Help Re-Installing Snow Leopard

I got a new MacBook Pro today to replace my black MacBook from 2007, which I'm passing down to my husband. Tonight, in attempting to get it clean as a whistle for him, I put in the snow leopard disks to reinstall. First, I went through and erased the hard disk. I had told it to pass with 0's, but when I saw how long it would take, chose the "skip" option. At that point, I noticed the harddrive had been renamed "Unknown" so I erased again and changed the name back to Macintosh HD. I proceeded with the installation and after about 15 minutes it told me the installation could not be completed because some files could not be installed; restart and try again. I restarted, but as I get to the screen where it tells me to select the disk on which to install Mac OS X, there are no options available. When I went to disk utility, it appears the computer isn't recognizing that a harddrive is in there at all.
Thankfully, apple care lasts til June, but I as they're closed for business hours, I was hoping someone could help me here. Thanks!

Generally speaking, if Disk Utility does not see the drive, this means that the hard drive has failed and needs to be replaced.
You could try removing the hard drive & reinstalling it, but that's the only suggestion I have!
~Lyssa

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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.

Need HELP with installing snow leopard!!

I am trying to install snow leopard on my one year old iMac. Install is successful. Restate works. But then I get the spinning wheel with a blank screen. No dock...no hard drive icon...nothing. I reminded from the disc twice and still the same thing. Help!!! Need suggestions.

Before you go off and buy anything I suspect your machine came with Leopard on it (V10.5.x) and you bought your machine during the transition time where Snow Leopard (10.6.x) just came out and Apple was giving upgrades to customers buying during the transition. If that is the case your machine should work fine with the 10.6.x disc you were provided. You should have received a 10.5.x and 10.6.x disc if that is the case, you can easily tell by looking at the media.
Click on the Apple symbol in the upper left of your screen and see what version of OS X is loaded on your system. If it's 10.5.x then you know you're on Leopard. If you want to upgrade to Snow Leopard there are some things every user should do prior to upgrading. First is BACKUP your system either using Time Machine or create a clone using SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner. A backup is the #1 priority.
Next then you can simply pop the Snow Leopard 10.6.x disc in your computer and follow the on-screen instructions. If for some reason it doesn't work then contact Apple.

Help on installing Snow Leopard on Macbook pro mid 2009

I have macbook pro mid 2009 with 10.5.8 upgrade as latest. I am planning to install snow leopard on it. However before i do that i will upgrade the hard disk to 500gb and ram to 8 gb. As i never done reinstalling os on mac My question is
Should i install the original os first (which is leopard) and then upgrade it to snow leopard and backup my files from time machine ?
or
Can i just install snow leopard and back up my files from time machine?
Thanks for your answers in advance

I would upgrade your system to Snow Leopard first, then backup the entire system to Time Machine. Then upgrade your hard drive install Mac OS X 10.6 then on the set up screen (Do You Already Own a Mac?" click the button that states "from a Time Machine backup".

I want to save important files/programs on an external hard drive, delete EVERYTHING on my computer, install snow leopard, and reload everything i saved on to a clean slate. Is this possible/practical?

I was just thinking that it would be better to wipe the entire hard drive clean and reinstall some programs rather than go through and move certain things to the trash. Basically rebuild my software and file collection from the ground up, omitting what is unnecessary. Then again, I have no idea what i'm doing.
My macbook was purchased in late 2008. 2gb RAM. OS X 10.5.6. It's been going very slow lately so i decided i would look up how to improve. Snow leopard was recommended as well as changing my RAM. And so here I am.
I don't have an external hard drive so i was going to just compress all my files and save them to my emac via ethernet. would they be harmed?
also, i have alot of projects in ableton (a music recording/writing program). Would saving and transferring them be just as simple as finding the song? or are other components of a certain song saved in other locations?
sorry this is so lengthy. i should probably stick with something simple but i just want things to run as smoothly as possible for as long as possible
thanks very much

Here's some info that may be helpful.
Installing Snow Leopard: What you need to know
http://www.macworld.com/article/1142454/install_snow_leopard.html.
You should get a Firewire connected hard drive and backup your MB's HD to it. That way, if something goes wrong during the installation, you can recover your current sytem, apps and files. After the SL install, you can use the external HD for frequent backups.
 Cheers, Tom

How do i install snow leopard on a new hard drive

My hard drive went bad on my macbook pro and had to install a new on. Can anyone help me install snow leopard? When i try it doesn't see the new HD.

I am hopeless! Try as I might I can never get my external hard drive to be my startup drive. In summary,
I have a brand new Western Digital blue caviar HD, which I formatted as 2 partitions, both extended journaled with GUID partition.
I tried 2 different ways to install SL onto one of the partitions. I tried to boot up the SL Install disk holding c key, but the internal HD prevailed as startup, with the Install disk showing up on the desktop. I chose INSTALL and specified on one of the partitiions of the external drive. i ended up with one folder called: MAC OS INSTALL DATA, but it would not boot up when I restarted the computer, holding the option key down. I next tried using System Preferences to select the partition as a startup BUT its icon did not appear so I couldn't choose it.
I decided to choose the Install Dvd as the startup (given that holding c key on booting would not work to boot the Install dvd). However, as above, when I went to select the partition as the disk for the SL install, its icon was again not visible.
However, both of the partition icons DO appear on my desktop when I reboot the computer using the internal HD as the startup. I can't see what I am doing wrong.

Installing Snow Leopard on 10.5.8 macbook.

I was trying to install snow leopard on 10.5.8 white macbook. It would not let me.
I found a thread that said boot from disc - partition drive setting aside 5GB to install snow leopard- and it will work to install to the other ~75GB, or whatever. I've since lost thread.
Disc Boot would still not install Snow Leopard.
Somehow i'm at Restore Your System with no time machine attached though. My OSX has been erased when i partitioned drive. Now I have no where to go. I can't eject disc.
I'm at the starfield. My top menu has
-Mac OSX installer
-File
-Edit
-Utilities
-Window
Can anyone help me install snow leopard or get the disc out or do something so i can have this comptuer back? I am on separate macbook pro so i can use this for now. thanks

What exactly do you want? Is it to upgrade Leopard or do you want to make a separate Snow Leopard partition?
Five ways to eject a stuck CD or DVD from the optical drive
Ejecting the stuck disc can usually be done in one of the following ways:
1. Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the left mouse button until the disc ejects.
2. Press the Eject button on your keyboard.
3. Click on the Eject button in the menubar.
4. Press COMMAND-E.
5. If none of the above work try this:
Open the Terminal application in your Utilities folder. At the prompt enter or paste the following:
/usr/bin/drutil eject.
If this fails then try this:
Boot the computer into single-user mode. At the prompt enter the same command as used above. To restart the computer enter "reboot" at the prompt without quotes.
To resize the drive or add a new partition:
1. Open Disk Utility and select the drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list.
2. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window. 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.

Unable to install Snow Leopard via disk or USB drive

I have a white MacBook bought in the summer of 2008. A few weeks ago, I attempted to install Snow Leopard and got a disk error (the one where it tells you to clean the disk and start again). I returned the disk, got a replacement, tried again and got the same message. At that point, I called Apple, and the person I talked to concluded that the problem was my optical drive rather than the disk. The optical drive was replaced a year ago under warranty, and it works fine with everything but Snow Leopard. Then I decided to try to install Snow Leopard from a USB drive instead. Everything worked fine until it was restoring Snow Leopard from the CD to the USB drive (I was doing this through Disk Utility), and I got the message Restore Failure Input/Output Error. I don't know if this means that the disk is screwed up after all or that this is a different version of the same problem with my optical drive. I'm really not sure where to go next. I don't need Snow Leopard, but I'd like to be able to update, and I'm not sure what my next step is. My MacBook is my only computer, and I am reluctant to leave it for several days to have the optical drive fixed yet again, if, in fact, that's the problem. Thanks in advance for any advice.

Understood that you don't want to leave your Mac for several days to have it fixed, but ultimately this is something you probably will need to do unless you are willing to buy an external optical drive.
The failure error message probably means the optical drive is defective, although there is some small chance you got two defective DVD's in a row. If you have an Apple Store in your area, take the MacBook & the DVD in & ask them to check both. They should be willing to help you install Snow Leopard by an alternate method even if your optical drive is the problem.

Newly installed snow leopard 10.6.6 says startup disc is full - help please

A month ago, I installed snow leopard 10.6.6 to my MacBook Pro. Today, when I tried to do software updates, I got a message that says my start up disc is full and it can't install them.
My hardrive has only 856 mg remaining out of 249.72 capacity so it is, indeed, full!
I have deleted any and all files I no longer use and have moved others to an external hard drive.
I ran disc utility and the HD was verified as all okay
I restarted with shift key
I cleaned out my iMail boxes.
And, I cannot find anything on the internet about how to free up space on my start up disc.
What have I not done that I am missing? Oh, I also upgraded to iLife '11 at the same time. Is it possible that I have two sets of something that needs to be trashed because it is taking up an exorbitant amount of space?
Any help anyone can give me about clearing space on my start up disc would be most appreciated.
Thank you in advance,
Glenn

Old Accounts would usually show up in the System Preferences/Accounts window. I don't know if you've ever done an Archive and Install, but it could leave some files from older installions on your drive.
Without knowing how many systems you've installed or upgraded from, it's hard to say what might have been left around on your system.
I'd run one of the programs and see if there are any large folder duplicates or anything else that might be laying around.
You haven't said how much space you expect to find... In other words, how large is your music library, photo library, documents folder, etc?

Need help installing Snow Leopard.

Need help installing Snow Leopard on a 2009 iMac. Hard drive is only choice for location and message says hard drive can't be used because it is used for Time Machine backups. Ultimate goal is to upgrade to OS 10.6.8.

Check to see if you have a file called backup.backupdb
If you do that means at some time in the past Time Machine was configure to backup to that drive
If that is not where you want your backup to to go, and it should not be stored there any way, then delete it and the install should work then.
Allan

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.

I have an older IMac 5. I installed snow Leopard on. Now my DVD drive is not working. Discs go in but it dosn't boot up or show in finder. Then disc won't eject unless i shut down and restart. HELP !

I have an older IMac 5. I installed snow Leopard on. Now my DVD drive is not working. Discs go in but it dosn't boot up or show in finder. Then disc won't eject unless i shut down and restart. HELP !

Snow Leopard cannot run on a PPC G5 Mac as it requires an Intel processor. Please confirm what Mac you have.

I have installed snow leopard and it has gone to the White screen with apple on an won't do any thing can someone help

I need help I have installed snow leopard as it told me to the screen went to the apple screen now won't do anything please help

Are you certain your Mac meets Snow Leopard system requirements?
Apple - Mac OS X Snow Leopard - Technical specifications
Boot from your Mac install disc, run Disk Utility. The startup disk may need repairing.
Using Disk Utility to verify or repair disks

When i try to install snow leopard with install disk, it has me restart the computer instead of installing. can anyone help me figure out how to get the disk to actually install?

when i try to install snow leopard with install disk, it has me restart the computer instead of installing. can anyone help me figure out how to get the disk to actually install?

Ok, it's just a glitch that it's not auto-rebooting from the disk.
Please backup your personal files off the machine to a regualr external drive and disconnect all drives before doing anything
Take the 10.6 disk out and clean and polish the bottom with a very soft clean cloth and a tiny bit of rubbing alcohol to cut the oils.
Stick the disk in and reboot holding c key down, this will make it boot from the disk and you can install Snow Leopard that way.

Help please! I have just installed Snow Leopard and now I can't access my gmail account. I can complete the sign in boxes ok but the blue indicator bar freezes and prevents access to my emails.

I have just installed Snow Leopard, (10.6.3) onto my Macbook Pro and so far it seems to be working fine except that I can't access my gmail account. I can sign in but the blue opening indicator freezes near the end and I can get no further. I'm a bit of a novice at this stuff - help please!

I would run the combo update to get to 10.6.8 in order to get the latest security updates and so forth. Then run Software Update until you system is current.
10.6.8 Combo Updater
G-mail problem.
Troubleshooting sending and receiving email messages
Troubleshooting sending email messages
IMAP or POP setup?

Help Re-Installing Snow Leopard

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