How do you reinsatll snow leopard from an external optical drive

Both my hard drive and superdrive crapped out. How do i reinstall from an external USB optical drive?  I am having a complete brain **** at the moment!

If your replacing your internal hard drive, why not also get the Superdrive replaced?
The OS X install disk supposedly won't boot from a external optical drive, only the internal one.
To OS X onto your new internal drive, your going to need another Mac with optical drive to take 10.6 off the disk and place it onto a bootable USB. Any Mac should do, as the 10.6 installer isn't going to be booted .
http://www.maciverse.com/install-os-x-snow-leopard-from-usb-flash-drive.html
Other methods, requires another compatible Mac.
If you have machine specific 10.6 disks and you have another exact model of Mac, you can use a SATA to USB adapter (or enclosure) to use boot the second Mac with the disk and install 10.6 on the "extenral" drive, then place it back inside the other Mac.
If you have the 10.6.3 white retail so called "upgrade disk" for 10.5 (it also has the full 10.6 on it) and you have another Intel Mac that it's OS X version originally came with anything 10.6.2 or earlier, then it will boot that disk to install on the "external" drive, then it can be placed back into the other Mac.
How to erase and install Snow Leopard 10.6
Another internal drive access method is to use Firewire Target Disk Mode
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1661
Also one can use a external drive to install the compatible OS X version onto, then option key boot the Mac with the new drive off the external, install Carbon Copy Cloner and clone the extenral to the newly formatted internal drive.
Most commonly used backup methods

Similar Messages

  • About installing Lion over Snow Leopard from an external Hard Drive

    I was just talking with an Apple Representative on the phone a bit earlier and he said that if I connected up to a computer with Lion on it already, booted it into recovery mode, then installed Lion onto an external HD that I could then attach the external HD with Lion on it to a Snow Leopard machine and boot off of the Lion Partition (on the external HD) and then I could upgrade my sno leopard machine from this lion "image" on my external Lion drive.
    My question is that will this keep all of my files on my Snow Leopard machine in place (so basically will this perform an upgrade) or completely erase everything off of my Snow Leopard machine?

    To boot from an external optical 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 desired disk icon for the external optical drive. The DVD
          should be in the optical drive before restarting the computer.
      5. Click on the arrow button below the icon.

  • Can the new Mac Mini boot Snow Leopard from an external hard drive?

    I currently boot my 2009 Mac Mini from a FW800 external drive with 10.6.8. If I just plug my external drive into a new 2011 Mac Mini, will it boot into Snow Leopard if I set it as the startup disk or will I get a kernel panic?

    I bought a 2011 Mac Mini, which came with Lion installed. I thought maybe I could repartition it and have a Snow Leopard partition. So I repartitioned it (500gb split into two 250gb partitions). I named the new partition "SnowLeopard" just to make it easy for me to tell the difference.
    I attached the external DVD and put in a Snow Leopard installer disc, holding down the C key so it would boot and install from that, but it just spun for awhile. Doesn't appear to work.
    Then I read somewhere else that someone had managed to clone a copy of Snow Leopard onto an external drive and boot from that. In their situation they were talking about a MacBook, but the principle seemed sane.
    So I rebooted, holding down the T key to put the Mac Mini into Target hard disk mode, and attached it via Firewire to another MacMini (circa 2008 or so, not sure of year, but it was upgraded last year to Snow Leopard and has been upgraded along and along). Then I used Carbon Copy Cloner to copy Snow Leopard (that is, the entire hard disk-- System and all applications and data) to my newer Mac Mini's "snow leopard" partition.
    For yucks, when it was done cloning, I restarted the older Mac Mini, and had it boot from the newer Mac Mini's snow leopard partition--- it worked! To make it easy to tell the difference, I changed the desktop background to something completely different. I think I tried booting from Lion but I can't remember if that worked.
    Then I rebooted the newer Mac Mini, which booted up in Lion, of course. Going into System Settings, I changed the startup disk to the "snow leopard" partition, and rebooted, and it booted up in Snow Leopard.
    I have yet to test the applications on the Snow Leopard partition. Another problem has arisen.
    Because with both of the Mac MInis being active on the network, they both had the same computer and user name. So I renamed the newer Mac Mini to something completely different, and changed the password.
    Unfortunately, now I cannot change any other setting in the System Settings that requires a password. While the newer Snow Leopard lets me log in with the new user and new password, whenever I try to click the "lock" icon to change something, I'm prompted for a username and password. Apparently this is some different username and password than either the new or old username/password.
    I've tried various combinations of both: new user/old password, old user/new password, old user/old password, etc.
    So if you do what I've done, be careful about changing the username and password on your cloned computer. I think it may be wiser to create a new user and then delete the old cloned users. I may just have to re-clone the old Mac Mini to the new one again.
    If anyone has any ideas about this password conundrum, please pass along!

  • HT1751 how do you restore your playlists from the external hard drive after a crash

    I have gotten my libary restored from the external harddrive after my computer crashed, but cannot restore the playlists.  Do I really need to download software to do this or is there a better way?
    Thanks

    I should have added I could also restore my playlists from my one of the ipods, ipads, or iphones if anyone can give advice.  I have turned off the auto syn in itunes so that I can plug them into the new computer. 

  • 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 anyone boot Leopard from an external hard drive on  an iMacPPC?

    Can anyone boot Leopard from an external hard drive on a G5 iMac PowerPC? How?

    Allan's answer is irrelevant as he refers to Snow Leopard. He must have isread your post!
    Yes, you can and I do. The proviso is that the external hard drive is connected by firewire, as a PPC Mac cannot boot via USB.

  • I have a 2007 Macbook Pro that is running 10.7.5 and I am trying to use a 10.6.3 DVD to install Snow Leopard to an external hard drive.

    I have a 2007 Macbook Pro that is running 10.7.5 and I am trying to use a 10.6.3 DVD to install Snow Leopard to an external hard drive. I've followed every possible instruction on every which website. The problem is when I boot to Install disc, I am unable to choose which hard drive I'd like to install the OS on. It says that it is unable to Install and automatically takes me to Restore and suggests that I restore to Time Machine backups. Any and all help is appreciated.

    lovinlife5959,
    have you tried booting from the grey Mac OS X Install DVD that originally came in the box with your MacBook Pro? See if you can install its version of Mac OS X (either 10.4.9, 10.4.10, or 10.5.0, depending upon when it shipped from the factory) onto your external hard drive. If that works, boot from your external hard drive, run Software Update on it, and then try updating your external drive to 10.6.3 via the white Snow Leopard DVD.

  • HT3777 I have a Window 7 HP laptop. I want to install Snow Leopard on an external hard drive as the memory space on my laptop is very less. I have the original snow leopard disc and I think it's a retail version . Please guide me through the installation.

    I have a Window 7 HP laptop. I want to install Snow Leopard on an external hard drive as the memory space on my laptop is very less. I have the original snow leopard disc and I think it's a retail version . Please guide me through the installation in details. Can you also please let me know about this boot camp.

    You cannot. From a legal standpoint, the license agreement for OS X mandates that you run OS X only on Apple hardware. HP is not (yet) owned by Apple.
    From a technical standpoint, your HP laptop doesn't use EFI, but rather an early predecessor called a BIOS. Apple is the only vendor of consumer computer hardware that uses EFI; other vendors reserve EFI for use in servers.
    Secondly, Apple's operating systems support a rather limited number of configurations of video hardware and mainboard chipsets directly since they need only support those systems that they manufacture. You cannot use Windows software or drivers on OS X, so prior to installation, you would need to write your own hardware drivers for your laptop, create an OS X drive image on a Mac, and then modify that image with your drivers before putting it in the HP.
    It will be simpler (and legal), to simply purchase a used Mac. Apple's online store has refurbished MacBook Airs starting at $850 and Mac Minis for $700. If you go to e-bay or craigslist, you'll find used Macs for considerably less.

  • Can I install snow leopard on an external hard drive so I can run quicken 2006, and put snow leopard on my imac harddrive

    Can I install snow leopard on an external hard drive in order to run my quicken 2006, and install lion on the hard drive of my imac?

    You don't need to erase the drive and repartition from scratch. You may be able to add a second partition on the fly. The caveat here is that once you do that you cannot create a Windows partition using Boot Camp. Of course if you have no plans for Boot Camp then it isn't relevant.
    To create a second partition on your existing startup volume:
    To resize the drive do the following:
    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.
    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.
    Now, you cannot add a new partition that exceeds the amount of contiguous free space at the end of the drive. Disk Utility will fail to add the partition if it cannot find sufficient contiguous free space. If that's the case then you will need to follow your state outline - backup, boot from clone, erase internal, repartition internal, restore backup to one of the partitions (or both in your case.)

  • Snow Leopard on an external hard drive; sign-in issues, Snow Leopard on an external hard drive; sign-in issues

    I have an older (circa 2006) MacBook running Tiger. I've been able to install Snow Leopard on an external hard drive and when I restart, it seems to boot from the external drive. However, it asks for a user name and password and the combination I use in Tiger doesn't work. I don't get an option for an admin user/password.
    Any suggestions?

    If you did a fresh installation from the original installer disk, then unless you used Migration Utility as part of the installation then you would have been stepped through the process to set up a user acount. Without that there would be no account to log into. So either you don't remember, you didn't install on an empty drive, or you used Migration Utility.
    In any case, boot from the original installer, select the external drive, and under the Utilities menu choose Password Reset.
    Regards.

  • 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.

  • I've installed LION.  Is it possible to put Snow Leopard on an external hard drive?

    I've installed LION.  Is it possible to put Snow Leopard on an external hard drive?

    I was unaware of this change for usb support! However Babowa makes a good point in that you would probably not want to run SL via USB and rather Firewire.
    Having said that, the 13" MacBooks do not have firewire.
    But again as Babowa points out, that machine wouldn't be able to run Lion anyway.

  • How do i import my library from an external hard drive. Exported it as had to wipe pc and reinstal windows but when i try to import nothing happens

    How do i import my library from an external hard drive. Had to export it as had to reinstal windows due to a conflict between windows and i-tunes. Wen i try to import nothing happens despite selecting the file. Can you import from an i-phone to i-tunes?

    What do you mean bye exported the library? 
    There is nothing to export or import.
    The correct process to backup the iTunes library would be to copy the ENTIRE iTunes folder from the computer to the external drive.

  • How do i download my files from an external hard drive to my new macbook pro

    how do i dowload my files from my external hard drive onto my new macbook pro?

    Can you not just drag them from the external drive to a folder on your new computer?

  • How do i switch wma files from an external hard drive to mp3 on itunes?

    how do i switch wma files from an external hard drive to mp3 on itunes?

    Can you not just drag them from the external drive to a folder on your new computer?

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