Is it possible to downgrade an Early 2011 15" MBP to Snow Leopard?

Is it possible to downgrade an Early 2011 15" MBP (MacBookPro8,2) to Snow Leopard?
The laptop shipped with Lion, and I don't recall whether this model ever even shipped with Snow Leopard. I figure if it did ship with snow leopard then there is at least a chance that I'd be able to downgrade. Though, of course, I don't have the disk.
I will check with the apple store guys at some point, but I thought I'd ask here.
Austin

If you had bought the same model MBP a few weeks earlier you could have received two software licenses - Snow Leopard as shipped, and also a free upgrade to Lion. That being the case, why not call AppleCare and see if they will "retroactively" give you the same capability by sending you the grey-labeled machine-specific Snow Leopard install disc that originally shipped with your model MBP before it started shipping with Lion.
In this thread the OP requested a Snow Leopard disc for a new iMac that shipped with Lion, and reported the following:
Called Apple and they first said I coul not install SL, a day latter and I received a call from the manager saying that I had gotten the wrong information, so yes, I can install SL. They sending me the grey disk free of charge.
Apple usually charges a nominal fee for replacing a "lost" grey-labeled Install disc. Of course in your situation you are not actually "entitled" to any disc at all, and the particular person at Apple that you speak with may not be as accommodating. But it can't hurt to ask.

Similar Messages

I have a 2011 Macbook Pro 15" Snow Leopard Quadcore icore 7 with 8Gb of RAM and Im a Webpage Graphic Designer but why is my Macbookpro is so slow!?

I have a 2011 Macbook Pro 15" Snow Leopard Quadcore icore 7 with 8Gb of RAM and Im a Webpage Graphic Designer but why is my Macbookpro is so slow!?
I'm opening like Skype, AIM, Chrome the Memory Hog, Adobe Photshop and Illustrator... Its so slow! I tried Onyx, CleanMyMac, iFreeMemory or just purging but still i still have to restart to get it back to normal after closing all the applications... im not really impressed with the memory swapping thing,Even though my inactive RAM is like 2GB its so SloW! Anyone knows how to fix this problem?

It's hard to say why your machine is slow, but that machine with 8 GB of RAM should not be slow. Could be any number of possible problems. Try taking a look at the Mac OS X Speed FAQ.

I have Lion as my current and main OS. Is it possible to partition part of my hard drive for Snow Leopard?

I have Lion as my current and main OS. Is it possible to partition part of my hard drive for Snow Leopard? I'm good on partitioning but when I insert the Snow Leopard install disk a message tells me I can't run the install program because I currently have Lion installed... obviously. Have I gone about this the wrong way? Do I need to boot the computer using the Snow Leopard install disk instead of my main HD?

Apple will never update that as for the most part it is true, and the fact that they really don't want you to run older OS X versions (for whatever reason).
Now this probably won't work with the next line of MBPs and MBAs that come out. But it is for the current builds.
But as I stated you need one of the lastest builds of SL for it to even boot the system.
It won't work with the retail 10.6.3 DVD disc. That version does not have the correct drivers for the newest Mac's.

It is possible to find mac os x v.10.6 snow leopard free download

It is possible to find mac os x v.10.6 snow leopard free download because I had a problem with my mac and I musst reinstall Snow Leopard

gregorifromgorduno wrote:
My computer cames with already os system intalled no Origiinal discs.
You will need to Contact Apple for replacements discs...
Have your Serial Number handy for when they ask for it...
Apple Contact USA
http://www.apple.com/contact/
Contacting Apple World Wide for Support and Service
http://support.apple.com/kb/HE57

How to downgrade from OSX 10.8.5 to Snow Leopard, on an Early 2011 MacBook Pro, without the original installer disk?

Hello! So here are the specs.
I have an Early 2011 MacBook Pro, which came with OSX 10.6.6 by default.
I've lost my installer disk so I though I'd buy a retail one from the online Apple Store, and version 10.6.3 is what they sent me.
Simply running the install OSX app won't work, I get a msg saying:
-- You can't use this version of the application "Install Mac OS X" with this version of OS X. You have "Install Mac OS X" 23.1.1. --
So, I've tried booting from the new disk hoping to erase my current drive and install Snow Leopard, but no can do, I get 3 beeps and have to force shutdown (not RAM related, see below). Laptop works fine when I spare it this maneuver.
After some research I understand 2 things:
1. Only the original installer disk will let me restore factory settings (and I don't have it).
2. I can only install the default OSX (10.6.6) or a later version (that 10.6.3 DVD may not have the correct drivers for my system).
Are these conclusions right? If so, would the Apple Store replace my disk for an updated 10.6.6. one? If not, then what are my options?
Thank you!
References:
http://manuals.info.apple.com/MANUALS/1000/MA1172/en_US/Snow_Leopard_Installatio n_Instructions.pdf
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3910
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2186
https://discussions.apple.com/message/19444837#19444837
https://discussions.apple.com/message/18085179#18085179
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1163160

Phone AppleCare and order the computer's original disks.
(92307)

Early 2011 (March) MBP hard drive crashed a week ago, all data was lost. Why is the Hitachi hard drive so prone to have defective read/write heads?

Shouldn't Apple be better quality than this? I've used my old MBP from 2006 for 5 years with no problems. I've only had to back up data maybe once a year because it was so durable.
But this 2011 MBP had the hitachi 320gb SATA drive and one day it started clicking and everything froze. I immediately shut it down took it to the Apple Store, in which the genius bar guy said there was nothing they could do other than swap out the drive (which I did myself as I was not prepared to be charged $250+ for services and waste 2-3 weeks as my warranty was 1 month overdue). Even with AppleCare coverage, Apple will still not recover the data...
This is ridiculous! I strictly use the MBP for school/no gaming/haven't dropped it or moved it around rigorously/bought it instore (assuming it was handled properly). There is no reason for being such crap quality at $1300. I took it to a data recovery center and get this, the quote was $1700 as the read/write heads were defective and the surface of the disk was scratched, I could buy a new computer with that money! Were there no quality checks for these drives? I have PC laptops at home and none of them has had that problem! I'm planning to dispute this with Apple for losing years worth of valuable data.
Does anyone have the same problem? Are early 2011 MBPs prone to hard drive failures?

As Ogel stated drives fail. Unless you bought your 2011 Mac right when the early 2011 models came out you still should be under the one year warranty. They came out at the end of Febuary.
So that drive should be covered, dependinig on when you bought your Mac. And they offer a extended warranty which if you had purchased it would cover the drive failure, Hardware not data.
As far as the data, Apple includes the Time Machine program and there are 2, that I know of, cloning programs available to backup your data. If you did not use any of those programs you will ALWAYS LOSE YOUR DATA.
That is a fact of computers. They fail, end of story. Unless you have multiple copies of your files you are going to lose them.
Good Luck.

Downgrading a 2011 mac mini to Snow Leopard

So here's my situation. I've got a Mac Mini that came loaded with Lion. I bought it to use with software that requires Power PC compatibility. I unfortunately found out about Lion no longer supporting Power PC far too late after purchasing the mini. I've got a copy of Snow Leopard and I'd like to partition the hard drive to have Leopard running on one partition and Lion on the other. The issue I'm running into now is the lack of an external CD drive for the mini. I've got a friend's 2009 Mac Book Pro that I've been using for it's shared CD drive set up. However I keep running into issues actually installing Snow Leopard onto the Mini. Mainly when I try this, it says that the system isn't compatible. I've got a copy of Parallels, but I've yet to open the box since I want to be sure that using that would work.
So the question really boils down to is this even feasible? If so, how do I go about doing it.

It might be possible if you can find a DVD with a version of Snow Leopard that is new enough to boot your Mac Mini. Possible yes but highly unlikely because the vast majority of them are to old of version to do it.
It might be simplier to get older hardware that originally shipped with Snow Leopard instead.
What is this software that requires PowerPC support?
Allan

Is it possible to uninstall mountain lion and go back to snow leopard

Have an mid-2009 macbook pro and since installing Mountain Lion it has become very slow on startup, shutdown and everything inbetween including random crashes of software. Is is possible to go back to Snow Leopard ?
Thanks

Also you should look at this User tip as well, because your machine is a bit dated and likely needs a new boot drive + more RAM and performance tweaks for maximum Snow Leopard performance.
For Snow Leopard Speed Freaks
Snow Leopard is extremely fast on my Early 2011 machine here, it's because it's a 32 bit operating system that can address up to 16GB of RAM (or more)
OS X Lions are 64 bit operating systems so they act more like trucks and can move better in bulk.
Snow Leopard is like a small race car.

Downgrading to Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard Issues

Hey there. I recently have bought a MacBook Pro with lion already on it. I wanted to play old mac games on it so I heard you could downgrade to snow leopard if you have the disk to install it. Will it work even if the lion is already installed on the computer (latest version of macbook). Also, I try to do it, since I have the disks, and it restarts my computer but doesnt start...It's just a blank grey screen that doesnt do anything. Please Help. Thanks

I repeat, you can't use any system older than the system your Mac ships with.
You can only do that if your Mac shipped with SL or earlier.

Downgrading from Lion 10.7.5 to Snow Leopard 10.6 w/o Time Machine

I've been trying to solve this issue for a bit, and would appreciate any fresh perspectives on the issue.
I recently purchased a 2006 Mac Pro 1.1. It has a dual 2.66Ghz Xeon processor. I'm fairly sure nothing has been customized in the machine hardware-wise, and that it is in the original configuration apple sold it with in 2006.
The machine arrived with the Lion 10.7.5 OS on it, which was incompatible with some of the software plug-ins I use for editing audio, so I decided to re-install Snow Leopard 10.6. I inserted my install DVD like I would normally, and was greeted with the error message "OSX cannot be installed on this computer, please use version 23.1.1".
I checked out the forums, and seeing that this was a common problem (with what seemed like an easy fix), proceeded to try and install anyway. I booted from the DVD by holding "C" on start-up. After booting and asking what i wanted to use as my language, the error message "Mac OSX cannot be installed on this computer" was displayed. Thinking this was another glitch, I clicked "restore from back-up, then managed to use Disk Utility to wipe my HD and zero out the contents. I reformatted my HD to Mac OS Extended Journaled, Re-partitioned it, and then reset my NV or Pram (Command+option+P+R) until i heard the start-up noise twice.
Next, I restarted the computer, booted it from the disk again, and crossed my fingers it would let me install. No luck.
I don't have a second mac pro to clone, or a Time Machine back-up from this machine (as it is brand new to me). Furthermore, it's previous owner left me with no restore disks, or usb sticks to even put Lion back on (which i don't want to do anyway, but would at least make the machine functional until i can correctly install 10.6SL).
I do have a spare 2009 imac to work with in the meantime, with Snow Leopard, though I'm assuming attempting to clone that drive would screw with the drivers and firmware in the Mac Pro. Are there any tricks to re-install my OS without using a Time Machine back-up or clone? I have the DVD, my machine just doesn't seem to want to install from it. The nearest repair shop is several hours away.
I'm at a loss for what to try next. Any ideas?

The following will only work on a Mac that is capable of being booted by a retail Snow Leopard DVD. Fortunately, you can do the following on your model should you prefer. As an alternative you could simply create a second partition on the hard drive and install a fresh copy of Snow Leopard without having to erase the drive.
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/Mountain Lion files.

Is it possible to use a MacBook Pro 9.1 with Snow Leopard

Hallo,
i tryed out to install a macbook pro 9,1 with Snow Leopard, but by loading the drivers he stops with booting.
The version i try out is 10.6.8 and i tryed to boot from an extern drive also with 10.6.8 with the newest updates.
I hope to get some tipps i can try out.
Thanks a lot!
tony

tony.scotto wrote:
Hallo,
i tryed out to install a macbook pro 9,1 with Snow Leopard, but by loading the drivers he stops with booting.
The version i try out is 10.6.8 and i tryed to boot from an extern drive also with 10.6.8 with the newest updates.
I hope to get some tipps i can try out.
Thanks a lot!
tony
While the 2011 MBP's that shipped with Lion can be made to run Snow Leopard as long as you have the appropriate installer disk for 10.6.7 or later, yours is a 2012 MBP and most likely can never be made to run Snow Leopard because the necessary hardware support drivers (e.g., USB 3.0 support) simply aren't a part of that OS.

I want to downgrade from mac os x marvels to snow leopard

Like marvics is cool, but I would like to downgrade back from marvics to snow lepoard.
Its telling me that my original install disk is not compatible help pls
Technical information/errors:
You can't use this version of the applicaiton "Install mac os X" with this version of os X.
You have install mac os X 23.1.1.
And then it talks about how it cannot be used because its a power pc application.
the computer originally came with Snow lepoard

Clean Install of Snow Leopard
Be sure to make a backup first because the following procedure will erase
the drive and everything on it.
     1. Boot the computer using the Snow Leopard Installer Disc or the Disc 1 that came
         with your computer. Insert the disc into the optical drive and restart the computer.
         After the chime press and hold down the "C" key. Release the key when you see
         a small spinning gear appear below the dark gray Apple logo.
     2. 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.
         After DU loads select the hard drive entry from the left side list (mfgr.'s ID and drive
         size.) Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window. Set the number of
         partitions to one (1) from the Partitions drop down menu, click on Options button
         and select GUID, click on OK, then set the format type to MacOS Extended
         (Journaled, if supported), then click on the Apply button.
     3. When the formatting has completed quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed
         with the OS X installation and follow the directions included with the installer.
     4. When the installation has completed your computer will Restart into the Setup
         Assistant. Be sure you configure your initial admin account with the exact same
         username and password that you used on your old drive. After you finish Setup
         Assistant will complete the installation after which you will be running a fresh
         install of OS X. You can now begin the update process by opening Software
         Update and installing all recommended updates to bring your installation current.
Download and install Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1.

Howto downgrade a MacBook Pro from Lion to Snow Leopard

Preliminary:
- another Mac running Snow Leopard 10.6.8
- the Snow Leopard 10.6.3 Retail Install DVD
- the Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1 (http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1399)
- Carbon Copy Cloner (http://bombich.com/)
- 8GB USB stick
### Preparing a USB-Stick with a patched Snow Leopard 10.6.3 Install ###
- Create an DVD/CD-Master image of the 10.6.3 Retail Install DVD with Disk Utility
- Eject the 10.6.3 Retail Install DVD
- Mount the new CDR image in a Terminal
# hdiutil attach /Path/to/MacOSX-10.6.3-Install.cdr -readwrite
- Change the current folder to the CDR image
# cd /Volumes/Mac\ OS\ X\ Install\ DVD/
- Double check that you are on the CDR image
# pwd
- Backup the Kernel
# mv ./mach_kernel ./mach_kernel-10.6.3
- Copy the new 10.6.8 Kernel from the Snow Leopard HD to the CDR image
# sudo cp -pv /Volumes/SnowLeo-HD/mach_kernel ./
- Copy the 10.6.8 Kernel Extensions from the Snow Leopard HD to the CDR image
# sudo cp -Rpv /Volumes/SnowLeo-HD/System/Library/Extensions/* ./System/Library/Extensions/
- Delete all Kext Caches on the CDR image
# sudo rm -rf ./System/Library/Caches/com.apple.*
# sudo rm -f ./System/Library/Extensions.mkext
- edit the Boot.plist on the CDR image
# sudo nano ./Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Kernel Flags</key>
    <string>-v -f -x</string>
</dict>
</plist>
# cd
- Now copy the content of the CDR image to the USB-Stick using Carbon Copy Cloner
### Snow Leopard Installation on MacBook Pro 8,2 ###
- Boot your MacBook Pro from the USB-Stick
- Install Snow Leopard
- Reboot again from the USB-Stick
- Select your language
- Open a Terminal and type
# cd /
- Find your new MacBook SnowLeo-HD
# df -h
- Copy the 10.6.8 Kernel
# cp -pv ./mach_kernel /Volumes/MacBook_SnowLeo-HD/
- Copy the 10.6.8 Kernel Extensions
# cp -Rpv ./System/Library/Extensions/* /Volumes/MacBook_SnowLeo-HD/System/Library/Extensions/
- Exit Terminal
- Repair permissions on your new MacBook SnowLeo-HD with Disk Utility
- Quit Installer
- Now boot from your new MacBook SnowLeo-HD in Secure Mode (hold down Shift while booting)
- Repair permissions on your new MacBook SnowLeo-HD with Disk Utility
- Update the Extensions Cache in a Terminal
# sudo kextcache -e --local-root --system-cache (just ignore all warnings about invalid kexts)
- Install the 10.6.8 Combo Update
- Reboot

Holy Moly!
Your'e answer is really for those kids with no experience in a terminal.
The command line is only for pro users and should no be used by any DAU. Therefore no problem at all with "rm -rf" if you have changed into the correct directory first.
One suggetion is adding these lines to your "~/.profile"
TERM=xterm-color
# colors for misc things
export TERM=xterm-color
export GREP_OPTIONS='--color=auto' GREP_COLOR='1;32'
export CLICOLOR=1
# Set colors
export LS_COLORS='di=1;36:fi=0:ln=4;34:pi=5:so=4;5:bd=5:cd=5:or=4;91:mi=4;92:ex=35:*.r b=90'
alias rm="rm -i"
alias cp="cp -i"
PS1="(\u) \[\033[01;31m\]\h\[\033[01;34m\] [\w]# \[\033[00m\]"
Than do a
# source .profile
at the terminal prompt in order to active the settings immediatelly.
Now the "rm" command will always ask before deleting any file or folder.
Unfortunately if you like to delete a folder containing other folders with several files inside you will go mad!
One possible intermediate solution is
# unalias rm; rm -rf ./System/Library/Caches/com.apple.*; alias rm="rm -i"
But as mentioned before, if you have "sweaty fingers" while typing in Unix commands you should better stay away from the terminal.

Downgrade from Mac OS X Lion to Snow leopard

I was using the Mac OS X Lion 10.7 since 29th Oct 2011. However, I wanted to clean install lion to my computer. Therefore, after backing up all my files to a ext. HD, I erased the hard drive through utility disc. Once I did it I was unable to re boot the computer by press holding the command + R keys. Not even press holding the option key is not helping me to boot the computer. Both this options takes me to the Internet recovery system. Therefore, I realise my recovery disc is not functioning.
The problem is once the Internet recovery runs it opens the Mac OS X utilities system and gives me the reinstall option as Mac OS X Mountain lion 10.8, which I have never purchase. When I enter my Apple ID and password it promt me to enter the correct Apple ID and password, which I used to purchase the Mac OS X Mountain Lion. Since I have not purchase it continuously the system reject to download the Mac OS X to my computer.
However, I bought my iMac with Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.4 and I am having the DVD. Once I insert the DVD to the optical drive and press hold the C key it won't boot either but prompting a '?' mark on a file icon and that's it with the DVD.
I don't have a external USB or DVD for the Mac OS X Lion and I have only the purchase date with my Credit card statement.
How can I install either snow leopard or lion to my computer. Now I am having a dead iMac
Thank you all in advance for any help.

Insert the disc in the drive and reboot. After the chime hold down the Option key for a one time boot menu. If after that screen comes up you don't see the Superdrive and or Snow Leopard DVD as a boot option then the SD is bad and need to be replaced. You could then go to another Mac and create a USB install thumb drive of Snow Leopard and use that to do the reinstall.
But you do not have to repost this same question over and over again in different threads.

Can I use a 45 Magsafe charger for a Early 2011 i7 MBP regularly?

Hello,
A few weeks ago the 60w charger that came with my MBP started to fail and ended up shutting the mac down unexpectedly and preventing it to boot. Therefore, I had to take it to a tech to reinstall OS with all the inconveniences this caused me. Now the computer is fine.
A friend of mine lent me a spare charger he had and told me to use it, seems pretty new and fine, but I just got home and realized it is not 60w as the default MBP but 45 Magsafe charger.
I have been reading Q&As along the forum and I found different opinions, some say yes I can some strongly oppose to it.
I am planning to use it regularly for an average of 5-6 hours of daily basic use ( internet, browsing and downloading music ) can I be safe keeping it for a few months?
Thanks for your help in advance

The general rule is that a lesser charger than was intended for the computer will charge the battery (more slowly) or run the computer, but not both at the same time. While doing heavy tasks, it will be possible that the battery will drain somewhat even while the computer is on A/C power. Shouldn't be a major problem but you should try to get a proper charger to avoid any potential issues.

Is it possible to downgrade an Early 2011 15" MBP to Snow Leopard?

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