Will it work to un-install Snow Leopard (booting from original disks) and then reinstall, then upgrade without erasing hard drive on iMac?

I have both a bootable backup exernal hard drive and the original system disks. I have read on these support pages that you cannot get snow leopard freshly installed without erasing the whole whole drive since the original installation disks are older than the current updated version. I have also read here that it is possible to get the system newly installed (though it's wise to have a back up of the rest of your files). I need to know which can work. Is there an un-install function after booting from a different source? If I can get the system filess off the main hard drive and then install Snow Leopard from my original disks, then go through the upgrades, and end up with the rest of my files intact, that would be wonderful. I have all the adobe design premium software on the system with their updates and would like to not spend hours and hours restoring it all. And since I don't know where all the little bits and pieces of the Adobe programs get installed, perhaps it won't work anyway?
thanks,
Kahty

I have read on these support pages that you cannot get snow leopard freshly installed without erasing the whole whole drive since the original installation disks are older than the current updated version.
That is incorrect. You can install an older version of the same OS over itself. With Snow Leopard and later, unless you intentionally select to erase the drive, the OS removes and replaces all remnants of the current OS and leaves all of your third party apps, personal files and settings intact.
I have also read here that it is possible to get the system newly installed (though it's wise to have a back up of the rest of your files).
That is the correct information.
Is there an un-install function after booting from a different source? If I can get the system files off the main hard drive and then install Snow Leopard from my original disks, then go through the upgrades, and end up with the rest of my files intact, that would be wonderful.
No, there is no way to remove just the OS files from a drive. At least, not in any manner you could call easy. There are thousands of hidden files and folders related to UNIX. Many apps won't even run correctly, or at all, if they're not on the same drive you are starting up to. So trying to separate your third party apps from the drive the OS is on is not a good idea.
I have all the adobe design premium software on the system with their updates and would like to not spend hours and hours restoring it all.
If your end goal is to simply get the contents of the external drive onto a new internal drive in a bootable form, you can use Disk Utility to clone the drive, or use one of two excellent third party apps; SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner.

Similar Messages

Can I install snow leopard, using my original disk that came with the computer, on my mac that has mavericks as its OS?

I recently had a new hard drive installed in my macbook pro (2009 model). Previously I was running snow leopard and refused to upgrade as I knew it would cause my pro tools to become incompatible, however when I received my knew, hard drive due to my old one becoming corrupt, the apple techs had installed lion as the OS, I updated to mavericks on the off chance the incompatibility was just with Lion. However I my Snow leopard disk is also incompatible with the new OS, I would like to know if there is any way to install snow leopard onto my mac while it is using mavericks?

Restart the computer with the disk in the drive and the C key held down and install Snow Leopard onto a blank partition or drive. If needed, use the Disk Utility to repartition or erase the internal one.
(109275)

I have a first generation MacBook Air that has been refurbished via the Apple store. I installed Snow Leopard about a year ago and now, my computer wont update! It will download the updates restart my computer, but then I get an error message!

I have a first generation MacBook Air that has been refurbished via the Apple store. I installed Snow Leopard about a year ago and now, my computer wont update! It will download the updates restart my computer, but then I get an error message and the computer wont restart!

What is a error message and what do you see when it appears?
Haven't much problem with Airs around here, since they have a SSD they tend to be more reliable.
Perhaps it was a bad update, have you ran through this list of possible fixes?
Do as many as possible, starting with #1. Until the problem is resolved.
Use the boot 10.6 USB instead of the disk of course.
Step by Step to fix your Mac

Will CS5 work with Max OSX Snow Leopard, Lion, and Mountain Lion?

Will CS5 work with Max OSX Snow Leopard, Lion, and Mountain Lion?

Hi,
You can check system requirement for CS5 in link : http://www.adobe.com/store/en_us/popup/software/creativesuite/mastercollection5/systemreqs .html
Regards,
Jatin Dembla

How do I install Snow Leopard while keeping files, applications, and settings

I need to update my system, I realized that I need Snow Leopard (quiet late) before Maverick. My question is, how can I install it keeping files and all the data. I found this on Internet, does it work?
Install Snow Leopard while keeping files, applications, and settings
If you follow these steps, the installer will replace your operating system if one is already present, but will preserve your account information and personal files. You may have to reinstall some applications, however.
Insert the install disc (or the first install disc if you have more than one) into your disc drive. Restart your computer while holding down the c key. This causes your computer to start up from the install disc rather than your hard drive. When you see the gray Apple insignia, release c .
The Mac OS X installer should open automatically. Follow the on-screen prompts to read and accept the license agreement and begin the installation. When prompted to choose a destination disk, select your preferred location and click Install.
When the Mac OS X installation finishes with the disc, restart your computer. After the installation completes, a configuration program may begin automatically if you are installing for the first time. You will need to supply basic setup information for your computer.
Update your system software to ensure that you have the most recent operating system components. From the Apple menu, select Software Update... , and then follow the instructions on the screen. Often, you will have to restart your computer, and you may have to run Software Update multiple times before it can completely update your system.

That's why you need to back it up. You won't need to restore the backup immediately afterwards unless something goes wrong during the upgrade, but you'll need it later; the drive will eventually fail.
(105428)

I installed snow leopard on my mac mini and now it takes roughly 10 minutes to boot

I have a mac mini 1.5ghz with 1gb of ram installed.
I was running leopard with the combo update (10.5.8) but decided to install snow leopard as some of my apps need 10.6.8 to run.
The mac now boots past the grey screen with the apple logo then goes to a blue screen where i can move my mouse but nothing else.
This lasts for roughly 10-11 mins and then finally goes to my desktop and sure enough everything works perfectly and fast too.
It used to boot in around 30 seconds when i had leopard installed. If it can not be fixed i will be happy going back to leopard but i dont want to lose anything when i install it.
Any advice would be appreciated
Thanks

Mac OS X 10.6: If you see a blue screen at startup .
You may need to reinstall Snow Leopard:
Reinstall OS X without erasing the drive
Do the following:
1. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
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. 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.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro 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. Reinstall Snow Leopard
If the drive is OK then quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed with reinstalling OS X. Note that the Snow Leopard installer will not erase your drive or disturb your files. After installing a fresh copy of OS X the installer will move your Home folder, third-party applications, support items, and network preferences into the newly installed system.
Download and install the Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1.

After installing a new hard drive can I install snow leopard directly from snow leopard disc

After installing a new hard drive can I install snow leopard directly from snow leopard disc. Or do I have to install previous versions first. iMac 7.1 (2007) 2.8ghz

You can install directly, assuming the disk is newer than your computer and not designed for a different Mac, but doing so won't install iLife.
(64305)

Iphoto not working properly after installing snow leopard...

the two main problems are...
1) when editing in full frame, if I zoom in on the photo and try to move around with a two finger scroll, there is a big delay between me moving to where I want to be and the photo actually getting there.
2) when editing with "adjust," there is a delay when changing anything (such as highlights and shadows).
everything was perfect and happened in real time prior to installing snow leopard. when I called apple, I was told it was probably because iphoto is not 64-bit yet (would have been nice to have known that this would be an issue prior to the install). he said that if everything on my computer was added after snow leopard, I would probably be fine.
can anybody give me some advice on what to do here? I wouldn't mind going back to leopard if I can do that without losing everything, but am very open to ideas if anyone here has anything on this.
side note...safari seems to be having issues as well. takes a long time to load pages and sometimes won't be able to open them without closing out and reopening it a time or two. wasn't a problem before either.
thank you,
sean

I am having a similar(?) but perhaps distinct problem. My wife and I have separate user accounts on our MacBook. We were sharing the same photo library under Leopard with no problems whatsoever. Now, after installing SL, there is a strange situation. If I am in my account, and I import images from a camera into iPhoto, I am able to view and edit with no problems. However, when my wife launches iPhoto, she can see the event and the thumbnails in the event, but when she tries to edit the picture or even preview in iPhoto (clicking the space bar), the picture becomes a blank dark screen. If you hit add face while on the blank screen, the program can pick out the faces, but the picture is still blank.
If I try to import photos into the library when she is using her user account, the reverse applies to me. That is, I can only preview and edit pictures added under my account, and not hers.
I never had this problem with Leopard or with iPhoto '09 under Leopard. Any ideas what might be going on? I would think to go the genius bar, but I am not sure what they woudl be able to do about it. Thanks in advance.

Email (outgoing) stopped working when I installed Snow Leopard - easy fix

Hello,
When I installed Snow Leopard I could no longer send outgoing email
through the cox server.
Apple Support helped me with this easy solution:
Select "Mail|Preferences", account information tab.
Select "Edit SMTP server list" in the "Outgoing Mail Server" pulldown.
Select "Advanced".
click the "Use Custom Port" radio button and type in "25".
(I also turned off "use SSL".)
It seems that SL may not be cycling through the default ports for outgoing email.
It fixed mine.
Thank you Apple support.
Best regards.

Does the camera mount on the desktop as a disc?
If so, double-click the icon and drag the pics to a folder on the Mac.
You should then be able to import them to iPhoto or whatever.
I don't have an Olympus, but all my Fuji and Pentax cameras have mounted perfectly well as a disc without using any software from either company.
Mind you, I don't use Image Capture, Photoshop or iPhoto to import anything directly; I want my pics in my filing system not someone else's idea of what it should be.

Installing Snow Leopard Server From a USB Sticki

In my job, I install Snow Leopard and Snow Leopard Server three or four times a day.
With Snow Leopard, I've found it easiest to install from a USB stick. So, I did a restore from a DVD to a USB in Disk Utility and it's worked great.
With Snow Leopard Server, it is not so simple. When trying to install from a USB stick, I get "Mac OS X 10.6 Server Cannot Be Installed To This Machine." Though strangely, installing from the DVD is no problem.
I've tried to restore straight from the DVD to the USB. I've also tried to install from the DVD to a disk image to the USB. Both times, the USB will mount fine, but I get that error message.
Am I missing a trick here?

Oddly enough it is working for me. I had some issues initially so I went out and bought ONE 16GB thumb-drive (major vendor) and partitioned into two partitions.
I restored one of the partitions with 10.6 and restored the other with 10.6 server. Works flawlessly for me though I do like netinstall. It is a bit slower than the FW800 drive though I do not have to carry around a power brick.
I hope this helps!

Can I install Snow Leopard with an external disk drive?

I have been trying to update my software to Snow Leopard but I am using an external disk drive and when I try to install the software I get the message "The application 'Install Mac OS X' cannot be used from this volume". Is there any way to fix this problem?

Are you booting your computer from an external drive? If so please say why? How are you trying to upgrade to Snow Leopard? Do you have the 10.6.3 retail Snow Leopard DVD? On what drive are you trying to install Snow Leopard? Are you doing this?
1. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
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. 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.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro 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. Install Snow Leopard
If the drive is OK then quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed with installing OS X. Note that the Snow Leopard installer will not erase your drive or disturb your files. After installing a fresh copy of OS X the installer will move your Home folder, third-party applications, support items, and network preferences into the newly installed system.
Download and install Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1. Then use Software Update to download and install any other needed updates for Snow Leopard.

External USB HD w/ Snow Leopard - boot from Windows machine

Is there a way for me to install Snow Leopard on an external USB or Firewire so that I can plug it in and boot it up from a PC?
Thanks,

Nope. And if you could, it would be a violation of the license to OSX.

What is the difference between OSX 10.6 and 10.6 server? I need to install Snow Leopard in a Parallels VM and it only allows 10.6 server. Will Rosetta work if I use the server edition?

I MUST use an app that was discontinued which requires Rosetta, yet I also want to upgrade to Mavericks. I was told that Parallels and VMWare Fusion both support running Snow Leopard SERVER, but not Snow Leopard. Two questions: Will Rosetta run on Snow Leopard Server when it is running inside the Parallels/Fusion/whatever virtual machine which is running under Mavericks? The second question is: Is there any problem with running any specific software in Snow Leopard Server when it is set up this way?

Richard Cartledge wrote:
The problem with client as virtualised OS is the Apple EULA, not a technical one.
I don't know if it works, or you're just not meant to do it.
PS. If you download or have Snow Leopard DVD, you can install Rosetta in later OSs, certainly Lion and Mountain Lion and Mavericks.
insert your Snow Leopard disc, open the Optional Installs folder on that disc, and double-click the Optional Installs.mpkg package. The Installer will open and you’ll be prompted to click Continue a couple of times and then choose a destination for the installation. Choose your startup volume and click Continue yet again.
In the Custom Install on “nameofvolume” window that appears, enable the Rosetta option and click Continue. In the next window click Install to do just that.
NB/ I don't have any old software to test to see if it actually makes it work!
WRONG TWICE!
Bad idea to attempt to install Rosetta into Lion, Mt. Lion or Mavericks and good luck trying to remove it after that attempt. Result: NO powerpc app will run after that installation and you will have to complete a wipe of your hard drive and a complete pre-Rosetta install to get rid of Rosetta!
It was a common Urban Myth that the Snow Leopard EULA prohibited its virtualization in Lion or Mt. Lion on a Mac. That myth has been largely debunked over the last two years.
In addition, Apple's release of Snow Leopard Server at a 95% discount ($20) has rendered the issue largely moot!
OP: what application are we talking about here?
For example here is the long beloved powerpc application Appleworks running in Snow Leopard Server installed in Parallels for use in a post Lion world:
[click on image to enlarge]
More information here:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1365439

Will i be able to install Snow Leopard?

I have a G4 powerbook. It does not have a intel processor. Thx

This is as of yet unknown. Since it can install on Intel Macs, and shipped with Intel Macs, it is possible that it will work. I wouldn't though count on any iLife older than '06 running on Snow Leopard. Backup your data just in case it doesn't work*:
http://www.macmaps.com/backup.html
And dismount and disconnect all third party peripherals before beginning the installation.
- * Links to my pages may give me compensation.

Difficulty installing Snow Leopard dmg from Firewire to the 13" 2.66 GHZ

We have been using a Firewire (using 400=>800 cable) .dmg for Snow Leopard Install DVD, and it works flawlessly for just about any Intel mac machine, except the 2.66GHZ 13" MBP.
Is there some kind of conflict? When option-booting to the Firewire Snow Leopard installer, the screen scrolls down with a black, translucent error message...saying something like "hold down your power button to reboot".
Installing from disk every time is just sooo slow and painful. Can you hook a brother up??

Installing off of a DVD is no problem. It's just super tedious and takes a looong time compared to installing from a Firewire drive. We build a lot of macs every day, and sadly have not yet set up a centralized imaging system like Casper or the tools offered in OS X Server.
Here's how we do it:
Format an external 2.5" or 3.5" hard drive with a few partitions (Mac OS Extended). Make sure one of the partitions is at least 15GB.
Next, create an image (dmg) of a Snow Leopard Install DVD.
Using Disk Utility, restore the Snow Leopard dmg to the 15GB partition on the hard drive.
Connect the hard drive with a firewire (or USB) enclosure.
We have a Firewire 400 to 800 cable, which lets us connect the enclosure to the 13" 2.66 macbook pro.
Boot up the mac, with the option key held down. You should then be presented with an option to boot from the Snow Leopard image you've restored to the 15 GB partition.
Then, if it successfully boots from that image, you'll see the ever familiar setup process. And it's fast.
That's it! This method works like a charm for virtually any Intel mac. Except the **** 13" 2.66 model.

Will it work to un-install Snow Leopard (booting from original disks) and then reinstall, then upgrade without erasing hard drive on iMac?

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