Long term: Mountain Lion or Snow Leopard

Hi,
Had to have new hard drive installed a few days ago. System was "upgraded" to Mountain Lion. I had a backup from TimeMachine but for whatever reason, when configuring hard drive it would not see my external hard drive so I had to restore applications manually (read one by one) after "blank canvas" configuration. Now I find out all my powerpc-based applications wont work because Apple has not renewed licensing for Rosetta (info gathered from Communities). My powerpc applications are Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, Microsoft Office 2011, turboCad, etc.
I found out I have two options:
1) Erase hard drive and Restore from TimeMachine to previous hard drive contents from 10 days ago, which run on Snow Leopard (which I had downloaded, so no disks). Will this work?
2) Install Parallels 7 or VM firmware, and somehow install Snow Leopard there and run my powerpc applications from there. How to do this I have no idea...
Long term:
If Apple will never restore Rosetta or powerpc capabilities, should I go with option 2 and get on with the "new world"? I'm not too technically savvy and not sure how I can do this on my own... so would need to go see the Geniuses for this, I guess... But I'm not sure what the advantages of Mountain Lion are! So far, I dont see much, and I am not sure I would know how to maintain a "Parallel PC universe" without doubling everything.
Since I'm not sure of any advantages to Mountain Lion, I should maybe go back to my Snow Leopard version, then? but I am not sure how, exactly, without loosing everything once more.
Of course, if someone knows there are powerpc capabilities for Mountain Lion in the future, then I am all set, right? Does anyone know how Apple or Microsoft plan to "help" us poor souls who choose Mountain Lion without being aware of these issues?
(note: I have moved three times in the past two years and cannot get my hands on my iWorks CDs or my Microsoft Office 2011 CDs)
Any recommendations?

Dropping Rosetta was a technical decision. As stated, Apple has traditionally only supported it's current and last OS versions.
There are tons of advantages to updating to Mountain Lion, assuming your hardware supports it. Look HERE for details and HERE for hardware compatibility and instructions on how to upgrade properly.
Alansky is correct that this is not new news as well. He also is correct in saying that Rosetta will never again be supported. If I remember correctly, the last PowerPC version of Photoshop is CS2 released in 2005. That's 7 years and 4 major releases ago. Sorry to say, but it is time to bit the bullet, move to Mountain Lion and update your legacy software.
I am using Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 and it runs fine on Mountain Lion 10.8.
You can certainly install and run Snow Leopard in a Parallels partition but I don't recommend it. Take a look HERE for details.
Not having your Office install disks sounds suspicious but we'll assume that you have a legal copy. In that case, you should be abe to contact Microsoft HERE for assistance in retrieving your product key and getting a download link.

Similar Messages

I upgraded to mountain lion from snow leopard, now my photo studio software is no longer supported by powerpc. Does anyone know of a fix so my photostudio will work?

I upgraded to mountain lion from snow leopard, but now some of my applications do not work, most specifically I would like to use my photo studio, but now it tells me that powerpc is no longer supported. Does anyone have any fixes to this problem? I would really like to continue to use software that I already have! Thank you for your help!

PPC software will not work in Mountain Lion because there is no longer any Rosetta emulator. You will only be able to run your older software by creating another partition on your hard drive on which you can install Snow Leopard. It need not be a large partition since you can still keep your files and programs on the main partition. You could also install Snow Leopard on an external drive from which to boot the computer.
To resize the drive do the following:
1. Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
After the main menu appears select Disk Utility and click on the Continue button. Select the hard drive's main entry then click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
2. You should see the graphical sizing window showing the existing partitions. A portion may appear as a blue rectangle representing the used space on a partition.
3. In the lower right corner of the sizing rectangle for each partition is a resizing gadget. Select it with the mouse and move the bottom of the rectangle upwards until you have reduced the existing partition enough to create the desired new volume's size. The space below the resized partition will appear gray. Click on the Apply button and wait until the process has completed. (Note: You can only make a partition smaller in order to create new free space.)
4. Click on the [+] button below the sizing window to add a new partition in the gray space you freed up. Give the new volume a name, if you wish, then click on the Apply button. Wait until the process has completed.
You should now have a new volume on the drive.
It would be wise to have a backup of your current system as resizing is not necessarily free of risk for data loss. Your drive must have sufficient contiguous free space for this process to work.
After you create the new partition boot the computer from your Snow Leopard DVD and install Snow Leopard onto the new partition.

Home Sharing between Mountain Lion and Snow Leopard

Hi
I have MacBook Pro both at work and at home. The one at work has Mountain Lion with the latest version of iTune and the one at home has Snow Leopard with iTune 10.7.
I want to share movies on my iTune account between Mountain Lion and Snow Leopard. However, it doesn't seem to work....
How can I solve this problem?
FYI - I am not a big fan of Mountain Lion and do NOT want to upgrade my home computer to Mountain Lion.

    I am not sure why you can't access iCloud, using a browser? Then you have the same address book, so long as you are connected to the internet. https://www.icloud.com/
    No email involved. From the browser, you can download individual iCards or all of the individual cards, BUT unfortunately, not the Groups. So, you have to fiddle on the SL machine with keeping the groups organized.
    Up until recently, I have been able to sync Contacts from ML (which stays synced to iCloud) to SL this way: copy the /Users/~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook/ folder from the ML computer to the SL computer by dragging the icon onto the dock's AddressBook icon, this should retain all the group info. But, recently, this has ceased being complete.
    Apple really left us behind on this one.

Im pretty sure i have a very old software version for my macbook pro, how do i buy or download os x mountain lion or snow leopard?

im pretty sure i have a very old software version for my macbook pro, how do i buy or download os x mountain lion or snow leopard?sof

Make sure you read the system requirements. Also install Rosetta if you want Power PC applications to run.
Snow Leopard Purchase
Check that your computer is compatible with Mountain Lion/Mavericks.
To check the model number hold down the option/alt key, go to the Apple menu and select System Information.
MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer) model number 3,1 or higher
Your Mac needs:
OS X v10.6.8 or OS X Lion already installed
2 GB or more of memory (More is better - 4 GB minimum seems to be the consensus)
8 GB or more of available space
If your computer isn’t compatible, you might be able to upgrade to Lion.
Computer Compatibility - Lion                       Lion
Check to make sure your applications are compatible. PowerPC applications are no longer supported after 10.6.
Application Compatibility
Applications Compatibility (2)
Do a backup before installing.

I had Leopard on may Mac. I upgraded to Mountain Lion using Snow Leopard. I can't use my video with Mountain Lion. Can I load Snow Leopard on an external hard drive so I can use it with my camera?

I had Leopard on may Mac. I upgraded to Mountain Lion using Snow Leopard. I can't use my video with Mountain Lion. Can I load Snow Leopard on an external hard drive so I can use it with my camera?

First, you cannot do this if you have a Boot Camp partition.
Second: Create a new partition.
1. Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
After the main menu appears select Disk Utility and click on the Continue button. Select the hard drive's main entry then click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
2. You should see the graphical sizing window showing the existing partitions. A portion may appear as a blue rectangle representing the used space on a partition.
3. In the lower right corner of the sizing rectangle for each partition is a resizing gadget. Select it with the mouse and move the bottom of the rectangle upwards until you have reduced the existing partition enough to create the desired new volume's size. The space below the resized partition will appear gray. Click on the Apply button and wait until the process has completed. (Note: You can only make a partition smaller in order to create new free space.)
4. Click on the [+] button below the sizing window to add a new partition in the gray space you freed up. Give the new volume a name, if you wish, then click on the Apply button. Wait until the process has completed.
You should now have a new volume on the drive.
It would be wise to have a backup of your current system as resizing is not necessarily free of risk for data loss. Your drive must have sufficient contiguous free space for this process to work.
Third: Install Snow Leopard.
Boot from your Snow Leopard DVD. Follow instructions for installation being sure that before you actually install Snow Leopard you have selected the new partition as your target destination.
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.

Exporting OS X Mail from Mountain Lion to Snow Leopard

After upgrading to Mountain Lion, I partitioned my iMac HD to have two partitions: Macintosh HD has Mountain Lion; I reinstalled Snow Leopard on Macintosh HD 2. Best part: you can access your user-created files from EITHER disk partition. But not so OS X Mail. I wanted to revert to Snow Leopard, since I don't like the iOS-like Mountain Lion (swipe THIS!), but Mail was a problem since all my Snow Leopard Mail was successfully migrated over to Mountain Lion during upgrade. But I think I found a way to Export Mail from ML to (a clean install of) SL.
Try this:
1. Open Mail in ML. For each folder you wish to have back in SL, Export it to your ML Desktop as an .mbox file. Depending on the folder size, this can take from a few seconds to several minutes. You'll see an .mbox icon for the particular folder on your Desktop. If the word "partial" appears between the folder name and the .mbox suffix, wait a few moments for the Export to complete, at which time the word "partial" will disappear. E.g., for a folder named "Mary", if it's a huge one, the icon will first appear as "Mary.partial.mbox"; when the Export is done, you'll see "Mary.mbox".
2. When you've Exported all your desired folders as above, you can exit ML and re-start your Mac in SL. Open Mail in Snow Leopard, and once again, for each file you just Exported in ML to the Desktop there, select "Import Data From Apple Mail" and choose the folder from the Desktop in ML to which your mboxes were Exported. When the Import starts, you can see via a progress bar how far along it is. When done, you'll see a new folder in your SL Mail called "Import"; click on it to reveal the folder you just Imported!
3. Then drag the folder you just Imported out of the Import folder to "On My Mac" in SL Mail; you can then delete the Import folder.
4. Repeat until all your folders are where you want them (in SL).
5. When you have time, go back into ML and clear all those .mbox files from your Desktop.
There MAY be an easier way, but this is what worked for me.

The iOS view vs classic view in Mail is not the problem; I've already configured for classic view.
Mountain Lion itself is.
My short list (to date) of crappy Mountain Lion behavior; items marked with a double asterisk (**)represent the worst of Mountain Lion for me.
** No up/down arrows in scroll bar slider;
Expose` not as easy to navigate as in Snow Leopard;
Mail does not request passwords for either receive or send;
No "Save Draft" icon in Mail compose window (workaround: use command-s);
"Save As" selection missing in most app menus;
No separate Search window in Safari (workaround: use Firefox or Opera);
** Can't export Mail from Mountain Lion into Snow Leopard if downgrading (I compiled this list before I stumbled on the method in this thread, but I'd prefer to effect this with Unix symbolic links);
iWork 09 seems to have "circled the wagons" re compatibility with MS Office or LibreOffice (workaround: just use Libreoffice);

Dual boot drive - Mountain Lion and Snow Leopard - Correct order to load software /apps?

Hi
I want to create a dual boot drive for Mountain Lion and Snow Leopard as some of my hardware (is not supported in Mountain Lion).
I am happy how to do this, I just want to know if there is a correct way to install software and apps.
My plan was to do a clean install of both using two partitions, the larger going to ML and smaller one for SL. I was going to install SL from the DVD and then after updating from 10.6. to 10.6.8 and download ML from the app store and install on the larger partition.
Do I install all the software I use like Final Cut, Aperture, iLife (for Garageband) etc on the ML or SL partition or on both. Also, is there a better way / practise of the order software updates / apps and boxed software should be installed when doing a clean machine install.
Thanks in advance.
Matt

Thanks mende1
So, if I have software I need to use on both ML and SL - for example Final Cut as I have a Canopus AVDC box which is not supported in ML but only SL, do I need to install the same software in both OS?
I usually open apps using spotlight and didn't know if it would software / apps would open if already installed on the other partition?
Thanks again
Matt

I am a macbook pro user form last 2 yrs, recently i upgraded to Mountain Lion from Snow leopard. Since then operational speed is a major concern. Now It has crashed so very badly that I am scared of my data.Please help me.

I am a macbook pro user form last 2 yrs, recently i upgraded to Mountain Lion from Snow leopard. Since then operational speed is a major concern. Now It has crashed so very badly that I am scared of my data.Please help me.

Reinstalling Lion/Mountain Lion Without Erasing the Drive
Boot to the Recovery HD: Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the main menu. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Continue button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.

Upgrade - Mountain Lion from Snow Leopard

I have upgraded my iMac to Mountain Lion from Snow Leopard. I have a MacBook Pro running Snow Leopard; do I need to purchase this upgrade again, or will the previous purchase hold good for my Macbook Pro?

On your Macbook Pro, assuming it is running Snow Leopard 10.6.8, you can log into the Mac App Store with the EXACT same Apple ID that you previously used to purchase Mountain Lion for the iMac. In the Store go to your Account's "Purchased Items" list and you should see Mountain Lion listed. Download it from there for Free onto your Macbook Pro.
Hope this helps

Upgraded my macbook pro to mountain lion from snow leopard does this mean i can upgrade my imac as well for the same price? And will it mess it up?

upgraded my macbook pro to mountain lion from snow leopard does this mean i can upgrade my imac as well for the same price? And will it mess it up?

You can upgrade the iMac for no extra charge - sign into the App Store there, download and install 10.8.
I recommend that you make a backup (Time Machine is probably the easiest method) before you install, and make sure that you are not using any applications that are incomptible with 10.8 (eg Office 2004) - other than that, it should go smoothly.
Matt

What happens when I upgrade to mountain lion from snow leopard?

I currently have 2 partitions. my mac side and my windows 7 home side.
If i upgrade to mountain lion from snow leopard will i be expected to reinstall bootcamp and windows7 home along with all my other windows programs?
What happens to the partitions? do they stay the same or does the upgrade pretty much do a factory restore and make me start from square one again?
I have a time capsule. but do not really know how to work it like its supposed to. i just really use it to store data that i do not need on my partitions at the current times.

I do not have any knowledge about boorcamp but on my old MacBook with snowleapard,
I was not able to upgrade to Mountain Lion Because of my hardware I think.
And about tha bootcamp partition:
there shouldn't be any problem with upgrading "if even possible" because the Mac partition
can't edit the Windows partition.
I hope this helps you, but I would do some more research befor upgrading instead of completely trusting on my advise.

How do I switch from Mountain Lion to Snow Leopard? New used computer that I don't have anything on yet but has Mountain Lion installed.

I just puchased a used 2008 MacPro 2.8 ghz 8 core and it has Mountain Lion installed on it. I want to go back to Snow Leopard because it is a better stable OS for using Final Cut Pro 7. I just bought the Snow Leopard Discs to install. I need to erase the hard drive and install Snow Leopard. Any help on how
to do this? Thank you.

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 made while on Snow Leopard, then you may 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.

HT200117 i Mac OS X 10.5.8 upgrade to Mountain Lion or Snow leopard?

I have i Mac OS X 10.5.8. Is there anyway to upgrade to Mountain Lion or Snow leopard?

To answer your question.
Upgrade to Snow Leopard, then update to 10.6.8 Snow Leopard Purchase
Mac OS 10.6.8 Combo Updater
Check to make sure your applications are compatible. Application Compatibility
If you have applications that you want to use that aren't compatible, you can retain Snow Leopard and create a new partition to install Mountain Lion on or use one of these programs to run Snow Leopard. I have two partition and boot between them daily.
Parrallels
VirtualBox
VM Fusion
You can then download Mountain Lion from the App Store. I suggest that you make a copy of the installer and move it out of the Applications folder. The installer self destructs when done and by having a copy, you won't have to download it again.
If you want a bootable drive:
Bootable Drive DVD or USB Flash Drive – Lion Diskmaker
I have been running Mountain Lion since it was released with no major problems. Mountain Lion doesn't act like Snow Leopard. For example, scrolling is reversed, but can be changed. If you spend enough time in System Preferences, you can get the OS to be mostly like Snow Leopard.

I have just installed Mountain Lion over Snow Leopard, I now can't open Photoshop?

Hi everyone, I have just installed Mountain Lion over Snow Leopard. The installation went smooth and woks well. Now I find that Ican't open either Photoshop CS or Microsoft Word. I upgraded in order to install Lightroom 5, obviously there is now an incompatability, is there a work around?

If that is the original Photoshop CS, and Word 2004 or earlier, then they won't open because Lion and Mountain Lion do not support PowerPC apps. They must be Intel code. Snow Leopard could run them because it included Rosetta, a PowerPC to Intel (and back) interpreter.
You have a few options.
1) Go back to Snow Leopard.
2) Update your apps to compatible versions.
3) If you have Mountain Lion because newer apps require it then:
a) Install Snow Leopard Server (currently being sold by Apple for $20) in a VM such as Parallels, and then run your PPC apps in the VM.
b) Install Snow Leopard on a separate partition and boot to that version of OS X when you need to use those older apps.

I recently got a os reload to mountain lion from snow leopard. I backed up all photos on a thumb drive-Now all backed up photo's come up as an alias?? How to correct??

I recently got a os reload to mountain lion from snow leopard. I backed up all photos on a thumb drive…Now all backed up photo's come up as an alias?? How to correct??

Could you take a screen show showing the files on your thumb drive? This will allow us to better see what you have on the drive.
Command-Shift-3 takes the entire screen
Command-Shift-4 takes a portion of the screen. <--use this one
Click on the camera icon in the toolbar of the reply window to post. Select image to upload.

Long term: Mountain Lion or Snow Leopard

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for