My MacBook crashes when loading snow leopard

I'm at long last getting around to updating my OS from Leopard to Snow Leopard so I can continue along to Lion and Mountain Lion, but the installation stalls out after the restart and throws up a massive log of failures in the installation process. What is going on, and how can I fix it? Do I need to visit my local Apple store?

I would suggest you erase your drive, then install Snow Leopard:
Drive Preparation
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. 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. When it's finished quit DU and return to the installer. Install Snow Leopard.
8. Update Snow Leopard by downloading and installing the Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1 so you can access the App Store to purchase and download Mountain Lion.
Upgrading to Mountain Lion
To upgrade to Mountain Lion you must have Snow Leopard 10.6.8 or Lion installed. Purchase and download Mountain Lion from the App Store. Sign in using your Apple ID. Mountain Lion is $19.99 plus tax. The file is quite large, over 4 GBs, so allow some time to download. It would be preferable to use Ethernet because it is nearly four times faster than wireless.
     OS X Mountain Lion - System Requirements
       Macs that can be upgraded to OS X Mountain Lion
         1. iMac (Mid 2007 or newer)
         2. MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer)
         3. MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer)
         4. MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer)
         5. Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer)
         6. Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer)
         7. Xserve (Early 2009)
     Are my applications compatible?
         See App Compatibility Table - RoaringApps - App compatibility and feature support for OS X & iOS.

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Hold down the Option key to select a different disk drive to boot from
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I upgraded to Lion and then all video clips on for instance Youtube freeze every tenth second to buffer more data. I have a MacBook Pro and never had any problems when using Snow Leopard. Ulf Magnusson, Sweden

I upgraded to Lion and then all video clips on for instance Youtube freeze every tenth second to buffer more data. I have a MacBook Pro and never had any problems when using Snow Leopard. Has Lion problems with this?
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Use the trackpad to scroll, thats what it was designed for. The scroll bars automatically disappear when not being used and will appear if you scroll up or down using the trackpad.
This is a user-to-user forum and most people will post on here if they have problems. You very rarely get people posting to say there update went smooth. The fact is the vast majority of Mountain Lion users will not be experiencing any major problems with the OS, or maybe with apps which are not compatible, but thats hardly Apple's fault if developers don't update their apps.

HT3964 My MacBook Air running on Snow Leopard gets extremely slow (almost like a hang, except if you wait about half an hr, it actually moves) after login interface. sometimes it never gets past the background. Cannot log back in.

My MacBook Air running on Snow Leopard gets extremely slow (almost like a hang, except if you wait about half an hr, it actually moves) after login interface. Sometimes it never gets past the background of the homepage, desktop doesn't seem to load. After multiple forced shut downs and left to run for hours, sometimes the desktop loads but the dock does not respond when applications are opened. The computer is then unable to shut down normally. Forced shut downs are necessary most times. Time machine backup takes extremely long, and attempts to use the time machine to bring the laptop back to the time befiore the problem arose was met with extremely slow and hung time machine function.
Please help!

There isn't much besides a failing hard drive or other hardware fault that can cause those symptoms. Run the Apple Hardware Test, or just take it to an Apple Store for testing.

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.

I can't load Snow Leopard on an empty partition

In February I bought a new Mac Book Pro that came loaded with OS X Lion. I want to run Final Cut Pro on it. I bought FCP on ebay but can't load it because it is a PowerPC app and Lion won't load it.
I added a partition to my hard drive to load Snow Leopard, bought SL online and am trying to install SL.
If I try to run the install app from within Lion I get this message: "You can't use this version of the application install Mac OX X.app with this version of Mac OS X." Then in small print this: "You have Install Mac OS X.app 23.1"
If I try to boot from the SL Install DVD I get this message: "You need to restart your computer. Hold down the Power button until it turns off, then press the Power button again." I do this and it always comes back to this same message.
I tried booting to the Recovery HD but can't get that to allow anything either.
Is there a way to get this running? Or have I wasted a lot of money?
Thanks for any help!
// -- Phil

If you purchased the current model of MacBook Pro, then to the best of my knowledge it cannot boot from Snow Leopard. You would have to run Snow Leopard as a virtual OS under one of the virtualization solutions (Parallals Desktop, VMWare Fusion, or VirtualBox). There's been debate about whether the desktop version of Snow Leopard is licensed for such use, but the developers of the solutions believe that it does not and hence allow installation of Snow Leopard Server, which is licensed for virtualization, only.
Regards.

If I purchase a brand new I-mac today do I have to run OS Lion or can I load Snow leopard?

If I purchase a brand new I-mac today do I have to run OS Lion or can I load Snow leopard?

Just faced that question, and the answer should be that you can run SL on the latest iMac.
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Hello,
I have a Macbook (early 2009) running Snow Leopard (10.6.8) and want to upgrade to Mavericks.
I have upgraded to 4GB RAM and replaced the HD for an SSD. It works perfectly.
Now the issue comes with Mavericks upgrade.
The App Store offers me to upgrade to Mavericks but when I click on the Upgrade button, a message prompts it can not install Mavericks on this machine.
I am confused. Any idea on what I should check ?

Toffe13,
Are you very sure of the exact mode (year etc), just saying as the requirements are:
"MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer)"
If so...
Then have you tried reinstalling the 10.6.8 updates (combo 1.1) - http://support.apple.com/downloads/#10.6.8
Also...
I assume you've ran a full sweep of Disk Utility to clear any permissions issues etc. (rarely helps, but still)
Maybe provide a little more info on what you've tried thus far, I.E. is this a fresh install from your DVD's etc. or a migration from HDD to SSD etc.
Thanks

New 2009 Macbook - Can it run Snow Leopard 64 bit?

Just bought the new unibody white Macbook. I intend to run VMWare Fusion 3 and found some online suggestions to run it in Snow Leopard 64 bit. Will this new macbook support to boot Snow Leopard 64 bit as default?
Thanks.

ecvoyager wrote:
Pancenter,
I tried my macbook, I cannot boot to 64-bit. I tried boot with "4" and
6" pressed and even modified the com.apple.Boot.plist file as said in http://macperformanceguide.com/SnowLeopard-64bit.html
neither works. So the result on Late 2009 MacBook is same same as Compactc9 in his early 2009 model.
May be Apple may have lock the OS to 32-bit on Macbook ?
Reinstalling will not help.
It looks like Apple limits the Macbooks to 32-bit even though some are apparently capable of loading the 64-bit kernel. Probably another way to differentiate between the Macbook & Macbook Pro which as I understand it, will boot into the 64-bit kernel.
I think the best you can hope for is an EFI firmware update.
pancenter-

Had to get new hard disk for my macbook. After installing snow leopard on new HD the computer only connects to free wifi at certain places and not others. Took it to genius bar (of course it worked find there!) they said it was fine. Not!

Had to get new hard disk for my macbook. After installing snow leopard on new HD the computer only connects to free wifi at certain places and not others. Took it to genius bar (of course it worked find there!) they said it was fine. But problem persist.

Hi there ricalimo,
I would recommend taking a look at the troubleshooting steps in the article below. If the issue is location specific, than you may want to save the article so you can perform troubleshooting when you are experiencing trouble.
Wi-Fi: How to troubleshoot Wi-Fi connectivity
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4628
-Griff W.

HT1444 mac pro will not successfully load snow leopard

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Haha! That's true. Though I've noted many users here calling a Power Mac a Mac Pro and visa versa.
When my Power Mac died and I brought it into the Apple Store to have them look at it, the first Mac Pros hadn't been out that long. Even the staff didn't know the tower Mac they had out on display was a Mac Pro. I pointed out that it had two optical drive bays in front. Only the Mac Pros have two. All Power Macs have only one.

After loading Snow Leopard, Firefox has become extremely slow. I have reload FF but no help. Suggestons?

After loading Snow Leopard, FF is extremely slow loading web pages. I have uninstalled and reinstalled FF but this did not help. Any suggestions?

It's possible that you are having a problem with some Firefox add-on that is hindering your Firefox's normal behavior. Have you tried disabling all add-ons (just to check), to see if Firefox goes back to normal?
Whenever you have a problem with Firefox, whatever it is, you should make sure it's not caused by one (or more than one) of your installed add-ons, be it an extension, a theme or a plugin. To do that easily and cleanly, run Firefox in [http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Safe+Mode safe mode] (don't forget to select ''Disable all add-ons'' when you start safe mode). If the problem disappears, you know it's from an add-on. Disable them all in normal mode, and enable them one at a time until you find the source of the problem. See [http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Troubleshooting+extensions+and+themes this article] for information about troubleshooting extensions and themes and [https://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Troubleshooting+plugins this one] for plugins.
If you need support for one of your add-ons, you'll have to contact its author.
If the problem does not disappear when all add-ons are disabled, please tell me, so we can work from there. Please have no fear of following my instructions to the line, as all can be easily undone.

After Loading Snow Leopard, printer sharing no longer works

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My MacBook crashes when loading snow leopard

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