Is it unsafe to keep Snow Leopard?

Hi everyone,
Is it unsafe to keep using Snow Leopard given that it is no longer supported? I have an early 2011 MacBook Pro, so I know I could easily run Mountain Lion, but there is not much that attracts me to it other than the security updates. I use Safari, so I'm slightly worried about it not receiving updates. I've also noticed that iCal appears to have been killed in favor of Calendar (it always crashes at launch after telling my it can't recognize my username/password), but I'm not losing much sleep over it.
Bottom line: I'm happy with Snow Leopard but am not sure it's wise to not upgrade. Thoughts?

Albert.D wrote:
... I'm mainly just afraid to play around with my OS when it's working quite well for me as it is.
If it ain't broke... etc...
If you do decide to Uprade in the future...
Be sure to make a Bootable Clone Backup of your current drive...
and because SL is the Last Mac OS to support Rosetta...
Check here for compatibility of 3rd party Software you may be using...
http://roaringapps.com/apps:table

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I want to install Yosemite onto an external hard drive, and keep Snow Leopard installed on the internal hard drive. I want to be able to boot from either system, depending upon circumstance (at least until Yosemite is stable). Is this possible?

iMac, Model Identifier iMac12,1 with 121.5" screen, 2.8 GHz Intel Core i7 processor, 8 GB 1333 MHz DDR3 memory, 1 TB internal hard drive, running Snow Leopard 10.6.8 from internal drive.
I want to install Yosemite onto a 1 TB external hard drive (OWC) , and keep Snow Leopard installed on the internal hard drive. I want to be able to boot from either system, depending upon circumstance (at least until Yosemite is stable). Is this possible?

It is possible. I'll let you read some articles that cover the setup:
Starting from an external USB storage device (Intel-based Macs) - Apple Support
or
http://osxdaily.com/2013/06/22/boot-mac-external-drive/

How do I partition my MacBook Pro so I can keep Snow Leopard and also install Mountain Lion?

How do I partition my MacBook Pro so I can keep Snow Leopard and also install Mountain Lion?
I want to install the latest OS, but I already know that I will lose a lot of my software unless I can partition the hard drive and have two "bootable" drives.
How do I retain everything I have, partition the drive, then reloa the software I own according to which OS it will work under?

msmedia wrote:
I do not currently own OS X ML.
I am currently running OS X (10.6.8 Snow Leopard) on my MacBook Pro. It has a 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor. I want to upgrade to Mountain Lion, but many of my software titles will not operate with ML and I cannot afford to replace some of them (Adobe Creative Suite, for e.g.)
After I back-up my HD and then partition the HD, how do I use the back-up to reinstall what I want to the SL partition, and then place the rest on the ML partition.
I have not done what you want to do, so can only offer some general thoughts in support. Take value from the following where you can. No guarantees.
If it was me, I would use a disk clone utility (e.g. Carbon Copy Cloner) to image the existing Snow Leopard disk to an external drive. Then verify that the external drive would boot and run Snow Leopard normally.
I would then purchase and download the Mountain Lion upgrade installer, but not run it. Use Lion Diskmaker to make a bootable USB stick, and perform a clean install of Mountain Lion, replacing the Snow Leopard on your MBP. This way, you make absolutely certain that no third-party drivers or other SL cruft remains to make Mountain Lion unstable. Update to latest ML point release. Fix permissions. Let TimeMachine make a full backup of your ML installation to a different external drive. Then turn of Time Machine.
In Disk Utility, use the + sign at the bottom of the ML partition to add another GUID, HFS+ Journaled partition for Snow Leopard. Resize to taste. Name it differently from your ML partition. Exhale.
Now ideally, you would like to reverse the external clone and put it back into the new SL partition. Then fix permissions. And demonstrate that you can boot into individually stable OS X installations. This would save you alot of work. Resist copying your home directory into ML just yet.
If you cannot successfully achieve the preceding paragraph, you will be faced with a full SL and application reinstall.
The ~/Library contents for SL and ML are sufficiently different that you do not want to mix them. You may want to salvage Safari bookmarks.plist. And, ML created folders in the home directory may have different permissions or ACL settings than in SL. So, my rule of thumb would be to copy folders that you created in SL, and only the contents of matching named OS created folders such as Music, Pictures, Downloads, etc.
For each operating system, you probably want the Time Machine settings to exclude the opposite OS X partition. If you use the same host name in Sharing prefs, then you will mix SL and ML backups on the same Time Machine back up drive. If you use different host names, they will be distinct folders in the Time Machine backups.backupdb and allow discrete restores per host. You may also want to gag Spotlight from indexing the opposite OS X partition.

Upgraded both computers in the household and found Lion is too disruptive to workflow. Do I turn in the new laptop for a pre-Lion rebuild to keep Snow Leopard, or do I return computer and get upgraded memory to improve performance of existing MacBookPro?

Upgraded both computers in the household and found Lion is too disruptive to workflow.
Do I turn in the new laptop for a pre-Lion rebuild to keep Snow Leopard, or do I return new computer and get upgraded memory to improve performance of existing MacBookPro? I'm mostly still happy with existing MacBookPro, but Aperture doesn't work, the computer can't handle it.
Other possibility is setting up virtual machine with Snow Leopard server software on new computer.
Any opinions on what would allow moving forward with the least hassle and best workflow continuity?

hi,
what year and specs does the MBP have

I have an iMac mid-2010 running Snow Leopard. Is it possible to install Mavericks and Windows 8 on separate partitions while keeping Snow Leopard?

I have an iMac mid-2010 running Snow Leopard 10.6.8. Is it possible to install Mavericks and Windows 8 on separate partitions while keeping Snow Leopard? If so, can you describe the steps?

That should not be a problem as long as there is enough room on each partition for each OS.
You would:
Use Disk Utility to partition your HD
Download the Mavericks installer and install it on one of the open partitions (when you run the installer from your 10.6.8 partition, it will ask you where you want to put Mavericks, and you will specify one of the open partitions).
Use Boot Camp to install Windows on another of the open partitions. Mac Basics: Using Windows on your Mac via Boot Camp

How can i download maverick and keep snow leopard,i am not very tech savy

how can i download maverick and keep snow leopard,i am not very tech savy

You'll be given the option to change the target after the download is complete and before the actual installation begins. The process is otherwise the same as normal.
(91555)

Can I keep Snow Leopard on my iMac and use Lion on my new powerbook and have my iPhone 3 synked to both?

I just got a new powerbook with Lion and I want to have my calendar and contacts and photos shared on all three. Can I do that without upgrading my powerbook to Lion and using the clowd? I like the idea of Clowd but there are some programs I can't run in Lion that will go away if I upgrade that I want to keep using. Any sugestions?

You can keep Snow Leopard on your iMac, but you would need to install Lion on another partition to use iCloud since it is not available for Snow Leopard. As for iCloud maybe the following will help you:
iCloud Help
Creating an iCloud account- Frequently Asked Questions
Apple IDs and iCloud
iCloud: Features that work with one account at a time on iOS 5 and OS X
iCloud: Backup and restore overview

Upgrade but keep Snow Leopard

HI-
The Lion has been unleashed and I’m keen to upgrade! However, I know that some apps are not going to work on Lion straight away (Digital Performer for example), so I’d like to have a Dual-Boot thing going where I can choose which System to use. But I’m concerned that if I upgrade via App Store it’ll wipe out my existing Snow Leopard.
Will I be able to use my old Snow Leopard discs to set up a System on a different hard disc - I have four x 1Tb drives in my MacPro?
Thanks,
Andy

Please excuse, but I have to ask an obvious question: Did you already update using the Snow Leopard Retail install DVD? (You must do this first; 10.6.7 is just an update if you already have 10.6.) Are you, then, trying to update from whatever version was on the install DVD to 10.6.7?
Otherwise, I'd keep trying. The 10.6.7 Combo is a huge update.

How do I install mountain lion but keep snow leopard as a bootable os

I'm caught in a vicious circle.
I need mountain Lion to be able to use iCloud and to be compatible with a couple of apps on my iPad. However some of my major apps on my mac Pro won't work under Lion or mountain lion.
SO the answer is to have both Snow Leopard and Mountain Lion on my Mac Pro.
Does anyone know of any instructions on installing Mountain Lion onto one SSD, whilst leaving Snow Leopard on another, allowing me to boot from either.
Also - any advice on the cleanest way of installing my apps under Mountain Lion (those that are compatible). I'm confused to how I can install my apps twice, especially if I have all ready registered Unser Snow Leopard.
Thanks

I'm assuming that you currently have an SSD with Snow Leopard on it, and another SSD with no operating system. Is that correct?
What I would do is use the Snow Leopard DVDs to install a fresh copy of Snow Leopard on the SSD that currently has no operating system, and "migrate" your data and applications from the other SSD. (alternatively, you could use something like Carbon Copy Cloner to duplicate one SSD onto the other - but that's probably only an option if one SSD is completely blank or you're willing to erase it).
Then upgrade to Mountain Lion on the original SSD.
When you're done, hold down the option key when you start up to select which OS to use.
For many applications, it won't matter which SSD they're on - you'll be able to run them from either system without worrying about where the app is installed (each will have it's own preferences, stored on the current startup drive). But some applications are more complex, and rely on additional files that are scattered around the Library folders on the startup drive. Since you migrated your applications and data, you should have everything that's needed on both systems, including license keys, etc. I did this for a little while with Quicken, and I actually left the Quicken app on the Lion drive - it worked just fine even though I started up from an external Snow Leopard drive (I skipped the migration step entirely, and reentered my Quicken license code when starting up from Snow Leopard).
How successful this will be depends on exactly which applications you're using. Most of them will be OK, but if you're using something that has some esoteric copy-protection mechanism, you might run into a little bit of trouble. Consider upgrading the "new" Snow Leopard install to Mountain Lion, if that's the case, so you're original system SSD will remain Snow Leopard, with no changes.

Can I run Mavericks from an external hard drive while keeping Snow Leopard?

Hi there,
I have a Macbook 5.2 which runs ok with Snow Leopard but I was wondering if I should upgrade to Mavericks now. Because I'm not sure how the new operating system will run on my machine I thought I could install Mavericks on an external USB hard drive and boot from there to evaluate if it runs fine for me.
Not sure if this is possible as I understand that 10.6 and Lion/ML/Mavericks have different filesystems etc... Don't want to upgrade, realise that 10.9 is not running smoothly for me and having to downgrade to Snow Leopard again - which if I remember well what I read a while ago it is not a straightforward operation....
Any ideas?
Many thanks
Mike

Yes it's possible and quite easy. However, do not install on a thumb drive - I've tried this with a 16gb and it's slower than a bread wagon with biscuit wheels.
Now I'm running a lacie external 500gb drive (partitioned) and a firewire 800 cable on macbook pro with Mavericks. Now it's smokin fast, faster that running my base hard-drive on snow leopard, however the external drive with mavericks osx is still dependent on the guts and performance of the macbook itself.

Clean installing mountain lion while keeping snow leopard?

Hello, I have a question...
I newly buy an SSD and at the same time I am thinking to upgrading to Mountain Lion... My operating system is snow leopard now.
I am thinking to download Mountain Lion and make a bootable flash disk. Then cleanly install it to the SSD. I dont want to touch my Macintosh HD... I am not a good technician... is it possible? I am doing this becuase if I dont like performance of mountaion lion, I will re-install the snow leopard to SSD... is it possible? Or After I boot from SSD, will I able to boot from again Macintosh HD (Snow leopard)??

When asked which drive or partition you want to install Mountain Lion to, pick one other than the partition containing Snow Leopard. The installer won't be deleted from the drive if the installation is done this way; it also won't interfere with the ability to boot Snow Leopard.
(74248)

Upgrading to M.L., but keeping Snow Leopard to run GoLive... how?

I'd like to upgrade to M.L., but REALLY want to keep GoLive running in 10.6, even on a partition. Can I just create a partition in Disk Utility of say, 30-50GB to run 10.6 and GoLive? I use Dreamweaver everyday, but there are still some things that are much faster about GoLive I'd like to keep available.

You can create a copy with Carbon Copy Cloner, create a partition in Disk Utility and upgrade to Mountain Lion

If I keep snow leopard will I stop getting mail?

If I don't upgrade to Lion will I still get my mac mail as usual on my computers or will this fail after this "cloud" migration thing?

Basic Information About Moving From MobileMe to iCloud
Apple IDs and iCloud
Creating an iCloud account- Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently asked questions about the MobileMe transition and iCloud
MobileMe services that no longer sync after moving to iCloud
MobileMe- About moving to iCloud
You will still get your mail.

How do I add Mountain Lion and still keep Snow Leopard for use on specific software

I currently am using OS 10.6.8 which supports Final Cut Studio version 7.5. I do not wish to change my Final Cut work, however I am now developing APPS and need the xcode tools which are only supported on OS 10.7 or higher. Can someone please direct me to any information on how I can set up my Macbook Pro to run both OS systems?

No, you buy & install Mountain Lion on a new partition, leaving the original alone. You will need to reboot from one to the other to use either version of the OS.
As you can see from this I still have Lion on my internal while I'm running Mountain Lion on an external drive - this may also be an option for you?

I need to have both Snow leopard and Lion...Mountain lion running on my iMac. How do I install Lion or Mountain lion on an Ext H D and boot from it?

My software is obsolete (and now dead) in 10.7 so I need to keep Snow leopard alive to run that- but now things like TurboTax are dropping support for 10.6 or lower and I have to have lion or Mountain Lion available. I actually downloaded Lion onto a thumb drive but never installed it when I found out that it would immedaitely render all my FreeHand files inaccessible (years of work!), Now that I am forced to have an OS above 10.6 I was hoping I could install whichever--Lion or Mountain Lion onto an external hard drive and figure out how to boot from that (found something in archives I think, but I need words of one syllable or less). This way I could, ideally, boot from either the External hard drive in the higher OS when needed, or from the internal hard drive when I need to use Snow leopard. There is a long story here, but I think this is the gist. I wasn not sure if this should be asked here or in either Lion or Mountain Lion (both of which I have, essentially, ignored since I would not be moving up until I could figure out how to access those old files of forms and drawings00but now I have no choice. I am panicking now that I HAVE to make the move anbd cannot afford to buy another Mac just to keep two separately running. Any help would be greatly appreciated. i asked Apple when Lion came out and they said there was no way to partition (even if I KNEW how to do that) the haaard drive and install both on my iMac-- but I "think" this is a bit different and possible??? Thanks (once/if I figure this out, I need to figure out how to back-up but that is another matter)

You need to move to Windows 7, because Apple is now releasing a new OS X version annually and it's playing havoc with people's hardware and software.
Windows 7 will get support until 2020, that's 8 years of software stability, however you do need to make System Restore disks, boot disk and another on a hard drive to self restore (like TimeMachine is for OS X)
Apple has no plans to change their currrent behavior as all they care about is selling new hardware with a shiny new OS X verison on it.
If you wait to move, what will happen is you'll lose that full 8 years and will have to swtich to a newer Windows sooner
Windows 7 machines are still widely avaialble, despite Windows 8 (a failure) being pushed currently.
Running three OS X operating systems on one machine is quite a chore reserved for only seasoned computer geeks, then it's only going to last X months as the next OS X version will be released, then the next a year after that.
Another method would be to get a virtual machine software (virtualbox is free) and install Windows 7 into that to ease your transitition if you cant' spring for a Windows 7 machine, preferablly a tower that will last a long time.
Here is a method to run Snow Leopard in Parallels, however it's a unapproced hack and not for the comptuer newbie.
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1365439
We have no control over Apple's OS X release cycle, nor the third party developers who make their own decisions what to support.
Our only choice as users to stop using both products and seek software/hardware stability.

Is it unsafe to keep Snow Leopard?

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