Is it possible to reinstall Snow Leopard, removing Lion, without reformatting the hard drive or losing data?

Since I've installed Lion on my early 2009 model iMac, it runs really slow and sometimes is unresponsive. I'm thinking of reinstalling Snow Leopard, removing Lion, but want to know if anyone has done this and experienced any problems or data loss.

samberl wrote:
Reinstalling your OSX is a very simple exercise. I just would not do it from a TM backup.
He already has Time Machine backups.
Reformat, reinstall OSX Snow Leopard and then restore your applications, settings and user directories
You can do most of that, but "complex" 3rd-party applications (typically, ones that came with their own installers) must be reinstalled from the original discs. See Transferring Applications for details.
And don't restore the default Apple apps -- most (or all) of the Lion versions won't work on Snow Leopard.
Other apps (iLife, iWork, 3rd-party) that were updated or purchased after the Lion installation also may not work on Snow Leoaprd.
In addition, there will be problems with some Snow Leopard apps that won't work with the different file/folder structure used on Lion. Mail is one, for sure.
Much faster than TM machine,
Should take about the same time as from a clone.
you should be up and running in an hour or two.
Depending on how much there is, and especially how many complex apps, that may be rather optimistic.
Save yourself a bundle by not buying a new iMac.
Absolutely (although that didn't seem serious).

Similar Messages

Our imac runs osx snow leopard but it cant find the hard drive or it is corrupt, is it possible to reboot it with osx lion?

our imac recently displayed the white screen and flashing file icon with a question mark on it, it runs osx snow leopard but i dont have the installation disc, can i reboot it off the osx lion disc? or do i need to buy the snow leopard disc and reboot it off that first. thanks for your help in advance!

Yes you can. If the iMac meets the system requirements for Lion then you can boot it off the Lion disc (which is actually a USB drive, unless you download and burn it yourself).

Snow Leopard crashed : unable to find the hard drive in Disk utility

Hello,
A few days ago, my computer (running on Snow Leopard 10.6.3) suddently crashed (no recent update, no new software or hardware installation).
Since then, i'm unable to start the computer. It freezes on the start screen with the apple and the loading bar. Sometimes i've got an empty folder with a question mark.
I tried to start with the install CD, and when i select Disk utility, it only recognizes the DVD, not the hard drive (then i cannot even try to repair it).
When i want to re-install Snow Leopard, i arrive on an empty screen on which i'm asked to choose a drive to install on. Of course as i cannot choose a drive, i cannot install.
Finally, when i try to start with no errors (pressing Maj button when starting), i've got a kernel panic error saying "unable to find driver for this platform ACPI"
Can anyone help me ?
thanks in advance.

Your hard drive has had a serious malfunction. It might be that it is software: your partition table may be corrupt. If so, this may be fixable if you take it to a local Apple certified tech. However, it is more likely that it is hardware and the drive itself has failed. I hope you have a backup. If you do, you will need to replace the drive and restore the backup to the new drive. If you don't and you have important data on that drive (and if you have important data, why don't you have a backup?) you will need to contact one of the data recovery services, such as Drive Savers or Rescuecom. Be advised that the price for data recovery starts at $200 and heads upwards really quickly, depending on what the exact problem with the drive is. I have seen data recovery charges of $3000 and more for seriously screwed up drives.
Having a backup is a lot easier and a lot cheaper.

Spotlight on my iMac running snow leopard will not stop indexing the hard drive. How can I stop this?

Spotlight on my iMac (OSX 10.6.8) has suddenly begun indexing the hard drive non-stop, causing very sluggish operation and spinning beach balls. Reinstalling the operating system has not helped, nor has repairing permissions or the disk.

One of the first things that happens when installing a new version of OS X is that the Spotlight search app is setup to index all available hard drives.
The indexing makes it faster and easier for the Spotlight Search app to find things on and off your Mac.
You can either let it take the time it needs to do this (Spotlight will only do this one time, initially) OR if you just can't or want to wait for this to complete, you need to go into OS X System Prefences panel in the OS X Dock, locate the Spotlight icon.
Click the Spitlight icon and another set of menus appear.
Find the menu item dealing the Spotlight indexing and uncheck its checkbox to disable Spotlight indexing.

Reinstalling Win XP without reformatting the hard drive

Hello,
Is it possible to reinstall Win XP on my Equium A60 without having to reformat the HD? Currently the HD has only one partition.
Thanks in advance,
Mike

Perhaps you could try to just repair it by using System File Checker (SFC). This will check your current Windows files against your original installation files (including any installed updates) and will replace any which have been corrupted.
Press Start - Run - Type "cmd" or "command" (without quote marks) - OK.
When command window opens type "sfc /scannow" and press Enter. SFC will start to run.
If you want to see the SFC help info first, type "sfc /?" or "sfc help"
NB. All of these commands are two words with a space in between.
Actually you can just type the "sfc /scannow" command directly into the 'Run' window and it will start without showing the command window, but personally I like to see what's happening. If you want to close a command window type "exit" and Enter.
You can find more detailed info by Googling for SFC.
If you're lucky it might save you from losing your files through a reinstall/reformat until you find a way to back them up first.

I have a iMac 6,1 that I want to reformat the hard drive and reinstall Snow Leopard version 10.6.3 . I don't know how to reformat

I have a iMac 6,1 that I need to reformat the hard drive and reinstall Snow Leopard version 10.6.3 . How do I reformat ?

Boot the ssystem from the OS DVD. Once it is booted run Disk Utiltiy. Select OS Extrended (Journled)
See http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3910?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

Can i revert to snow leopard from lion without a time machine backup?

can I revert to snow leopard from lion without a time machine backup?

You can with a Snow Leopard DVD, but if you don't have that or a Time Machine backup there's no way.

I interrupted a software update and my macbook pro will not boot. I have tried to reboot using the startup disc, I have tried to verify the disc, and repair the disc. It tells me I need to erase and reformat the hard drive then reinstall the operating sys

I interrupted a software update and my macbook pro will not boot. I have tried to reboot using the startup disc, I have tried to verify the disc, and repair the disc. It tells me I need to erase and reformat the hard drive then reinstall the operating system. I do not have a back up of all my applications, my garageband music and other things. I also do not have time capsule set up on this machine, but I do have a 2 TB time capsule.
Is there anyway to back up this corrupted drive so I can restore my applications later?

There's an old saying. If you don't have a backup disc, then there must be nothing important to backup. That's just lesson #1. Lesson #2 is to never interrupt a software update. Not a good thing.
OK, I'm sure you know this. It just upsets me to read your story, knowing you have a lot of important stuff on your hard drive, and didn't use time machine.
You're pretty much in a bad place. My only hope for you is to boot to your Installation Disc, then using disk utility see if you can save the internal hard drive (by fixing what can be fixed). You might be able to see your user folder and some of your apps. I wouldn't even consider copying the library, because who knows what's been corrupted in there.
Good luck.

I had erase my hardrive and need to reinstall OS X, do I need to reinstall Snow Leopard/mountain lion first before Maverick will take

I had to erase my HD, I have Snow Leopard and Mountain Lion was added for an upgrade after that, now when I try to download the OS X, my HD looks like it going to take it, then it goes no where. And now what is showing up is OS X Maverick for a download, which I didn't even know it existed until I had to down load. I am wondering will I have redownload Snow Leopard or Mountain lion before the OS X Maverick will download.
thank you

Well, you can do an erase and install via the Recovery HD:
Install or Reinstall Mavericks or Mountain Lion from Scratch
Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.
OS X Mavericks- Erase and reinstall OS X
OS X Mountain Lion- Erase and reinstall OS X
OS X Lion- Erase and reinstall Mac OS X
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible
            because it is three times faster than wireless.
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.
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.

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.

Snow Leopard Installer doesn't detect my hard drive?! help!

After my earlier post, where my replacement 320gig hard drive is incorrectly (not GUID) partitioned, I backed everything up, made a time machine copy just to be safe, and set about formatting the entire drive, doing a fresh install, and then updating via one of my back ups etc.
However, when I tried restarting from the CDRom, it just hung on the Apple grey splash screen for about 10 minutes with nothing happening, I restarted and held one 'ALT' the two options were my hard drive and the Snow Leopard install disk - I selected the install disk and after short while I was presented with the installer.
The installer displayed no hard drive, nor did the disk utility within' the installer, I can't think what the problem could be, as, as soon as I ejected the installer cd, I booted straight back into my normal system (which I am writing this on now).
I really am stumped as what to do next, comments, suggestions and observations welcome :-D
Andy (D-F3ens)

I tried that and the both disk's pass the verification, the problem is the installer detecting my hard drive.
When i'm running 10.5 and try to install from the SL Disk it picks up the hard drive (but says it cannot install to this volume, use disk utility etc) - its when I restart and enter the installer via the splash menu, it fails to pick up my hard drive.
I cant see any other way of partitioning my drive to the required GUID, even when I made a seperate 20gig partition, it remains as Mac OSX Journaled on the same drive thats partition scheme is 'Apple Partition Map'.
Bootcamp will not help me either, I thought of creating a seperate partition and installing it to that, then reformatting the rest of the drive from within' SL, but Bootcamp says that it cannot modify the 'startup disk' and says it requires reformatting.
I really am stumped as to what to do next, I can't understand why the installer picks up the hard drive whilst its running, but when its in the installer it doesn't
Help!!!!

How can i install mac os x snow leopard on a macbook pro new hard drive

I replaced the hard drive on my macbook pro and I'm having difficulty installing Mac Snow leopard on the new hard drive. I press "C" when rebooting with the disk inside and all I get is "you need to restart your computer. Hold down the power button until it turns off, then press the Power button again" any suggestion?

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.
Clean Install of Snow Leopard
     1. Boot the computer using the Snow Leopard Installer Disc. 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, set the format type to Mac
         OS Extended (Journaled, if supported), then click on the Partition 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.

Can I reinstall Windows in Boot Camp without unpartitioning my hard drive?

Hi!
I've had my iMac with Boot Camp for a while, and I'm the kind of person that likes to download lots of junk. On my Mac partition, I downloaded Parallels, and used it with my windows partition. Later that day, I found out that using Parallels with a Boot Camp partition can corrupt files, which is what happened. My Windows partition still works, but it's a little screwy.
So, I was wondering if I can reinstall Windows XP without unpartitioning my hard drive, and without effecting Mac OS X.
Thanks~

Yes. It is quite straightforward - you boot into OS X, insert your Windows install disk, go to Applications (or is it Utilities?) open BootCamp - the Assistant opens. Then you ignore the partition options and just click on install Windows. BootCamp should be used for all things Windows.. ....I myself originally made the mistake of re-installing Windows one time while IN Windows (I didn't even think). I made a mess!
Edit
My machine came with Tiger. I was sooooo impressed when I purchased Leopard that I could choose to do an erase/install of OS X without even touching the Windows side. Really nice - I still have that original Windows install untouched!
Message was edited by: NA Smith

How do you remove photos permenantly from the hard drive using iPhoto 11?

Was just wondering if this is possible as removing photos in iphoto leaves them on the hard drive and I don't want to waste disk space.

btw it's set not to copy photos into the iphoto library
This creates the problem.
When you opted to run a Referenced Library you took on the resposibility for managing the files. You get the from the camera to wherever you store them, and if you want to delete them you get them from there to the trash after deleting them from iPhoto.
iPhoto will not delete files it does not manage.
Regards
TD

Just upgraded my iMac to Yosemite. It is now crawling. I'm planning to reformat the hard drive and installing fresh Yosemite and reloading the hard drive. Do I deactivate my CS 6 Suite and Lightroom and then reinstall. Is anyone else experiencing a sl

I just upgraded My iMac (2009) to Yosemite. It is now crawling. I planning to do a fresh install of the operating system. This requires me to format the hard drive. I have already backed up my data. With regards CS 6 suite and Lightroom is the proper process to deactive the program and then reinstall it from my Adobe account? Any other input would be appreciated.

yes, deactivate before uninstalling.
to reinstall, you only need your serial numbers and the installation files.
the installation files:
Downloads available:
Suites and Programs: CC 2014 | CC | CS6 | CS5.5 | CS5 | CS4 | CS3
Acrobat: XI, X | 9,8 | 9 standard
Premiere Elements: 13 | 12 | 11, 10 | 9, 8, 7 win | 8 mac | 7 mac
Photoshop Elements: 13 |12 | 11, 10 | 9,8,7 win | 8 mac | 7 mac
Lightroom: 5.7| 5 | 4 | 3
Captivate: 8 | 7 | 6 | 5
Contribute: CS5 | CS4, CS3
Download and installation help for Adobe links
Download and installation help for Prodesigntools links are listed on most linked pages. They are critical; especially steps 1, 2 and 3. If you click a link that does not have those steps listed, open a second window using the Lightroom 3 link to see those 'Important Instructions'.

Is it possible to reinstall Snow Leopard, removing Lion, without reformatting the hard drive or losing data?

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