How can I get back to the future?

Question

I have a 15" MacBook Pro running 10.6.8.  Last night I upgraded to Lion and honest to goodness I'd rather have a Windows PC.  I have only to programs for which I use a computer -- Adobe PhotoShop CS2 and Bible software,for both of which I paid near $600 -- neither of which are supported in Lion.  Is it possible to get back to 10.6.8 without loosing everything on my hard drive?  Thank you kindly.

Answer 1

As far as I know, Apple mail itself is not directly compatible between 10.7 and 10.6.   This gives you a couple options.  You could:
1. Buy an external hard drive, partition it for room, install 10.6 onto it, and install Photoshop, your Bible program, and use 10.7 for everything else on your internal, and a second partition act as an exact clone of your internal.     You will probably need to contact Adobe to register your external hard drive as the registration code for its Photoshop.  Partitioning is described here: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61301   
Cloning is described on my FAQ*:
http://www.macmaps.com/backup.html
Lastly, I'd make a second clone of the first to ensure you don't lose data in the future, and manage both clones.
2. More complicated would be to export your applications to all 10.6 compatible formats.  Mail would have to be copied to an IMAP account.    Addressbook exported to vCard.  iTunes and Office are thankfully already compatible. Once that is all setup, you would clone your machine twice.  Next you'd erase and install 10.6.   You'd then copy your Users -> yourname -> Music folder from the backup, and the Users -> yourname -> Documents folder on your backup to your 10.6 Users -> yourname folder, and copy the supporting preferences of Photoshop, and your bible program to the relevant folders.   Lastly you'd open Photoshop and work with Adobe on reregistering your Photoshop to your 10.6 machine.   In the future always keep at least two clones of your data before installing any updates, and read the tips on upgrading like those on my FAQ*:
http://www.macmaps.com/upgradefaq.html