Suggestions for Safely Installing Snow Leopard

Many users seem to be having problems upgrading to Snow Leopard. Here is a suggested installation procedure to minimize problems:
1. Repair your hard drive and permissions:
Repairing the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your OS X 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 Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger and Leopard.) 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 installer. Now restart normally.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior (4.0 for Tiger, and 4.1 for Leopard) and/or TechTool Pro (4.6.1 for Leopard) to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
2. Make a cloned backup of your startup system to a freshly formatted drive - external or internal.
How to Clone Using Restore Option of Disk Utility
1. Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
3. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (journaled, if available) and click on the Erase button. This step can be skipped if the destination has already been freshly erased.
4. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
5. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
6. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
7. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means your extra internal or external backup drive.
Source means your current startup drive.
3. Upgrade to Snow Leopard on the backup drive.
4. After upgrading to Snow Leopard restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Snow Leopard drive and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
After booting into Snow Leopard you can check everything out to be sure everything is working properly. If you have any problems you cannot resolve then simply restart from your Leo system on your regular startup volume.
When you install Snow Leopard I suggest that you first disable all third-party startup and login items, third-party contextual menu items, input managers, preference panes, and Internet plug-ins as many may be incompatible. During installation do not touch the computer except to reply to a dialog. Wait for everything to finish normally.

Kappy many thanks for the posted advice on SL, which I followed, thanks to being directed here from replies to my own post on my SL install problems...
I did as you suggested - repair the hard drive and permissions, then created a clone by making a new partition (Macintosh HD_2) and installed SL on that, and it all went fine
However, I now have my active SL installation on a the partition called Macintosh HD_2, and I still have all the old OSX install on the original Macintosh HD. The system is def running on SL, loaded from HD_2.
My question is, can I just delete the original OSX install, and if so, do I just delete that partition, to recover the disk space? I presume I can just extend HD_2 to gobble up the available space when Macintosh HD is deleted?
(Macintosh HD and Macintosh HD_2 are of course partitions on the integral hard drive)
Your advice would be much appreciated...

Similar Messages

External HD suggestion for Lion and Snow Leopard

I have a new Mac Mini running OS X Lion, plus a MB Pro running Snow Leopard. I am looking to buy a new external hard drive to be able to back up both. Any suggestions? Any particular pitfalls with Lion and external HDs?

Basic Backup
Get an external drive at least equal in size to the internal hard drive and make (and maintain) a bootable clone/backup. You can make a bootable clone using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can also make and maintain clones with good backup software. My personal recommendations are (order is not significant):
Carbon Copy Cloner
Data Backup
Deja Vu
SuperDuper!
Synk Pro
Tri-Backup
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on backup and restore. Also read How to Back Up and Restore Your Files.
Although you can buy a complete external drive system, you can also put one together if you are so inclined. It's relatively easy and only requires a Phillips head screwdriver (typically.) You can purchase hard drives separately. This gives you an opportunity to shop for the best prices on a hard drive of your choice. Reliable brands include Seagate, Hitachi, Western Digital, Toshiba, and Fujitsu. You can find reviews and benchmarks on many drives at Storage Review.
Enclosures for FireWire and USB are readily available. You can find only FireWire enclosures, only USB enclosures, and enclosures that feature multiple ports. I would stress getting enclosures that use the Oxford chipsets especially for Firewire drives (911, 921, 922, for example.) You can find enclosures at places such as;
Cool Drives
OWC
WiebeTech
Firewire Direct
California Drives
NewEgg
All you need do is remove a case cover, mount the hard drive in the enclosure and connect the cables, then re-attach the case cover. Usually the only tool required is a small or medium Phillips screwdriver.

Why am I not able to install snow leopard on a new hard drive for my macbook pro, which at one point was upgraded to Lion?

I've just had my hard drive go caput and after purchasing a new one was inclined to install snow leopard but received an error message when attempting to do so.
I did not create a back up or restore file before I decided to upgrade from snow leopard.
I'm wondering why am I not able to simply install snow leopard on a brand new hard drive. What would clue it into me having had ran lion before and why can't I simply delete that kernel or said file. It makes completely no sense to me. I come from a pc world where if I choose to format a hard drive, I can do a clean install of whatever OS I choose. After all I only paid for my laptop as should be able to do with it what I wish.
Any suggestions or insight would be greatly appreciated

1. Was Lion on the machine and trying to downgrade?
2. If so this might be an issue. Newer machines are done for current OSX.
3. If you have Lion on your machine try to install Snow Leopard on another partition or portable HD
4. After you format and install SL on the other partition or drive Try to boot from this machine retarting and holding the Option key at boot up.
5. See if that work.
This is a trial and error way but Mountain Lion is right around the corner and Snow Leopard is 2+ yrs old.
Brian

Im trying to instal snow leopard on my macbook. its running tiger 10.4.11 and it meets all the requirements but it ask me for a restart to begin instalation progres, i restar it and it doesn't happen anything

im trying to instal snow leopard on my macbook. its running tiger 10.4.11 and it meets all the requirements but it ask me for a restart to begin instalation progres, i restar it and it doesn't happen anything. anyone can help me?

I assume the restart was prompted during the installation process?
First of all, that restart will take several minutes while files are moved into place and should not be interrupted.
If it fails, or you have interrupted the process, you'll need to boot from the installer (hold down the C key on startup) and use Disk Utility to erase the drive prior to continuing the installation.
That will wipe all data on the drive, though, so if you didn't make a backup before beginning the upgrade, you'll need to get your data off safely before proceeding. That may likely require the use of another Mac to access yours in Target Disc Mode.

How Best To Install Snow Leopard For A Non-Techy?

What is the best route to go down to install Snow Leopard please? I received my copy on Saturday but I'm apprehensive at installing it!
When I installed Leopard I ended up with a lot of problems, some of which are still not resolved, such as the non-recognition of log-in passwords etc. I still have to provide a password when switching back and forth between users and in order to close down I have to log out all users individually!
As a keen Mac-user (but by no means a technical expert) I would like my Snow Leopard experience to be as painless as possible, so how best to install it please and at the same time eliminate my old Leopard problems outlined above?
Message was edited by: Julian Brown

Julian Brown wrote:
As a keen Mac-user (but by no means a technical expert) I would like my Snow Leopard experience to be as painless as possible, so how best to install it please and at the same time eliminate my old Leopard problems outlined above?
For the most painless upgrade possible, I suggest you just follow the instructions under the heading "Upgrading Mac OS X" in the Snow Leopard Installation Instructions document.
As a precaution, you may want to run Disk Utility's "Repair Disk" step first. You can also run the "Repair Permissions" step if you want but I doubt that is necessary.
Your 'old problems' aren't problems, AFAIK. You must always provide a password to change accounts & all accounts must be logged out to shut down or restart the computer. These steps insure the privacy of each user's account & make sure each user has a chance to save any open documents before the computer shuts down. IOW, they are desirable features, not problems!

After installing Snow Leopard, Word for Mac X document prints only top 1/3. Excel, PDF is fine...only word is a problem.

Installed Snow Leopard and later in week went to print out a full page word document (Word for Mac X) and it only printed top 1/3 of page. Checked with PDF and Excel documents and all printed out OK. TextEdit is fine in printing as well. Then created a new document with a sentence on top of page and a sentence on bottom - printed fine.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Since your problem is only w/a Microsoft product, you should contact Microsoft for Mac Support and/or post in their forums.

I've just recently installed Snow Leopard. I opened Photoshop CS4 then went to quit it and it won't let me quit. It's greyed out. Any suggestions?

I've just recently installed Snow Leopard. I opened Photoshop CS4 then went to quit it and it won't let me quit. It's greyed out. Any suggestions?

Do you use your Vaio Update for updates, kingdom? If so, check in there to see if you're also up to date on your video card drivers and BIOS. (Your downloads page at Sony UK shows some updates for those there, so we'd better check on them too.)

I have created a new partition on the Mac HD for Lion as I would like to dual boot. Do I need to install Snow Leopard on that partition before installing Lion? If so, can I use one of my Time Machine backups to do this?

I have created a new partition on the Mac HD for Lion as I would like to dual boot. Do I need to install Snow Leopard on that partition before installing Lion? If so, can I use one of my Time Machine backups to do this?

zoominnana wrote:
Can I set up 2 different time capsule backups? one for the lion partition and one for the snow leopard partition?
No, you can't partition a Time Capsule's internal HD. Both partitions will back up to the same sparse bundle. keeping the backups for each partition separate.
Time Machine will not take the two OSX partitions as two different computers, but for best results, exclude the Snow Leopard drive from backups on the Lion partition, and exclude the Lion partition from backups on the Snow Leopard partition.
There may be some files on the Lion partition that Time Machine on Snow Leopard won't like, among other things. See #10 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions for details.

I want to install Snow Leopard Server on our MacPro (2.66) using Mac Mini Snow Leopard Server disks? I kept getting an error for backwards compatibility. Is this possible or do I need to purchase another copy of Snow Leopard Server?

I want to install Snow Leopard Server on our MacPro(2.66) using Mac Mini Snow Leopard Server disks? I kept getting an error for backwards compatibility. Is this possible or do I need topurchase another copy of Snow Leopard Server?

The OS disks that are shipped with a particular product
are set up so that tey will only install on that product.
It will install on any Mini of that exact vintage, but that
is all.
This is to prevent people from doing exactly what you
are trying to do. The license for OSX shipped with any
is only valid for that product. Also, Snow Leopard,
including Server, is only permitted to be run on one
computer at a time. Bottom line, unlike Lion, legally
you cannot install the same copy on multiple
computers unless some "family pack" or site license
is purchased.
Yes, you need to purchase another copy.
The copy of Snow Leopard license is here:
http://images.apple.com/legal/sla/docs/macosx_snowleopard.pdf

I had to delete everything on my computer and install the operating system again , but I had to install Snow Leopard because it was the cd that came with the computer when I bought it. The problem is that I had already paid for the OS Lion and even h

I had to delete everything on my computer and install the operating system again , but I had to install Snow Leopard because it was the cd that came with the computer when I bought it. The problem is that I had already paid for the OS Lion and even had upgraded to the Mavericks . I do not think it's fair to have to pay again and I would like to upgrade my operating system without having to pay again for the same system.

Hi anatuta,
Thanks for visiting Apple Support Communities.
It sounds like you are trying to upgrade your Mac to a newer version of OS X, after completing a fresh install of Snow Leopard.
If you have already purchased and downloaded OS X Lion and Mavericks, you should be able to find these items in the Purchased section of the Mac App Store.
You may find the steps in this article helpful with finding the items:
Mac App Store: Finding your purchased apps - Apple Support
If you do not see the items in the Purchased section, they may be hidden:
Hide and unhide purchases in the Mac App Store - Apple Support
All the best,
Jeremy

Has anyone found a solution for fixing the dvd reading problems after installing snow leopard?

I installed snow leopard on my macpro tower and my dvd player will not read dvds. My archived dvd all come up blank but on my laptop their fine. All my other dvds are just spit out. I have seen hundreds of post about this in the forums but I haven't come across a solution. Apple told me they have never come across this issue which is disturbing to say the least.

Leroydouglas
Thanks, I did see that thread and way too many others like it. My drive was working fine up to the minute I installed snow leopard and now I can't read all my archived dvds of the last 5 years of my work. Nor will it read the training dvd "New" that I just bought. It also won't even read the iwork disc that came with snow leopard. Of course all these disc work fine on my other make that didn't get the snow leopard upgrade. Apple support told me they never heard of anything like this. I took it to the apple store and they think it the dvd drive itself. Please, it plays cds fine and accepts new dvd media...some. Countless people have had their drives go out right after the snow leopard install.
I'm sorry but what happens to a dvd player or what hardware problem happens to only allow a player to read a few dvds but all cds. Could someone explain to me what breaks. Apple saying I need to by a new dvd player from them is crazy. Why do I get the feeling that if I install snow leopard on my other machine that the dvd player will also break. How also can apple not have any record of this happening to others.
I work with windows machines and linux boxes and Macs and I'm sorry I trusted an upgrade to a mac os that has been around for a while. If I would have checked the forums the way I do with anything I work with I guarantee I would not have upgrade to snow leopard after seeing all the people out their with this issue. It is also shameful that apple says it has no knowledge of this problem.

How to install Snow Leopard on Macbook Pro? keep getting msg- cannot install Internal HD is used for Time Machine- this was reset to external HD and still get msg?

How to install Snow Leopard on Macbook Pro? keep getting msg- cannot install Internal HD is used for Time Machine- this was reset to external HD and still get msg?

At some point, your internal HD was selected for use as Time Machine backups, and a Backups.backupdb folder was created at the top level. So OSX thinks you're trying to install it on the same drive as your backups.
Open your internal HD with the Finder (you won't find it via a Spotlight or Finder search) and delete that folder.

Trying to get icloud, installed snow leopard, now it says I need OSX, but my processor isn't right for it. Is this possible? Do I need to buy a nw computer? will I loose all my mobile me storage?

Trying to get icloud, installed snow leopard, now it says I need OSX, but my processor isn't right for it. Is this possible? Do I need to buy a nw computer? will I loose all my mobile me storage?

You will lose the entire contents of your iDisk whether or not you migrate to MobileMe as there is no equivalent in iCloud and MobileMe will be terminated at the end of June. You will need to download any data which you don't have on your Mac already.
Snow Leopard is not compliant with iCloud and most of the facilities will not work. You can migrate from MobileMe to iCloud at http://me.com/move even with Snow Leopard: when asked to confirm that your Mac is running Lion just lie and say 'yes'. Of course you won't be able to access iCloud directly from your Mac.
If you have MobileMe mail set up to collect mail from external POP accounts you should cancel this before migrating, or you may find it still working in iCloud (where it isn't supposed to) and with no way of stopping it.
This will be the situation with Snow Leopard when you have migrated:
Your email, calendars, and 'Find my iPhone' will be migrated to iCloud. Contacts and Bookmarks cannot be migrated from a Snow Leopard Mac.
Your iDisk, together with website hosting and Gallery, will continue to work as before until next June.
Syncing of Dashboard Widgets, Dock Items and Keychains between Macs, and Mail Accounts, Mail Rules, System Preferences, Signatures & Smart Mailboxes between Macs & iOS devices, will cease altogether.
You will be able to access email and calendars on the iCloud website at http://icloud.com provided your browser is reasonably up-to-date.
You will not be able to sync contacts or bookmarks from a pre-Lion Mac.
You will be able to enter the server settings for email manually in the Mail application and access your email.
You will not be able to sync your calendars directly.
Some people have been able to set up calendar syncing by using the method detailed here - this is an unsupported hack and may not be reliable, and may stop working at some future point.
There appears to be no method of syncing contacts (though Address Book on a Mac can be synced with Google or Yahoo address books - I don't know how reliable this is).
There are a couple of third-party solutions which may be of interest.
BusyCal is an iCal-like calendar application with extra facilities: it can sync with the iCloud Calendar while running on Leopard, Snow Leopard or Lion. A single user licence (two machines allowed) is $49.99.
Soho Organizer can sync Calendars and Contacts with iCloud on Leopard, Snow Leopard and Lion. A single user licence (multiple machines allowed) is $99.99.

Recently installed Snow Leopard software and now my printer will not respond. Any suggestions?

I recently installed Snow Leopard. Now my printer will not respond. How do I troubleshoot that?

Start by telling readers the make&model of your printer, and what cabling you are using to connect it.
If you were connecting via AppleTalk, it is no longer supported, and you will need a different connection method. Readers can help you with that.
Some printers will need updated Drivers for Snow Leopard. Some printers need to be deleted and re-added.

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.

Suggestions for Safely Installing Snow Leopard

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for