HT2956 installing leopard over lion

how do I reinstal leopard over lion?

You need to either revert to a backup you made prior to installing Lion or install Leopard onto a blank partition or drive. Repartitioning a drive with Boot Camp set up on it may disable that.
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Can I install Snow Leopard over Lion to install old software after hard drive crashed?

My hard drive crashed and I lost everything. I have a new hard drive, but when the repair shop installed my operating system, they installed Lion and I no longer have my prior updates. My computer had been updated a few times. I have a lot of software that only can be installed up to 10.7 such as Adobe Photoshop Elements 10, Office Mac 2011, etc. I was wondering if I installed Snow Leopard over Lion, would I lose Lion? Should I install Snow Leopard and then Lion again? I don't want to damage my like new computer and I don't want to have to go out and buy all new software. Is there a solution? Thanks in advance!

Sounds complicated! If I repartition the drive and install Snow Leopard onto the blank volume, will Lion still be there? Or, will the computer basically have two operating systems that I have to go back and forth from. Is this something a novice like myself can do?

I accidentally downloaded lion. I did a timemachine back-up and tried to reload snow leopard. It will not accept. How do I re-install snow leopard over lion?

I accidently installed lion on my mac book pro. I did a time machine back-up. When i try to re-install snow leopard, it won't take. Any suggestions on how to install snow leopard over lion?

Accidentally, eh? How, might I ask?
Downgrade 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 3.4.1.
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 files.

Installing SL over Lion

In November I bought a refurbished 13"Macbook Pro (early 2011) with the specific intent to instal Snow Leopard over Lion in order to keep on running legacy software. Unexpectedly the computer comes with a firmware update which does not allow me to boot from my Snow Leopard CD (nor over firewire). Apple support says that the ony work around would be for me to purchase Lion for the machine I am using now (an identical 13" MBP) and use it to partition the new (refurb) computer's HD and install Snow Leopard on the partition. Has anyone out there done that and can you give me some ideas about how to approach this interesting problem?

What Snow Leopard DVD are you trying? A retail one won't work. It has to be the same gery coloured one that would have shipped with it when it was new.
Call Apple Support back, give them your Mac's serial number, and ask them to send out a set of replacement original install discs for your Mac.

Install Leopard over tiger from cd, overwrite or update?

I want to install leopard on my macbook with tiger 10.4.8 from cd.
Can i install leopard from cd on my macbook without overwriting everything.
So when i install leopard over my tiger, will it overwrite everything else or will it update the os with all files and setttings in tact?

Hi gizeh12,
I'd recommend backing up (on an external HD, CD, DVD, thumb drive, etc) any important data. While the upgrade option is designed to preserve all of your data, settings and applications, Apple strongly recommends (as do many users on these boards) that you always maintain a current backup of your data. While the percentage is very small that you'll have a hardware or system failure during the upgrade, it's always better to be prepared then in panic mode.

Install Leopard over Tiger Server

Hi,
I want to "archive and install" Leopard over existing Tiger Server. Will not be installing the server version of Leopard, just the normal OS.
Are there potential problems (other than the usual suspects) with doing a simple "archive and install" over the existing Tiger --server-- OS? Can I just do new install without sinking the ship? (Fairly experienced w/macs, know the usual routine re OS installs but am shaky when it comes to server stuff)
Thanks,
Ron W.

Actually the Server version is only required if you are going to be backing up your server over the network. If you run Retrospect on the server itself, you can get by with the Workgroup edition. The developer has a chart that explains it all:
http://www.emcinsignia.com/products/smb/retroformac/comparison/
I don't recall the details, but I even think there was an upgrade path from the Desktop version to the Workgroup version, although I had to call the developer and specifically ask for it. Regardless, the prices aren't that bad. Check smalldog.

Trying to re-install Snow Leopard over Lion and Macbook Pro is beeping like a memory failure

I installed Lion on my work 15" MacBook Pro i7 to give it a go, and it's not working with the system we use for Active Directory login, so I need to roll back to Snow Leopard.
I don't have a Time Machine backup, but I have pulled all the data I need from the machine, and have wiped the hard disk ready to reinstall Snow Leopard.
I have a retail copy of Snow Leopard that I've recently used successfully for fresh installs on other machines, but now once I insert the DVD into this machine that's had Lion on it, it's not responding and just making alarming BEEP BEEP BEEP noises.
I googled that and it might be bad RAM (possible, but unlikely? the machine has been running very well up until now)
I've wiped the PRAM, but the instructions for wiping the SMC are a bit cryptic for these machines ...
Does anyone have any clues as to what might be causing this? A firmware issue of some sort?
Maybe the hidden EFI partition on the drive won't let you install Snow Leopard over a disk that's had Lion?

Might be some useful info here:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1175934
" I used target disk mode to install Snow Leopard on its partition. I used a friends Macbook Pro, but I put my machine into target disk mode and ran the installer from his user account and optical drive. From a couple things I read online, it seems that Apple recommends putting the other machine in target disk mode and doing it the other way around. I guess some critical files might not have been installed? I also used a retail copy of Snow Leopard instead of my grey recovery disk, so that might be it too. "
"Your machine is newer than the retail copy of Snow Leopard. Use the restore disks it came with.
The installation will need to be done from your machine. You may need to do a net install, so look at "Remote Install Mac OS X" in Utilities."
I'm currently installing from the macbook firewired to the other machine as recommended so hopefully that might help

Trouble installing Mavericks over Lion on iMac 12,2; hangs.

Hi Folks,
iMac 12,2 16 Gigs RAM, i7 4-core 3.4 GHz 1-TB HD for data, 1-250 Gig SSD for systems - running Snow Leopard on one partition and Lion on the other. (Full hardware description at bottom.)
Purchased new in New Zealand about 14 months ago from Apple authorized reseller; no AppleCare. Not registered with Apple. No seerrious problems since, until this.
Ethernet lan connection to Airport and then ISP's modem/router (Telecom New Zealand, . Fixed IP. No problems there, I think.
Lots of USB stuff plugged in during install, but that shouldn't matter.
Attempt to install Mavericks on Lion partition while booted in Lion partition failed.
Attempt to install Mavericks on Lion partition while booted in Snow Leoepard partition failed.
(Download to Snow seemed to work fine. Installer ran, finished in 20 minutes instead of 35, but when I restarted the computer the startup hung. Shutdown, restart, hangs. Every time.)
Both installations failed with this hang. Restarts done with verbose logging on show the following, repeating ad infinitum (I stopped counting after it got over 5,100 lines -- no I didn't watch 5,000 lines scroll, I went away for a snooze):
invalid sandbox profiile for pid <number> (invalid regex)
Nothing here in the forums, or on the InterWebs about this error or much about a hanging install (which has been identified as one of Mavericks' problems) except to say wait forever (I think 5,000 lines of verbose logging is forever) or try the install again. I have tried the install again; it hangs at the same point every time.
There is some stuff on the hacker sites about sandbox and this error, but only for earlier OS versions. The fix for them was to replace the sandbox.kext. I'm going to boot into root in Snow Leopard partition so I can do things to the Lion partition, and change that kextfile?! Yeah, Riiiggghhhhttt. NOT.
I suppose I could try the install with all USB stuff disconnected -- but I don't believe that's it.
I suppose the fact that the Lion might not have had the latest software updates to it before I tried to install Mavericks might have something to do with it. I don't believe that's it (certainly is shouldn't be).
Final recourse might have to be wiping the Lion partition (full erase and clean install) (it doesn't have any critical data saved on it; I do all my work in Snow on the other partition, the Lion is for experimenting).
Anyone have any ideas?
TIA and cheers,
M<
Model Name:          iMac
Model Identifier:          iMac12,2
Processor Name:          Intel Core i7
Processor Speed:          3.4 GHz
Number of Processors:          1
Total Number of Cores:          4
L2 Cache (per Core):          256 KB
L3 Cache:          8 MB
Memory:          16 GB
Boot ROM Version:          IM121.0047.B1F
SMC Version (system):          1.72f2
Serial Number (system):          C02FX1DCDHJW
Hardware UUID:          00528295-A96E-509E-9ED0-3140DEAF77E2

Sorry, bad news for you, depending on your setup.
The answer (provided by an Apple higher-level tech for which I paid -- no Applecare) was that they don't have a clue, but a clean install works.
Yeah, Thaaannnnnnnkkkksss. Knew that.
Clean install (almost) always works (worked) for 25 years.
You don't say if your kit has everything on one partition, or there are more than one.
If you have a big hard disk that's not full, has lots of room, but only one partition, with 10.8 you can dynamically create a new partition without losing data. I don't have the details of the process handy, but it's pretty straightforward.
Then, with the Mavericks installer on the 10.8 partition, and booted to that partition, you can install Mavericks on the other partition (with administrator account). You could use the migration assistant (or whatever) to bring your data over from the 10.8 partition to the Mavericks one. However ...
You might also want, if your hard disk isn't huge, and you don't have two drives of whatever type in the machine, to make the new partition just big enough for the OS and apps, and keep the data on the 10.8 partition.
You can tell the Mavericks instance to use the other partition as your Home directory, instead of the Home directory on the Mavericks drive.
If you have your OS and data on the same partition, and you don't have enough room on your disk(s) for the above procedures, then your best solution would likely be make a Carbon Copy Clone of the drive, wipe it completely, and install Mavericks from some external source other than another partition with another OS, and migrate your data back.
There is stuff on the Web about making a bootable Mavericks install disk on a flash memory stick.
But whichever way you end up doing it, you will have to boot into a clean OS on a different partition or disk from the target Mavericks install partition or disk.
Last caveat: it may be difficult, but not impossible, to maintain your, or multiple users', identity and accounts and where they point, as well as your online IDs.
Hope that helps a bit. Don't give up, but do take precautions (a CCC backup or a Tiime Machine is always wise anyway) and write everything down as you go.
FWIW, I'm not using the Mavericks partition for anything, not even experimentation. I'm still using my Snow Leopard, because it works fine (finally) and is the only way to run Eudora. Until, that is, I solve the problem of running 10.6.8 server in a virtual machine in the Mavericks partition so I can run Eudora under Steve's nose with impunity, and so seamlessly it seems to be running under Mavericks, with full integration (through Parallels).
Cheers from the Antipodes,
M<

Mid 2009 macbook pro (10.7.2)- can i install leopard and lion on partitions?

Hello,
I have just bought a refurbished macbook pro and want to install 10.5 leopard on a partition of the hard drive so that I can run my original software that I use on my 2008 Imac (eg Protools 7.4 which would cost hundreds to upgrade as protools 7.4 won't work with snow leopard and protools 8 that would work with snow leopard won't work with my original mbox so would have to buy a new mbox/protools!). The disc 10.5 (leopard) disc that came with my 2008 Imac doesn't work with my macbook pro but would another Macbook pro specific disc work?
Thanks in advance!!
Specs-
15 INCH, MID 2009 MACBOOK PRO
Processor 2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory 4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce 9400M 256 MB
Software Mac OS X Lion 10.7.2 (11C74)

That machine should have shipped with Leopard, so yes you can install Leopard on a separate partition. However, you will need the original install disk to do so...they are model specific, and you can only obtain these through AppleCare. Call them & see if they will ship you such...there will be a small fee.

Help - tried to install leopard over tiger on iBook G4 and cannot boot up

My ibook G4 apparently does not have enough disk space to enable me to install leopard; shame, BUT in process of finding this out I cannot restart in Tiger - machine spends 3-4 mins trying then powers down to black screen.
Any help/advice gratefully received...
Thanks, Bob

Hi Bob, and a warm welcome to the forums!
Do you have a Backup?
Do you have a bootable external drive?
Do you have another Mac around so you could use FW Target Mode to clear some space...
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58583
If none of the above, then using your Install Disk to Erase everything and start over completely is about the only ting left.
Due to temporary files, RAM Discs, VM, you need twice what they say minimum to install... 20 GB free.

Installing Leopard over Network.

Hi, is it possible to install leopard to a Macbook that is in target disk mode, with the copy of leopard residing on a Windows Vista based PC on the same network as the Macbook?
Thanks for any help,
John

Hey All,
I have two power books one with a broken LCD mirrored to a 20" NEC. Will networking them and installing leopard from the good book to a mounted disc be one way to get the new OS on my book?

Installing snow leopard over lion

I just bought a MBP two days ago with Lion preinstalled and i want to install snow leopard.
i have the retail dvd of SL but after it starts booting from DVD it appears the "You need to restart your computer. Hold Down the Power button for several seconds or press the Restart button"
http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/7792/pict0017lo8.jpg
the dvd works ok in another older MBP 2008.
how can i install SL?

Two things,
First Mac's can't c or option boot off install disks that the OS isnt' designed for it or doesn't have the hardware drivers required on the disk.
Second the grey disks are machine model specific, meaning you can only use them with another exact model machiine.
Thrid Apple restricts booting off of earlier OS X install disks in the firmware, but if the OS gets on the drive and it works for the hardware, it will run. But not well on all machines, but yours is likely going to be fine.
So you want to get 10.6 on a factory 10.7 Mac, it's possible if Apple hasn't done any changes lately, your likely going to need another Mac that can boot off the 10.6.3 disks and apply the 10.6.8 combo update together so the drivers are together, then imaged to a wiped hard drive or partition using Firewire Target Disk Mode and another Mac.
"The Proceedure" is here and there are links to discussions and updates all over the web.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3264421?start=0&tstart=0
You also may need to read my post about restoring Lion before you erase the disk, you need to copy the Lion Recovery Partiton first with the Lion Disk Assistant. Cloning will also help a LOT.
https://discussions.apple.com/message/16276201#16276201

Reinstalling Snow Leopard over Lion?

Few days back i hve downloaded mac lion "Mac OS X 10.7 (11A511)" from a torrent site.
But now when i m trying to reinstall snow leopard from the installation CD which i got along with my macbook then intallation does not begins.
Following error caution appears while intallation "You can't use this version of the application Install Mac OS X with this version of Mac OS X."
Plz tell me how to reinstall snow leopard and plz tell me teps too as it will help me a lot.

Boot up from your Snow Leopard DVD. Launch Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. Erase your hard drive. Then reinstall Snow Leopard. Restore your personal data from backups. Reinstall your apps from their original install discs, or from fresh downloads from trusted sources. No more torrent sites for you.

Reinstall of Snow Leopard over Lion

Alright. So I'm currently using a mid-2010 MacBook Pro 13inch. I was initially using Snow Leopard which came bundled with the system, and shortly after upgraded to Lion through the upgrade path instead of a clean install. After a variety of issues, I partitioned my MacBook Pro into 2 partitions, the 1st partition being the main OS and the 2nd partition being a simple storage area for music, movies, etc. During a recent trip, my MacBook basically crashed and would not start properly.
I'm now stuck with a major problem. As I only have the Snow Leopard DVD, I only made a notable version of the Snow Leopard OS on a USB, and I did not ever bother to make a Recovery USB drive with Lion. After attempting to access the hard drive from the bootable USB, I've discovered that the computer cannot seem to connect to the internet, meaning that the online recovery mode is not an option, and neither is the Recovery USB, as it will only work if my machine created it.
So now, I'm left with a few major questions, I'm aware that Snow Leopard had an archive & install feature built-into the install process. Is this still preserved in Lion? If I manage to find some way to re-install Lion onto Partition 1, will the user data be preserved? What are the chances that my photos, music, etc (user data) will be erased or lost?
For those curious as to why I am not simply giving this in to Apple Support, in my current residence (Singapore), there is no official apple store or support center, it seems to be made of third-party contractors authorized by Apple. There have already been cases of tech support abuse here, so I would rather not put my data in their hands.
UPDATE: I am currently attempting to restore a Lion InstallEMD.dmg image from one USB onto another. I plan to do this through DiskUtility while booting into the Snow Leopard Install DVD I currently still possess. Hopefully, I will have a USB capable of installing Mac Lion on other computers (Apparently, some users have been able to get this method to work). I will update this thread with my results in a couple of days. In the meantime, I would appreciate any input! Also, if any users out there have a spare Mac to test these methods, could you try and share your results?

Note that Snow Leopard does not have an Erase and Install option.
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 files.
Make Your Own Mountain/Lion Installer
1. After downloading Mountain/Lion you must first save the Install Mac OS X Mountain/
    Lion application. After Mountain/Lion downloads DO NOT click on the Install button.
    Go to your Applications folder and make a copy of the Mountain/Lion installer. Move
    the copy into your Downloads folder. Now you can click on the Install button. You
    must do this because the installer deletes itself automatically when it finishes
    installing.
2. Get a USB flash drive that is at least 8 GBs. Prep this flash drive as follows:
a. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
b. After DU loads select your flash drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left
      side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
c. 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.
d. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side
      list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
e. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the
      button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
f. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to an hour depending upon the flash
     drive size.
3. Locate the saved Mountain/Lion installer in your Downloads folder. CTRL- or RIGHT-click on the installer and select Show Package Contents from the contextual menu. Double-click on the Contents folder to open it. Double-click on the SharedSupport folder. In this folder you will see a disc image named InstallESD.dmg.
4. Plug in your freshly prepared USB flash drive. You are going to clone the content of the InstallESD.dmg disc image to the flash drive as follows:
a. Double-click on the InstallESD.dmg file to mount it on your Desktop.
b. Open Disk Utility.
c. Select the USB flash drive from the left side list.
d. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
e. Select the USB flash drive volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
f. Drag the mounted disc icon from the Desktop into the Source entry field.
g. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
When the clone is completed you have a fully bootable installer that you can use without having to re-download Mountain/Lion.
Note: The term Mountain/Lion used above means Lion or Mountain Lion.
As an alternative to the above (you still have to do your own download of Lion/Mountain Lion) you can try using Lion DiskMaker 2.0 that automates the process of Steps 2 through 4.

Problems with installing leopard over snow leopard

Have a Leopard store bought DVD and want to use it to install over a current install of Snow Leopard, 10.6.2 - but when I use the installer, and the machine re-boots to run the install, the screen is just grey and blank, forever. Any ideas?

You can't downgrade a system this way. The only way to downgrade is to do a full backup and then and Erase and Install. And if the machine is a new one which came with Snow leopard installed, you can't downgrade to an earlier system by any method: the hardware won't handle it.

HT2956 installing leopard over lion

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