Installing 10.6.8 partition on 10.8 iMac (mid 2011)

Hello.  I have recently bought a previous generation iMac, 21.5 inch mid 2011, 2.8gHz, i7 (special build), 8GB memory.  It was apparently a refurb, and purchased by the first owner around Oct 2012.
It came with Mountain Lion 10.8.2 installed, and I have updated to 10.8.3.  However, I'd much rather be using 10.6.8!  I have a lot of archived files on CD going way back to OS 8.1, and the fact that 10.8.3 can no longer read these backups was the final straw: that and the lack of Rosetta.
According to the 'original OS' stated on a couple of support sites, this configuration was indeed first issued with 10.6.8, but if I try to restart from the 10.6.3 universal installer DVD I just get a blank screen and a series of bleeps.  Does this mean that there has been a firmware change/upgrade that prevents 10.6 running, or could it just be that it needs a 10.6.8 install disc (if such a thing exists...)?
In an ideal world, I'd like to partition the internal drive and have both 10.6.8 and 10.8.x bootable.  I believe that the Parallels/10.6.8 Server route is another option, but it starts to get expensive...
Any workarounds would be much appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
Martin.

At the expense of repeating myself....
Yes, when the mid-2011 iMac's came out, they were shipped with Snow Leopard and a 10.6.7 install disk.  Shortly after they were introduced, Apple came out with Lion, 10.5, and subsequent iMac's were shipped with that.  If you bought a mid-2011 iMac from the refurb store, as I did a couple of months ago, it was shipped with Mountain Lion.  BUT, there have been NO fiirmware changes to the hardware that prevent the machines from running Snow Leopard.  As I stated earlier in this thread, I used an older MacMini running SL to clone a 10.6.8 hard drive and then used that to successfully clone 10.6.8 onto my iMac and it runs with no problems.  AND, Apple keeps track of the machines they sell - what software was shipped with what serial number.  So, if you bought an early release iMac new that came with Snow Leopard, you may be able to obtain replacement Snow Leopard restore disks for it.  BUT, if you bought a machine after the release of Lion, or a machine from the refurb store that shipped with Lion or Mountain Lion, you CANNOT get a SL restore disk from Apple.  Trust me on this, I tried.  I spent a LOT of time, both through emails and on the phone, with AppleCare personnel.  If you don't have a 10.6.7 restore disk, the only way to get SL on one of these machines is with a clone from another SL machine.
Dennis

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