Please be a life saver (sanity saver) and tell me how to get Snow Leopard off my machine!!!!!

First, Welcome to the Discussions,
Second, there is no way to successfully degrade an OS to a previous version. You would have to install anew a previous OS, thereby erasing all your data. Then you would take that version up as far as you want to go.
Of course if you've been using Time Machine you can recover to the prior system and retain your files using that.
Best of all would be to have a firewire external drive and use an app like this to make a clone on. No worries then if one wants to go back before any major changes very precisely.
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html
Good luck.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.5/en/15638.html
Message was edited by: Samsara

Can I run Snow Leopard on my iMac + OS 10.4 as startup on external FW HD?

My iMac is running Snow Leopard.
I want to install OS 10.4 on an external FW HD and use that drive as startup to run older mac software (Canvas, etc.)
Can I do this? How? Snow Leopard won't let me install an older version of OS.
Thanks

Can I do this?
Only if your computer shipped with Mac OS X 10.4. Use the 10.4 package that shipped with it.
How?
Install it normally, considering the point above.
Snow Leopard won't let me install an older version of OS.
It's not Snow Leopard that won't let you. It's the computer itself.
(52089)

Can I Install Snow Leopard From USB On Another Mac?

Hello everyone,
I own a 2010 macbook air that came with a snow leopard usb drive.
I've recently been given a 2008 macbook 4,1 that is running leopard. I'd like to install snow leopard on this and use it as a secondary computer. Will I be able to use the usb stick from my macbook air to update this computer from leopard to snow leopard? If updating won't work would I be able to perform a fresh install of snow leopard from my usb drive? Or is my only option to purchase a snow leopard dvd from apple?
Thanks.

Ah! Thank you, Niel. Forgot about the "weird" Air models without any kind of optical drive. I realize to get the Air models as thin as Apple did required the removal of such a drive, but virtually every user who bought one had to then go out and buy an external DVD drive anyway so they could install their other purchased software.

Install Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard from USB Drive

My MacBook Pro (Late 2006 15.4-inch 2.33 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo) has a SuperDrive that does not work.
I wish to re-install Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, as this is the latest DVD I possess, to wipe the HDD prior to selling. It has Lion installed but this was done via the Mac App store and I don't want to sell with any links to my account or as an authorised computer.
How do I boot the MacBook Pro from a USB stick, wipe the HDD and install Snow Leopard?

You will still need a Mac and a optical drive, a external one will do. To read the disk to put it on a USB, external opticals are not bootable.
http://www.maciverse.com/install-os-x-snow-leopard-from-usb-flash-drive.html
Here is how to remove data off the machine (hold on, extermely paranoid )
How do I securely delete data from the machine?

Can I install Snow Leopard from my MacBook?

I've got two computers, an IMac (Dual Core, around 4 year old) with Leopard and a MacBook Pro (less than 2 years old) with Snow Leopard. I will be buying a new IMac in a few months but in the meanwhile I was wondering if I could install Snow Leopard from the MacBook Pro to avoid all the incompatibility issues that are starting to surface.
I'm not upgrading my MacBook to Montain Lion because I don't want to miss the chance of updaiting my old IMac (surely it won't be compatible with Montain Lion).
Thanks!

You should be able to use the MBP's install disc to update the iMac. Give it a shot and let us know. Do know that Lion and ML will render all of your PPC apps useless, so consider whether or not a new machine is a smart move.

Can't run Snow Leopard from CD drive

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