Format/Reinstall Mountain Lion with Snow Leopard DVD

I began having problems with software freezing up this morning out of nowhere and decided to do a disk verify on the Macintosh HD partition using Disk Utility. Once it completed it stated I needed to restart holding CMD+R to enter Disk Utility outside of OSX (I guess) to repair some problems that showed up. After doing that, I recieved a message stating that it could not repair the disk, to backup as much as possible, reformat, and reinstall OSX.
I have been using time machine to back up that partition since the beginning. Backups should not be a problem.
So here are my questions:
#1 - Do I only need to select the "Macintosh HD" partition in disk utility and hit reformat?
          Will it even allow me to do that within OSX?
          And will it guide me through the process to reinstall OSX?
#2 - When I purchased the iMac it came with Snow Leopard, but have since upgraded to Lion, then Mountain Lion.
          If I reinstall using the DVD that came with the iMac, will I lose Mountain Lion?
          Or is that attached to my user ID or my Time Machine when I restore?
#3 - I use iTunes - A LOT - Am I going to lose the iTunes database (all my plays, dates, ratings etc...) after reinstalling or will those be safe on my restore from my Time Machine?
I have googled reformatting iMac and read several guides but all this "GUID" stuff is above my head. I just want a clean system like it was when I got it. I use external drives for most of my main storage other than itunes music, which is backed up but remains on the internal drive.
Thank you so much for any help you may be able to give me ahead of time!

#1 should allow that.
#2, no need to reinstall 10.6...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718
Or restore from the TM backup once the Drive is fixed.
#3, If the TM backup is good you should be fine.

Similar Messages

How to reinstall mountain lion from snow leopard after disc failure

how to reinstall mountain lion from snow leopard after disc failure

Open the Mac App Store, click Purchases, select ML, then re-download and install. However if your machine has the abillity to run Mavericks I'd just upgrade to that and bypass ML.

Mountain Lion with Snow Leopard?

I recently went through the process of upgrading my iMac (Mid 2007) from Leopard to Snow Leopard without problem using a SL Install DVD.
I then made the mistake of upgrading from Snow Leopard to Mountain Lion via the app store.
I did not make a backup of my Mac HD prior to upgrading because the external HD I have is too small ( a problem that was to be resolved by a new 2TB External HD which I have bought but it will only run in Lion or Mountain Lion)
The upgrade to ML went fine with no loss of data, however I now can't use legacy software that needs Rosetta, which I really need to have access to.
After a very long search through dozens of forums the best option seems to be to run the legacy software from an external hard drive loaded with Snow Leopard.
After fully erasing an external drive and repartitioning with the neccessary GUID Partition Map
I have been trying to create a bootable version of SL on an external hard drive by booting the iMac now running ML direct from the SL install DVD and installing SL onto the external drive.
This process appears to go ok until the end of the initial part of the install when the process would normally require a restart before continuing to completion.
The process just seems to stop and the iMac starts up in Mountain Lion
When I look at what is on the external hard drive onto which I am installing SL most of the applications are greyed out with those no-entry signs.
If I try to boot from the new Snow Leopard HD it seems to try but eventually just launches ML from the iMac.
How do I complete the installation on the new SL HD?
Did the Mountain Lion upgrade from the app store make my machine unable to run Snow Leopard from an external HD?
Are there firmware upgrades that have occured that might be causing the issues?
And if so what can I do about it?

Another option is to install Snow Leopard Server into Parallels 8 in Mt. Lion and have concurrent access to your legacy PowerPC apps (instead of the dual-boot):
[click on image to enlarge]
Apple is now selling Snow Leopard Server for $19.99 + sales tax & shipping costs at 1.800.MYAPPLE (1.800.692.7753) - Apple Part Number: MC588Z/A (telephone orders only).

Need to reinstall mountain lion from snow leopard

i was using mountain lion before my hard drive went bad and had to replace it. however, snow leopard is the only OS disc i have so that's what i used to reboot the computer once i replaced it. how do i now reinstall mountain lion back to this computer? thanks.

i updated the snow leopard so i now have the app store but when i go to purchases and hit "download" on my previous mountain lion purchase it doesn't do anything and when i click on the application name it says "The item you've requested is not currently available in the U.S. store."?? and yes, this is the same store i bought it from.

Clean install Lion with Snow Leopard DVD

I want to perform a clean install of my Macbook Pro, currently running the latest version of Lion, upgraded from Snow Leopard via the App Store). When performing a clean install I have to use my Snow Leopard DVD. After this installation is completed, do I have to purchase the Lion upgrade again in the App Store?
I want to add a second hard disk (replacing the DVD with an SSD) in my Macbook Pro 17" (mid 2010). When I mount the root (/) on the SSD and /Home to my current hard disk, is it still possible to perform a restore instead of a clean install?
Any suggestions/remarks are welcome.

Not exactly. Time Machine looks for compatible Drive Partitions, it does not care what folders you have on that drive or what the current working folder is. When doing a recovery, TM will first install a virgin copy of Lion, then it will give you a list of all the backed up data it found on your backup drive so you can decide what gets installed (likely everything). Then you reboot, login and run Software Update.
You do not need that SSD. In fact, I don't reccomend it. All you need is a blank USB or Firewire drive. Jack it into your MAC and install Lion on it. Then you can boot from that drive and do whatever you want to your main disk.
Lion creates 2 partitions. One is small and holds the installer and the usual utilities. Great idea, but if your drive ever fails or has a partition problem your toast. So I always make a DVD. Use Google to find instructions on how to make it.
You don't need to install or boot 10.6 to do any of this.
There are reasons you would need to wipe your disk and start over. But these reasons are very few. Don't make a lot of work for yourself if you don't have to.

I had Leopard on may Mac. I upgraded to Mountain Lion using Snow Leopard. I can't use my video with Mountain Lion. Can I load Snow Leopard on an external hard drive so I can use it with my camera?

I had Leopard on may Mac. I upgraded to Mountain Lion using Snow Leopard. I can't use my video with Mountain Lion. Can I load Snow Leopard on an external hard drive so I can use it with my camera?

First, you cannot do this if you have a Boot Camp partition.
Second: Create a new partition.
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.
Third: Install Snow Leopard.
Boot from your Snow Leopard DVD. Follow instructions for installation being sure that before you actually install Snow Leopard you have selected the new partition as your target destination.
Booting From An OS X Installer Disc
1. Insert OS X Installer Disc into the optical drive.
2. Restart the computer.
3. Immediately after the chime press and hold down the "C" key.
4. Release the key when the spinning gear below the dark gray Apple logo
appears.
5. Wait for installer to finish loading.

Exporting OS X Mail from Mountain Lion to Snow Leopard

After upgrading to Mountain Lion, I partitioned my iMac HD to have two partitions: Macintosh HD has Mountain Lion; I reinstalled Snow Leopard on Macintosh HD 2. Best part: you can access your user-created files from EITHER disk partition. But not so OS X Mail. I wanted to revert to Snow Leopard, since I don't like the iOS-like Mountain Lion (swipe THIS!), but Mail was a problem since all my Snow Leopard Mail was successfully migrated over to Mountain Lion during upgrade. But I think I found a way to Export Mail from ML to (a clean install of) SL.
Try this:
1. Open Mail in ML. For each folder you wish to have back in SL, Export it to your ML Desktop as an .mbox file. Depending on the folder size, this can take from a few seconds to several minutes. You'll see an .mbox icon for the particular folder on your Desktop. If the word "partial" appears between the folder name and the .mbox suffix, wait a few moments for the Export to complete, at which time the word "partial" will disappear. E.g., for a folder named "Mary", if it's a huge one, the icon will first appear as "Mary.partial.mbox"; when the Export is done, you'll see "Mary.mbox".
2. When you've Exported all your desired folders as above, you can exit ML and re-start your Mac in SL. Open Mail in Snow Leopard, and once again, for each file you just Exported in ML to the Desktop there, select "Import Data From Apple Mail" and choose the folder from the Desktop in ML to which your mboxes were Exported. When the Import starts, you can see via a progress bar how far along it is. When done, you'll see a new folder in your SL Mail called "Import"; click on it to reveal the folder you just Imported!
3. Then drag the folder you just Imported out of the Import folder to "On My Mac" in SL Mail; you can then delete the Import folder.
4. Repeat until all your folders are where you want them (in SL).
5. When you have time, go back into ML and clear all those .mbox files from your Desktop.
There MAY be an easier way, but this is what worked for me.

The iOS view vs classic view in Mail is not the problem; I've already configured for classic view.
Mountain Lion itself is.
My short list (to date) of crappy Mountain Lion behavior; items marked with a double asterisk (**)represent the worst of Mountain Lion for me.
** No up/down arrows in scroll bar slider;
Expose` not as easy to navigate as in Snow Leopard;
Mail does not request passwords for either receive or send;
No "Save Draft" icon in Mail compose window (workaround: use command-s);
"Save As" selection missing in most app menus;
No separate Search window in Safari (workaround: use Firefox or Opera);
** Can't export Mail from Mountain Lion into Snow Leopard if downgrading (I compiled this list before I stumbled on the method in this thread, but I'd prefer to effect this with Unix symbolic links);
iWork 09 seems to have "circled the wagons" re compatibility with MS Office or LibreOffice (workaround: just use Libreoffice);

I upgraded to mountain lion from snow leopard, now my photo studio software is no longer supported by powerpc. Does anyone know of a fix so my photostudio will work?

I upgraded to mountain lion from snow leopard, but now some of my applications do not work, most specifically I would like to use my photo studio, but now it tells me that powerpc is no longer supported. Does anyone have any fixes to this problem? I would really like to continue to use software that I already have! Thank you for your help!

PPC software will not work in Mountain Lion because there is no longer any Rosetta emulator. You will only be able to run your older software by creating another partition on your hard drive on which you can install Snow Leopard. It need not be a large partition since you can still keep your files and programs on the main partition. You could also install Snow Leopard on an external drive from which to boot the computer.
To resize the drive 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.
After you create the new partition boot the computer from your Snow Leopard DVD and install Snow Leopard onto the new partition.

What happens when I upgrade to mountain lion from snow leopard?

I currently have 2 partitions. my mac side and my windows 7 home side.
If i upgrade to mountain lion from snow leopard will i be expected to reinstall bootcamp and windows7 home along with all my other windows programs?
What happens to the partitions? do they stay the same or does the upgrade pretty much do a factory restore and make me start from square one again?
I have a time capsule. but do not really know how to work it like its supposed to. i just really use it to store data that i do not need on my partitions at the current times.

I do not have any knowledge about boorcamp but on my old MacBook with snowleapard,
I was not able to upgrade to Mountain Lion Because of my hardware I think.
And about tha bootcamp partition:
there shouldn't be any problem with upgrading "if even possible" because the Mac partition
can't edit the Windows partition.
I hope this helps you, but I would do some more research befor upgrading instead of completely trusting on my advise.

How do I switch from Mountain Lion to Snow Leopard? New used computer that I don't have anything on yet but has Mountain Lion installed.

I just puchased a used 2008 MacPro 2.8 ghz 8 core and it has Mountain Lion installed on it. I want to go back to Snow Leopard because it is a better stable OS for using Final Cut Pro 7. I just bought the Snow Leopard Discs to install. I need to erase the hard drive and install Snow Leopard. Any help on how
to do this? Thank you.

Downgrade Lion/Mountain Lion to Snow Leopard
1. Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer Disc. 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.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the
      mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status
      of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then
      the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART
      info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on
      the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions
      from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS
      Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the
      partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on
      the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Quit DU and return to the installer. Install Snow Leopard.
This will erase the whole drive so be sure to backup your files if you don't have a backup already. If you have performed a TM backup using Lion be aware that you cannot restore from that backup in Snow Leopard (see below.) I suggest you make a separate backup using Carbon Copy Cloner.
If you have Snow Leopard Time Machine backups made while on Snow Leopard, then you may do a full system restore per #14 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions. If you have subsequent backups from Lion, you can restore newer items selectively, via the "Star Wars" display, per #15 there, but be careful; some Snow Leopard apps may not work with the Lion/Mountain Lion files.

HT200117 i Mac OS X 10.5.8 upgrade to Mountain Lion or Snow leopard?

I have i Mac OS X 10.5.8. Is there anyway to upgrade to Mountain Lion or Snow leopard?

To answer your question.
Upgrade to Snow Leopard, then update to 10.6.8 Snow Leopard Purchase
Mac OS 10.6.8 Combo Updater
Check to make sure your applications are compatible. Application Compatibility
If you have applications that you want to use that aren't compatible, you can retain Snow Leopard and create a new partition to install Mountain Lion on or use one of these programs to run Snow Leopard. I have two partition and boot between them daily.
Parrallels
VirtualBox
VM Fusion
You can then download Mountain Lion from the App Store. I suggest that you make a copy of the installer and move it out of the Applications folder. The installer self destructs when done and by having a copy, you won't have to download it again.
If you want a bootable drive:
Bootable Drive DVD or USB Flash Drive – Lion Diskmaker
I have been running Mountain Lion since it was released with no major problems. Mountain Lion doesn't act like Snow Leopard. For example, scrolling is reversed, but can be changed. If you spend enough time in System Preferences, you can get the OS to be mostly like Snow Leopard.

Downgrade Mountain Lion to Snow Leopard (Keep all data?)

I have Mountain lion and I am about tired of it and I want to go back to snow leopard. I also have Time Machine but it has been awhile since my upgrade and I have changed many things that I do not want to loose.
Is there a way to downgrade to snowleopard and keep all my info as it is now? I would think restoring via time machine would restor the OS as well?

Downgrade Lion/Mountain Lion to Snow Leopard
1. Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer Disc. 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.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the
      mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status
      of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then
      the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART
      info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on
      the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions
      from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS
      Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the
      partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on
      the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Quit DU and return to the installer. Install Snow Leopard.
This will erase the whole drive so be sure to backup your files if you don't have a backup already. If you have performed a TM backup using Lion be aware that you cannot restore from that backup in Snow Leopard (see below.) I suggest you make a separate backup using Carbon Copy Cloner.
If you have Snow Leopard Time Machine backups, do a full system restore per #14 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions. If you have subsequent backups from Lion, you can restore newer items selectively, via the "Star Wars" display, per #15 there, but be careful; some Snow Leopard apps may not work with the Lion/Mountain Lion files.

Dual boot drive - Mountain Lion and Snow Leopard - Correct order to load software /apps?

Hi
I want to create a dual boot drive for Mountain Lion and Snow Leopard as some of my hardware (is not supported in Mountain Lion).
I am happy how to do this, I just want to know if there is a correct way to install software and apps.
My plan was to do a clean install of both using two partitions, the larger going to ML and smaller one for SL. I was going to install SL from the DVD and then after updating from 10.6. to 10.6.8 and download ML from the app store and install on the larger partition.
Do I install all the software I use like Final Cut, Aperture, iLife (for Garageband) etc on the ML or SL partition or on both. Also, is there a better way / practise of the order software updates / apps and boxed software should be installed when doing a clean machine install.
Thanks in advance.
Matt

Thanks mende1
So, if I have software I need to use on both ML and SL - for example Final Cut as I have a Canopus AVDC box which is not supported in ML but only SL, do I need to install the same software in both OS?
I usually open apps using spotlight and didn't know if it would software / apps would open if already installed on the other partition?
Thanks again
Matt

I am a macbook pro user form last 2 yrs, recently i upgraded to Mountain Lion from Snow leopard. Since then operational speed is a major concern. Now It has crashed so very badly that I am scared of my data.Please help me.

I am a macbook pro user form last 2 yrs, recently i upgraded to Mountain Lion from Snow leopard. Since then operational speed is a major concern. Now It has crashed so very badly that I am scared of my data.Please help me.

Reinstalling Lion/Mountain Lion Without Erasing the Drive
Boot to the Recovery HD: 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.
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the main menu. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Continue button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.

Upgrade - Mountain Lion from Snow Leopard

I have upgraded my iMac to Mountain Lion from Snow Leopard. I have a MacBook Pro running Snow Leopard; do I need to purchase this upgrade again, or will the previous purchase hold good for my Macbook Pro?

On your Macbook Pro, assuming it is running Snow Leopard 10.6.8, you can log into the Mac App Store with the EXACT same Apple ID that you previously used to purchase Mountain Lion for the iMac. In the Store go to your Account's "Purchased Items" list and you should see Mountain Lion listed. Download it from there for Free onto your Macbook Pro.
Hope this helps

Format/Reinstall Mountain Lion with Snow Leopard DVD

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for