Upgrading late 2008 Macbook Pro to Snow Leopard?

I read some articles that say one should stick with the OS that shipped with one's notebook.
Is this true?
Can I upgrade a Macbook Pro (late 08) to Snow Leopard or is it better to stick with Leopard?
Also, will upgrading delete my files? Ive created some folders under my home folder, would SL erase those?
i appreciate any advice.
Cheers.
Bob

I installed the 10.6.1 update last night. However, I don't really notice anything different, but I had not had any problems to "fix" anyway. There was also an update (2.1) to the HP printer software, so hopefully that has fixed the problems people have had with some HP printers. My 6988dt had been working fine with just 10.6 over 802.11g wireless, but I other HP printers seem to have been problematic. I don't think you will see much unless you had problems - it was mostly a "bug" fix and stability fix release, so if you weren't experiencing any of the issues it addressed, you won't see any noticeable change.
My most painful part of the whole Snow Leopard upgrade process was having to wait a few days for iSlayer to release his iStat Menu's update
But then, I also always have a current TM backup and SuperDuper clone (on a partitioned 1TB external drive), and 2 additional separate SuperDuper clones on dedicated portable bus-power hard drives (one kept offsite at my work office). So I do not worry too much if something goes flooey as I know I can be back to my previous system state with little effort.

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I did a factory reset on my late 2008 MacBook from a Snow Leopard disc. It installed fine, but as soon as I began to use the computer (safari) it froze. Couldn't even force quit. So I held down the power button to turn it off, and now it won't start up.

I did a factory reset on my late 2008 MacBook from a Snow Leopard disc. It installed fine, but as soon as I began to use the computer (safari) it froze. Couldn't even force quit. So I held down the power button to turn it off, and now it won't start up. It goes to the grey Apple screen and just sits there loud as can be. Help! Please keep in mind I've not done anything like this before and am going to need a little hand-holding. Thanks in advance.

Hi. Don't worry it's nothing serious. Insert the Instal Disc (Snow Leopard) and press the C button while turning on the computer. Once you see the desktop, go to Utility and choose Disk Utility. Select the Macintosh Partition on the left window pane and then click on Repair Disk and Repair Disk Permissions on the bottom right corner. Wait for both processes to finish. Click on the Apple icon (top left corner) and choose quit. Your computer should restart. See if it reboots normally. If not you can always reinstall the OS following the same steps. Good luck!

Boot Camp Driver Issues Late 2011 MacBook Pro w Snow Leopard.

Okay I've installed Windows 7 via Boot Camp. I usually do not have an issue with this as I've done this in the past.
Problems
Many devices under Device Manager show they are not installed
Try to install drivers from Snow Leopared DVD, no luck
Updated Boot Camp to 3.2 still no luck
It seems the drivers just wont work for some reason. They install for a split second then they say the device is ready but its not.
This MacBook came pre installed with Lion. I reverted it to Snow instead, since I'm an editor and Lion has issues. Can someone help me figure a way to get the drivers to install?
Mike

Got it! Check out this link: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4407

Is Snow Leopard recommended for a Late 2008 MacBook Pro?

Will Snow Leopard work on my Late 2008 MacBook Pro?
Any cautions or advice?
Have any of the Top Users upgraded to Snow Leopard yet? If not, why?
Thank ya!

You might check to see if all your apps and system add-ons you commonly use are compatible first. If that's your only computer, you might wait a bit yet.
Dave M.
MacOSG Founder/Ambassador  An Apple User Group  iTunes: MacOSG Podcast
Macsimum News Associate Editor  Creator of 'Mac611 - Mobile Mac Support'

I just upgraded my 2008 macbook pro to OS X Maverick from Snow Leopard but my computer is running a bit buggy and slow. How do I downgrade back down to snow leopard?

I just upgraded my 2008 macbook pro to OS X Maverick from Snow Leopard but my computer is running a bit buggy and slow. How do I downgrade back down to snow leopard?

You would reinstall 10.6 using your installation DVD.
Out of curiosity, how much RAM do you have? Recent versions of OS X really shine with 4GB or more.
Matt

I have a mid 2010 Macbook Pro running Snow Leopard and foolishly upgraded to Yosemite. Is it possible to go back in time with Time Machine and reinstall Snow Leopard. Then upgrade to Lion or Mavericks? Any other ideas on how I can exit Yosemite?

I have a mid 2010 Macbook Pro running Snow Leopard and foolishly upgraded to Yosemite. Now have numerous problems. Is it possible to go back in time with Time Machine and reinstall Snow Leopard? Then upgrade to Lion or Mavericks? Any other ideas on how I can exit Yosemite?

Once you get yourself back to Snow Leopard, if you still want to upgrade somewhat, I would suggest the following:
1. Get an external hard drive that you can use for experiments with new OS versions. You could partition it into 2 or 3 partitions. You could then clone your existing Snow Leopard system to one partition using Carbon Copy Cloner (well worth $40) or SuperDuper ($25).
2. Buy OS X Mountain Lion for $20, through the Apple online store (I don't think it's available through the App Store). Apple has decided to make it very difficult for anyone to get Mavericks unless they have already downloaded it.
You will receive two e-mails from Apple, one containing a PDF with a redemption code, and one with the password you will need to unlock the PDF. Using the code, you will download Mountain Lion from the App Store, where it will appear among your Purchased items.
After ML finishes downloading, its installer app will launch itself. When you see this launch screen, QUIT the install app immediately! Go to your applications folder, find the Install OS X Mountain Lion app, and copy it to a safe location outside of your Applications folder. Keeping one or more copies will allow you to reinstall without unnecessary aggravation if you later need or want to do that. At this point, you can re-launch the Installer in the Applications folder and let it run. You can install it on a clean partition on your external HD, or you can allow it to upgrade the Snow Leopard clone you created on your external drive, or you can do both. This should allow you to test how everything works for as long as you like.
3. If you left yourself a free partition on your test drive, try a clean install of Yosemite and set everything up from scratch (do not migrate anything). This will allow you to see whether your problems with it were related to something in your Snow Leopard system.

If I upgraded my MacBook Pro from Snow Leopard to Lion via the web and now wish to erase the hard drive and restore it to factory settings to sell. How do I accomplish this?

I upgraded the operating system on my MacBook Pro from Snow Leopard to Lion via the web. Now I need to erase the hard drive and restore it to factory settings, so that I can pass it on. How do I accomplish this? When I insert the Mac OS X install disk, the only option is to erase the free space. Any insight would be appreciated.
Thank you

You need to boot off the original Snow Leopard DVD's that came with the system.
Once you are running off of the DVD you will be able to do a clean install of SL
To boot off the DVD with the system up running Lion insert the DVD. Open Sytem Preferences->Startup Disk and select the DVD then restart the machine.
Message was edited by: Frank Caggiano

Trying to upgrade a MacBook Pro to snow leopard 10.6.3 and all I get after the upgrade is done is the a blank page with the apple trade mark. I did restart the computer few times and all the same

Trying to upgrade a MacBook Pro to snow leopard 10.6.3 and all I after the upgrade is done I just get a blank page withe apple symbol. I've rebooted the computer and nothing happens

Upgrading from which Mac OS X?
Is this v10.6.3 a retail disc?
You can purchase Snow Leopard from the Apple online store > Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard - Apple Store

I have a MacBook Pro with Snow leopard (10.6.8). Downloaded Lion from Aplle store and got a bill but no upgrade. Bad hearing can't use telephone to support. Apple store can't help. CASE NUMBER: 19*****63

I have a MacBook Pro with Snow leopard (10.6.8). Downloaded Lion from Aplle store and got a bill but no upgrade. Bad hearing can't use telephone to support. Apple store can't help. CASE NUMBER: 19*****63.
I am hard or hearing and can't use the telepohne support and live on an island and can't get to a shot to buy the Lion.
<Case Number Edited by Host>

Try d/ling again. In the App Store, option-click the tab

Display problem after upgrading MacBook Pro to Snow Leopard

Immediately after upgrading my MacBook Pro to Snow Leopard OSX, the display has been exhibiting vertical gray 'banding' extending up from the bottom of the display. Each band is about 1 inch wide. The display seems dimmer as well, and I can't brighten it up.
I'm in the process of upgrading to Lion (Snow Leopard was the intermediate step) and am hoping that resolves the problem. Any advice/suggestions?

I do not have answers for you, but I'll be waiting to see if someone has a "fix" for this. I am running snow leopard on a MacBook Pro, and I have a dim screen problem that doesn't brighten also. (no lines in mine, though)

Macbook Pro with Snow Leopard, Win 7 & Ubuntu, can't upgrade to Lion

I have new 13" macbook pro with Snow Leopard on it. With a combination of boot camp and some disc partitioning trickery, I got windows 7 and ubuntu on it as well. Furthermore I also have a shared data (fat32) partition on the machine (so 4 main partitions - win,mac,linux,shared - plus swap partition, efi, etc).
I just download Lion and I'm trying to start the installer, but when it asks me which partition I want to install it on, all options are greyed out and the Macintosh HD partition says somethign to the effect of "this disc cannot be used to start the computer". Is there any way for me to get lion installed without having to erase all my extra partitions and start this whole agonizing process over again?

You may be out of luck without formatting your HDD. See this article from Macworld:
(At least Recovery HD should be created. In our testing, it appears this special partition is created only when you install Lion onto an internal drive formatted with a GUID partition scheme. In addition, that internal drive must initially have only a single partition; or be a multi-partition drive that was partitioned by Boot Camp Assistant and not further modified afterwards. So not everyone will get this useful feature. Apple has confirmed some of these restrictions.)
Also, see these Apple KB articles:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4649
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1600

Renewing a Late 2008 MacBook Pro: hard drive and battery substitution

Hi all,
I am an happy user of a late 2008 MacBook pro.
However, with the passing of time, it became slow and the battery also deteriorate (it still quite OK, but it is not like at the beginning).
But let's start from the beginning: the hard drive
By googling for a while, I noticed that several people experienced very slow performance of their late 2008 MacBook Pro. That is also my case. Apparently, this is due to the hard disk which is dying, and then I considering to change it. However, I haven't found answers to these questions:
- Is it possible to mirror all the containt of the current disk to the new one?
- I only have the original installation disks of the first Leopard. I made all the updates through the network. Moreover, since it passed lot of time, I am afraid that some sector of the installation disks may be damaged. This means that I may fail in the installation of Mac Os X on the new hard drive. If I have to reinstall everything from scratch with the new hard drive and without installation disks, how should I do?
- If I go a Mac Reseller shop, will do they perform this operation? And how much does it costs to make it? Or I may also go to some generic computer reparation guy?
- Is it convenient to save all the data (movies, documents, pictures, emails, etc) somewhere (e.g. external HD) and then perform a completely new installation?
Next, let's consider the battery.
Here is a screenshot taken with iStat Pro:
Do you think it is worth changing it? From System Profile I have those other info:
Full charge capacity (mAh):          3386
       Current (mA):          846
       Voltage (mV):          12029
Condition:          Replace soon
What do you suggest to do then? How much does it cost a new battery? Actually, I think that also the processor performance deteriorate (it often becomes very hot, especially when watching Flash or Silverlight stuff), but, unfortunately I cannot change it.

Hi!
Thanks for all the answer. Please let me to resume this old and interesting discussion.
After having evaluated several solutions (including NAS, different ways of backup, etc) I bought an external firewire HDD, since I believe it nicely fits my necessities. Next, after these holidays, I will finally replace my old HDD with a SSD one. I think 120 GB are ok. I just need the apps and small-sized documents (rather LaTeX, Matlab, word, pages or excel documents, etc. - no movies or mp3 (I have Spotify, for that) ). Large files (e.g. movies, pictures, etc) may end up in external firewire HDD.
Now, let's consider the OS. I currently have 10.6.8 and I am very satisfied of that. I find it very stable, and all the apps I need are still well supported. On the other hand, given that there are like 5 years that I have the same installation, I may have a lot of obsolete files and setting that I can safely remove. This means that once I will have performed a backup of my documents, my email, my pictures etc. I can safely throw away all the rest. Hence, I may perform a brand-new installation of the OS. Although I am happy with 10.6.8, I was wondering if it is worth to upgrade it (I have a 2.53 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo - 4 GB 1067 Mhz DDR3 RAM) to Lion, Mountain Lion or Mavricks. In that case, which would be the real benefits? And what about the cons?
Finally consider that I only have the Leopard installation disks from 2008 (not even Snow Leopard) and I will bring my laptop to a techician to change the HDD (I know, it is simple but I don't have all the screws etc. and I will not buy them only for this purpose). Once he will have replaced the HDD, will he re-install the OS also? Or I have to reinstall the OS through my original DVD (5 years old, I don't even know if they still work) and upgrade to Snow Leopard again by myself? I would exclude the carbon copy solution since I may want to throw away a lot of garbage and perform a brand new instalation of the OS. How to proceed? Thanks again!

Reinstal Mac OS X, iWork09, iLife09 on Late 2008 Macbook Pro unibody ques?!

Alright so I've got a quick question for you knowledgeable people, I've got a late 2008 macbook pro unibody and has unfortunately installed some crap on my hard drive since i got it, and i want to be just like i got it out of the box. I want to delete everything off my hard drive, like completely erase, do I do that using the disk utility application or could i erase it completely with the mac OS X install disk that came with my mac? That's the specs of my harddrive(Hitachi Media Total Capacity : 232.9 GB (250,059,350,016 Bytes). When I reinstall my mac OS X, I will be waiting for Snow leopard (because its only $30 bucks if an upgrade), since they say the footprint of that O.S. will be considerably smaller that os x. but before i install snow leopard i want to reinstall my iwork and iLife programs, which are both 09. This leads to the next question that i have, my mac shipped with iLife and iWork 08 and I bought versions 09 after. They are single licenses and I want to know if I will be able to reinstall iWork09 and iLife09 after my reinstall of OS X without buying them again.
Thanks for any help in advance.;)

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
Here's an article on Installation options:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1545?viewlocale=en_US
It should give you clear instructions on how to proceed. You will boot from your install disc to do the Erase and Install. To erase the boot drive, you will use the Disk Utility that is on your install disc.
You have the iLife 09 and the iWork 09 discs? Then you should be able to reinstall them from the discs after installing the OS. The single license means that you are licensed to use them on only one computer at a time.
Be sure to make a good backup of anything you want to keep before erasing your drive and reinstalling the OS.
Incidentally, you can save a few GB's of space if you do a custom installation and eliminate any languages and printer drivers you won't ever use.
Good luck!

Late 2008 Macbook Pro doesn't boot after installing Mavericks

I have a late 2008 Macbook Pro, dual core 2.53 GHZ, 4 GB Ram (2x2).
I've been tearing my hair out trying to get this computer to boot up. Many things have been tried here. So here's the history.
Before starting this, I was running 10.6.8 on this computer.
First time I tried to install Mavericks, the installation failed, and when the computer went to restart, it just went in a loop, never really booting up, just getting the to gray screen with the apple symbol, spinning the wheel, and then going black again, restarting, and repeat. So, I took it into the Apple Genius Bar, and they diagnosed a bad battery. I replaced the battery, and had them do a clean restore back to 10.6.8.
I got it home, and tried to do an install again. This time, I downloaded the installer, and put in on an external firewire drive, and attempted to do a clean install of Mavericks. I ended up with the same boot failure problem.
I went back to the apple genius bar, and even though the diagnotics said my harddrive was fine, they said in the troubleshooting list, that the harddrive with the first thing they suspected. So, I replaced the harddrive. I did the Mavericks install again from an external HD, and for a moment, everything was great. It booted up into Mavericks. But, after my first restart, the problem was boot failure was back.
After reading a few articles, I tried booting in Safe mode. That worked. I also ran disk repair on the HD and it looked great. Still, it won't boot up out of Safe mode.
After being very frustrated, I tried just installing snow leopard from the dvd, but the install keeps failing.
Not sure what to do next.

Micajah10,
rather than a hard drive problem, you might have a faulty internal SATA cable. Do you have an external disk enclosure, or a SATA-to-USB or SATA-to-FireWire adapter? If you can boot from your hard drive without problems when it’s external, but it remains problematic internally, then that could point to the internal SATA cable as the culprit.

My phone is not listed on the itunes device sidebar when I plug in with the usb cord ... cant figure out why.... did just update macbook pro to snow leopard though?

My iphone is not listed as a device in the itunes side bar after i plug in to usb port? It used to show up fine - only change I think is that I upgraded macbook pro to snow leopard? Any ideas of what I might need to do?

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1747
follow this link. see if it helps.

Upgrading late 2008 Macbook Pro to Snow Leopard?

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