Installing Lion/Snow Leopard on external hd

hello,
i was wondering if it was anyway possible to Install Lion/Snow Leopard on an external hd so that i could use the external hd as my main hd.

Absolutely. This is how I do my upgrades for my MacBooks. I first install to the external drive, and then after I have verified that everything is working I swap the internal and external drives. When the Installer starts, you will have the option to select which disk you want to install on. If the drive is not already set up with a GUID partition table you will have to do that in Disk Utility before you can install Lion on it. During the installation you will have the option to move all your files and settings over from the internal drive.

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Lion and snow leopard bootcamp, after installing lion snow leopard bootcamp with windows 7 does not boot

Just installed Lion OS on my 2nd mac (on the 1st without an issue) but as I had a partition with windows 7 (installed with Snow Leopard bootcamp).
It seems that Lion OS renamed the Bootcamp partition but I am not able to rename it through OS.
Is there a solution for this or do I need to re-install?
Many thanks for your help
Rui

Hi Jack.........ok ive managed to create a link to that video on how to install bootcamp.....this is the tutorial i used and i managed to gain 100% completion on bootcamp 1st time no messing......like i said in my previous reply did you save the windows support files from apple....(Critical).....ok no point in messing about i suggest you start again from scratch........these are the things i used and YOU will need to complete bootcamp
mem stick or cd-r / dvd-r......original copy disc of win 7 ...i never used an iso i used original disc....allow a minimum of 30gb of space for your win 7 partition.....if you want bootcamp so you can use big programs like windows based games i.e.....Crysis/Call of duty etc etc ..then you will need to consider that you will need to allow a bigger partition to allow your HD to store the files.....this is the reason i installed bootcamp and so i made my partition i have a 750GB HD so i made a partition of 300gb for windows 7 and left the other 450gb for Mac....so you need to partition enough for what you want bootcamp for remember once you get bootcamp working you will need to install ALL Important Windows updates Including Win 7 SP1......once everything is installed you will have bootcamp up and running lovely.....u can then boot up with either win7 or mac......click this link and watch carefully and do exactly as shown ok and you should be fine...if you have any probs contact me again ok.....let me know how you get on ok..:)...http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=fvwp&v=QFIWtXTl4d0&NR=1

Why can't brand new MacBookPro9,1 (OEM Mountain-Lion) boot from Snow Leopard on external drive, or internal partition?

Why can't brand new MacBookPro9,1 (OEM Mountain-Lion) boot from Snow Leopard on external drive, or internal partition?
Is this because of hardware changes? Or firmware changes? Or is it just and Apple Inc. administrative fiat?

@Steve Holton: Sorry Steve, but you're wrong about that one . I'm using 10.8 (purchased and downloaded) on the internal HD of this MBP8,3 (2.2 GHz, 17"), and I am also able to boot into 10.7.4 and 10.6.8 from external FW800 partitions.
However, I DO have problems with my MBP9,1. It came with 10.7.4 installed and ran fine. Then I purchased and installed 10.8. It ran fine but could no longer boot from 10.7.4 on an external partition. I then reinstalled 10.7.4 on the internal HD and discovered that it is still unable to boot (even 10.7.4) from an external FW800 partition.
One of Apple's Senior Support Advisors has done some remote troubleshooting but the case is still open and unresolved. An earlier Apple Support case suggested that when, I installed the downloaded copy of 10.8, there had been a "firmware update" (behind the scenes) that is now causing the problems with booting from my external partition(s). This apparently is "a bug": it is not what is supposed to happen.
So - I believe - "the problem" really has nothing to do with hardware capability. It is strictly about Apple's strategy for "managing its future customer base". If you don't like it - use something else - I am seriously considering Ubuntu as an alternative.
If there's a hidden caveat in all this it's probably "Read Appple's Licence Agreement VERY Carefully".

Can I do a clean install of Lion, onto my Mac Book Pro4,1, that is currently running 10.5.8? I have seen U-tube videos on how to do a clean install to Snow Leopard, and another from SL to Lion, but can zero out my HD, and do a clean install to Lion?

Can I do a clean install of Lion, onto my Mac Book Pro4,1, that is currently running 10.5.8? I have seen U-tube videos on how to do a clean install to Snow Leopard, and another from SL to Lion, but can zero out my HD, and do a clean install to Lion?

See this article.

Had to wipe my drive so I could do a clean install of snow leopard Now I look every where on how to move bookmarks, address book and I cal settings. I have them back up on a external drive with Time machine but can not move, copy or restore my old sett d

Had to wipe my drive so I could do a clean install of snow leopard. Now I have look every where on how to move bookmarks, address book and I cal settings. I have them back up on a external drive with Time machine but can not move, copy or restore my old settings. The instructions I have found or no help or needs more clarafication on what to do.

Use migration assistant to move your files. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4889

After clean install of Snow Leopard, Time Machine did not restore all files. When I try to restore these files I get "Not enough disk space" error. What do I need to do to get these important files back onto my Mac from my external hard drive??

After clean install of Snow Leopard, Time Machine did not restore all files. When I try to restore these files I get "Not enough disk space" error. What do I need to do to get these important files back onto my Mac from my external hard drive??

Janet.b wrote:
About 3 years old...pretty dated now I guess. Am thinking I may just need to have it upgraded by a Mac tech.
For what the Apple Store's charge you can buy almost buy a new computer.
Just for giggles I brought my old laptop in for a drive upgrade and asked, they wanted $600 for a drive that only cost $120 at the time and it was a slow 5,400 RPM drive. The new Mac's of a similar make were going for $1000.
I did the drive replacement myself, got a faster drive of better quality for $300 instead.
Then another time I asked for a RAM upgrade from 4GB to 8GB, they wanted to charge $400 + $35 for the labor.
The same RAM is on Crucial.com for $90 and all I need is a 00 micro phillips screwdriver.
So you see what's going on here.
I think what you should do, if your out of warranty/AppleCare, is to call up the local PC tech guy who also does Mac's and have them fix you right up.
They can offer more personalized care which you need. Clone your old drive to the new and everything.
With Apple they are overworked at the Genius Bar and just place roadblocks so you buy a new machine instead.
For instance, all new iMac's now have proprietary drive software installed on the hard drives for heat monitoring. So now the only choice a user has is to bring their iMac into a Apple Store for a very expensive drive upgrade, which a person then decides the money is better spent buying a new machine.

I have a new MacBook Pro with Lion installed and I want to know if I can partition the HD so that I can install & run Snow Leopard OS 10.6.8?

I have a new MacBook Pro with Lion installed and I want to know if I can partition the HD so that I can install & run Snow Leopard OS 10.6.8?

Most likely won't run SL unless it's one that was released before Lion went public. Color SL gone from new Macs.
27" i7 iMac 10.6.8 , Mac OS X (10.7.2), G4 450 MP 1.5 GB RAM w/(10.5.8/10.4.11/9.2.2)

I have a July 2011 mini with Lion 10.8 (MC815LL/A). Can I back install to Snow Leopard

I have a July 2011 mini with Lion 10.8 (MC815LL/A). Can I back install to Snow Leopard?

No. That model originally came with Lion, not Snow Leopard. You cannot boot Snow Leopard on that model. Lion is 10.7, not 10.8. The latter is Mountain Lion.

How to install Lion over Leopard if I already have the InstallESD.dmg file?

How can I install Lion over Leopard? I know everyone keeps saying you have to have Snow Leopard, but it seems that you only need it to actually download the file. I have the file and I've created a back-up disk and drive (using a 4gb card) and nothing worked. I don't understand why I can't install even if I have the file. The computer doesn't even recognize the disk when I press option at start up but it recoginizes it as Lion when fully logged in. I can't install using the .pkg file because it says it can't be installed on the running system. I have tried to use the drive and it gives me a EFI Boot when I press option at start up and so I click on it and It goes to the apple grey screen with the circle circling below it. But after a while, that apple turns into a No sign basically. So what else do I need to change or edit to install Lion over Leopard. The startup disk nor the drive are working.

The Lion installer is not a bootable device. You must run the installer like any other application. Since the installer will only upgrade Snow Leopard it may refuse to run. What you might try is putting a bootable Snow Leopard system onto a 16 GB USB flash drive, drag the Lion installer application into the Applications folder, boot the computer from the flash drive then run the Lion installer.
As for creating your own bootable flash drive you will need an 8 GB flash drive for that:
Make Your Own Lion Installer
1. After downloading Lion you must first save the Install Mac OS X Lion application. After Lion downloads DO NOT click on the Install button. Go to your Applications folder and make a copy of the 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 Lion.
2. Get a USB flash drive that is at least 8 GBs. Prep this flash drive as follows:
Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
3. Locate the saved 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 InstallESD.dmg disc image to the flash drive as follows:
Open Disk Utility.
Select the USB flash drive from the left side list.
Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
Check the box labeled Erase destination.
Select the USB flash drive volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
Drag the InstallESD.dmg disc image file into the Source entry field.
Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
When the clone is completed you have a fully bootable Lion installer that you can use without having to re-download Lion.

Wiped my entire macbook drive and now snow leopard won't install over snow leopard server, HELP!

I ordered, what I thought, was Snow Leopard a while ago because I was running Leopard and I wanted to get the app store so I could move onto Lion and then Mountain Lion. I ordered the disc over the phone and the woman sent me the Snow Leopard Server instead of just Snow Leopard, I didn't think much about it so I clean installed it and ran it on my unibody macbook for a while. I didn't see much use for the disc anymore seeing that everything was downloadable at this point, so I sold the disc on Ebay and carried on. The server edition started to slow my computer down due to all of its excess applications and what not, and I read online that Lion and Mountain Lion are also very slow on the old unibody Macbooks so I ordered a regular Snow Leopard disc, now available online, and tried to install it. My computer said Snow Leopard cannot be installed over Snow Leopard server so I went to disc utitlity and wiped my entire drive while the OS X Snow Leopard disc was running and trying to install. I went back to the install window and it still said OS X Snow leopard cannot be installed over Snow Leopard Server so I shut down my computer and tried to turn it back on and I all I got was a blinking folder with a question mark in it, what do I do????????
P.S. All of my content is backed up on an external harddrive so I am all good with that.

Drive Preparation
1. Boot from your OS X 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. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. 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.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
7. After formatting has finished quit DU and return to the installer. Complete the Snow Leopard installation.

Clean install of Snow Leopard fails

Dear all,
As the title says my current issue is that I'm unable to perform a new installation of Snow Leopard after performing a single-pass secure erase of the Mac partition of my hard drive. However, some background to the problem is probably useful.
My troubles begin after attempting to transfer files from an USB stick to my Macbook pro. Drag/drop or copy/paste in finder resulted in nothing happening. I ejected the USB drive (which flashed to let me know the drive itself thought it had been ejected) however the USB stick did not disappear from Finder. Further attempts to eject the stick using finder did nothing. Attempting to reset Finder produced the well known "The application Finder.app can't be opened. -10810" error (see http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2135129&tstart=45). After reading through that thread and trying some of the suggestions I eventualy had to resort to a hard reset of my macbook. After restarting the macbook ran very slowly for a couple of minutes before producing the same Finder error as before (though no external drives/devices were involved this time).
After coming up against the same problem again and again I decided to verify and repair the drive using the OS X installation cd that came with my macbook pro. The hard disk itself seemed ok (S.M.A.R.T: verified), which I expected as I have Windows 7 running under bootcamp on a separate partition. (As a quick aside, Windows 7 was and still is running fine, and in fact I could successfully access and open all the files on my Mac partition from within windows. This allowed me to grad up-to-date copies of all my important files before taking more drastic action.) Verifying the mac partition resulted in a message saying the disk needed repairing. Attempting to repair the disk initially resulted in errors saying a clean install was required, though the repair succeeded on my 4th attempt. This repair failed to fix the problem and I was still getting the very slow running leading quickly to the same Finder error.
Eventually i decided my only option was to perform an erase and install of Snow Leopard. Initially I simply erased the partition using Disk Utility after booting from the install disk (default option) and then attempted to install Snow Leopard. The install failed repeatedly, alternating between 'An error has occured in the installation process' and 'Unable to install supprting files' error messages. I also tried repairing the disk after erasing and then installing with the same errors. I then performed a single-pass secure erase on the Mac partition (again from Disk Utility via the startup disk), verified the drive (finding an unassigned node error), successfully repaired the drive (twice, just to make sure) and attempted another installation, which again failed with the 'An error has occured in the installation process' error.
So I currently have a formatted Mac partition which refuses to accept a new Snow Leopard install and a fully working copy of Windows 7 running under bootcamp on a separate partition of the same disk. Is there anything else I can try other than reformating the entire hard drive and losing my bootcamp installation?

try this idea: Do a leopard install to an external disk then do a Disk Utility "restore" function to that clean partition. So you restore from the external to the internal partition. Should leave Bootcamp untouched.

Help Please! Trying to do a clean install of Snow Leopard on a new drive

I'm trying to help a family member with his Mac Mini.
He installed a new HD and we're trying to do a clean install of Snow Leopard from the DVD. I've tried booting to the DVD by holding the C key during boot up and that does nothing. I've tried mounting his HD on my Macbook and installing that way and that doesn't work either.
How do I install this if you don't have an OS on you drive to boot up to?

Michael Brown1 wrote:
I was able to boot it in target disk mode by holding T. I formatted the drive as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) I've read in a couple places about GUID but I can't find that as an option on the Disk Utility.
Partition tab, Options button.
Is it possible to load the OS onto the Mini from my Macbook? I can see the installation DVD and the HD on the mini from my Macbook, but when I try to install I get a warning that it can't be installed on that volume.
It's been a while since I tried something like that, but it worked in the past. It may be complaining because the partition table is not set correctly.
I couldn't find anything about installing on another drive. I did find this old [MacFixIt article|http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-10329087-263.html] that you might find useful if you've got an external drive. Essentially, you partition it (not necessary for what you want), make an image of the Installer and then restore the image to the external drive. You can then use that drive as the boot drive. That was for Leopard, so I don't know if it will work.

In how many different computers can I install my snow leopard?

In how many different computers can I install my snow leopard?
The one that came when I bought my Macbook Pro.

Kappy, I believe that he's asking about Snow Leopard, not Lion. Your answer would be correct in reference to Lion purchased from the Mac App Store, but not Lion shipped as original OS on a new Mac.
derojas, assuming you have a standard OEM, it-came-with-the-computer Snow Leopard installer, you are licensed to use it only on that one computer. You are not licensed to install it on any others. Many OEM discs can install only on the specific hardware model with which they shipped, anyway.
If you have a standard retail installer, it's technically possible to install it on any Mac capable of running Snow Leopard. However, again, the license grants you the freedom to install it on only one Mac at a time (i.e. you'd have to delete it from one Mac before you could install it on another).
There are family packs and other multi-licensing arrangements that permit the owner to install Snow Leopard on more than one Mac. You need to check the license to find out how many and what other restrictions might apply.

My DVD player will not work. I am unable to install the snow leopard 10.6.3 because of it.

My DVD player will not work. I am unable to install the snow leopard 10.6.3 because of it.

Do you have a friend with an Intel Mac. If your MacBook and their Mac have firewire ports you can install by Target Disk Mode. You'll need a retail version of SL to do this with any Mac other than a MacBook.
Start up your friend's Mac with your install disk. After you get to the install screen on your friend's Mac connect your MacBook to your friend's Mac in "Target Mode"with a firewire cable http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1661
Then open "Disk Utility" from the "Utilities Menu" on the Menu Bar from the install disk on your friend's Mac. You should see both your MacBook and your friend's Mac hard drives in there. Erase and partition your MacBook drive and then choose that drive when you go back to the install screen. Or install over your existing OS on your drive if you have applications you want to keep.
The only other way is to buy an external DVD drive on eBay. http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=firewire+external+dvd+drive&_sacat=0&LH_BIN=1&_ sop=15&_dmpt=Apple_Laptops&_odkw=usb+external+dvd+drive&_osacat=0&_trksid=p3286. c0.m270.l1313 or at MacSales http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/optical-drives/
And of course be sure your Macbook meets the system requirements. To upgrade to Snow Leopard or install Snow Leopard for the first time, you must have a Mac with:
An Intel processor.
An internal or external DVD drive, or DVD or CD Sharing.
At least 1 GB of RAM (additional RAM is recommended).
A built-in display or a display connected to an Apple-supplied video card supported by your computer.
At least 5 GB of disk space available.

Cannot boot Snow Leopard from external FireWire drive

I use a Western Digital My Passport Studio 500 GB external drive to back up my MacBook Pro with Time Machine. I had created a 30 GB Leopard boot partition with various utilities and tools; since the small drive goes wherever the laptop goes, I figured it might come in handy to be able to boot the computer in the event something went wrong with its internal 250 GB drive.
Over the weekend, I upgraded the external drive to Snow Leopard, and now it can no longer be used to boot the laptop. The symptoms are truly weird. Holding down the Option key while rebooting does not show the external drive unless I disconnect and reconnect the FireWire cable. The drive then shows up. I select it, and it appears to begin to boot, then it just sits on the gray screen with the little round thingie turning for a long time (five to ten minutes). Eventually, the system boots from its internal drive. This happens regardless of whether I'm connected by means of FireWire 400 or 800.
After spending a lot of time looking at the usual suspects (cables, permissions, PRAM, etc.) I reinstalled Sand Leopard (OK, 10.5) and lo and behold, the drive boots again (though for some reason I still have to go through the disconnect/reconnect routine). Clearly, something in the OS has changed with respect to the way booting from external drives is handled.
On the positive side, I have none of the symptoms described in other threads: Time Machine works flawlessly, and both the boot partition and the Time Machine partition appear on the Snow Leopard desktop every time I connect the drive.
Does anyone have the same issues? Does anyone know of a workaround?
Thanks,
Daniel

Hi,
Working from a MacBook Pro 2.4 (Santa Rosa) with 4gb ram, running OS 10.5.7-
(All external HDs are 7200 rpm)
Shortly after our fresh install of Snow Leopard onto a new but already tested External 1.5 Seagate Barracuda (with the most current firmware), in an OWC Mercury Elite enclosure-
We installed Snow Leopard smoothly to that external HD without any issues, and it booted up from that 1.5T external HD, and worked fine.
Then, still working from the MacBook Pro, I turned on and booted another external HD (a Newertech Guardian Maximus RAID running 10.4.11 via FW800, daisy chained to the 1.5T External with Snow Leopard newly installed.
Again that's MacBook Pro <FW800> Snowy external HD <FW800> 10.4.11 RAID (booted & working from the RAID).
But when I tried to bootup up Snow Leopard, after doing the work on the 10.4.11 RAID-
It would not boot up.
Though Snowy would appear as an available Start Up disk, each time it was selected as the Boot drive,
the Internal HD OS 10.5.7 booted instead.
I changed around the cables and tried repeatedly.
Same result, no Snowy boot.
Even after the OS 10.4.11 external RAID was power down, and disconnected.
After some looking around, I found this forum:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2136208&tstart=0
Got me thinking.
I tried the USB, and it booted !
I tried the FW400, and it booted !
And mysteriously, at this point- I tried the FW800, and it booted !
And then, the MBP boots seemed to reliably boot from that external, via FW800.
Bizarre.
Snow Cat needs to be taught originally how to find FW800 from the bottom up ?
Turns out, Snow Leopard doesn't like booting,
if the preceding boot was on the 10.4.11 RAID, and work was done with programs there.
So, once again, I repeated this process:
After working with programs on the 10.4.11 external HD,
the MBP would not boot the Snow Leopard external HD,
it defaulted to booting from the MBP internal HD OS 10.5 via FW800.
even though Snowy was selected for Start Up.
This was the case repeatedly.
(It would also boot from the 10.4.11 external RAID, if it were selected for Start Up.)
(In each of these tests below, I only rebooted the computer at each test. I did no work with programs on the various HDs.)
SO, once again, at this point of the process:
I plugged in that Snowy external HD via FW400,
and it booted up fine !
Then I booted up from the Internal 10.5, and tried to boot Snowy via FW800 again.
It worked !
Then I turned on the 10.4.11 RAID external HD, and tried to reboot from the Snowy external HD.
It worked too !
Then I booted from the 10.4.11 RAID, it came up fine.
Then booted from the Snowy, it came up fine.
Then booted from the Internal HD 10.5, it came up fine.
Then booted from Snowy again, it came up fine.
Then I turned off the 10.4.11 HD, booted from Snowy, it came up fine.
Then booted from the Internal, it came up fine.
Then tried Snowy one last time, it came up fine.
Anyway, the issue is:
It works fine-
Except when I do work within the programs on the 10.4.11 external RAID.
Then I have to use FW400 or USB to get it to boot once again . . .
Regardless of whether the other external HD is removed from the system.
It's some sort of flaw, and totally repeatable in testing.
Hopefully, it will be fixed soon.
Howard

Installing Lion/Snow Leopard on external hd

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