Hi there,

I'm contemplating buying a new iMac i5 quad core 2.7 and I wanted to know if I could downgrade from Lion to Snow Leopard. I have a full retail version of 10.6.3.

Thanks in advance.

.

Snow Leopard: The new XP. :)

googled the question and found tons of yes answers
heres one

Backup your User folders to an external drive. This should preserve your documents, photos, music, etc. If you store those things in locations not in the User folder, make sure to copy those over too.
Insert the Snow Leopard disc. Restart your Mac and hold down C to boot to your DVD drive.
Go to Utilities in the menu bar once the installer pops up and select “Disk Utility.”
Find the drive in the sidebar where Lion is installed, select it and navigate to the Partition tab.
Click on the drop down menu under Partition Layout and select “1 Partition.” Hit Apply.
Now navigate to the Erase tab and make sure “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” is selected, then hit Erase to delete all data on the drive.
Quit Disk Utility to get back to the Snow Leopard installer and proceed with the install.
Restore your User folder and documents from your backup.
Run Software Update to get everything current, install your apps from your original install media and update those as well.

Give Mountain Lion a chance. Don't bother with Lion (which is perfectly fine). Mountain Lion fixes things for you.

You can't. The machines are (were) made with specific install discs for that computer, and were unable to load an operating system more outdated than the computer. Now, Lion is just on it and there is no way to change it. Just make the best of it and don't upgrade to Mountain Lion.

Youre wrong. All current iMacs will run 10.6.8 just fine

I'm also fairly sure the current iMacs originally shipped with snow Leo, and thus should still be able to run it. Though if rumors are to be believed that will change shortly, the current iMacs are due for a spec bump which I'm betting will coincide with the launch of mountain lion later this month.

10.6.8 runs fine but there is no direct install.
You need to clone or target mode
In the latter case you need to update the installed version to 10.6.8 from the installing machine and then the iMacs and other 2011 models except Air and MacMini will boot fine.

10.6.8 runs fine but there is no direct install

Why wouldn't inserting a generic Snow Leopard install disc, i.e. the white disc with a picture of a snow leopard, boot up the machine from the disc and install it that way? Would this not work?

because those discs have 10.6.3 on them and the machine won't even boot from it. you need a 10.6.7 disc that came with those machines or do as macdoc described and clone/target mode on

Hi there,

I'm contemplating buying a new iMac i5 quad core 2.7 and I wanted to know if I could downgrade from Lion to Snow Leopard. I have a full retail version of 10.6.3.

Thanks in advance.


Is the more relevant question to ask MrJimmy is why do you want to do this?
Perhaps we can help you solve that issue instead of "moving backwards" with your OS.

DavidH

Is the more relevant question to ask MrJimmy is why do you want to do this?
Perhaps we can help you solve that issue instead of "moving backwards" with your OS.

DavidH

Hi DavidH,

I don't think of it as 'moving backwards'. I think of it as continuing with something that works extremely well for me.

Thanks to everyone who has responded so far. So it seems I now need to get a retail copy of 10.6.7...

Let us know how it goes!

.

Hi DavidH,

I don't think of it as 'moving backwards'. I think of it as continuing with something that works extremely well for me.

Thanks to everyone who has responded so far. So it seems I now need to get a retail copy of 10.6.7...

theres no such thing as a retail copy of 10.6.7. you need one of the machine specific discs that came with those 2011 iMacs *or*, as has been mentioned, to clone on from another machine running the right OS

as to the person asking "why"...the list of reasons is gigantic. rosetta, support for certain printers, general stability, stability with most pro audio apps, etc etc etc.

i could go on

+1 if I may!!!

And no I'm sure not on the bleeding OS X user edge and besides broad's reasons, I just don't like how most of Apple's OS X Lion works. Period!! And it seems from this list alone that I'm NOT alone. Amen.

So I have the new machine and no discs come with it at all. I'm assuming it's a download of Lion... So how do I go about this target mode method again?

Some machines in the refurb store are still SL also.

So I have the new machine and no discs come with it at all. I'm assuming it's a download of Lion... So how do I go about this target mode method again?

Basically you need to find a similar model Mac that's running SL 10.6.8 preferred and then use Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) to clone it to your Mac booted up in Target Disk Mode and connected via an appropriate Firewire cable or whatever cable and connections work these days.

Basically you need to find a similar model Mac that's running SL 10.6.8 preferred and then use Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) to clone it to your Mac booted up in Target Disk Mode and connected via an appropriate Firewire cable or whatever cable and connections work these days.

I see...

I have another iMac running 10.6.8. So I'm part way there. Are there any clear step by step articles out there in how to do this. I'm more of a put a disc in and let it happen kind of user...

Connect the two machines with a firewire cable, start up the target machine (your new one) in Firewire Disc Target Mode (hold down 'T' when booting it after connecting it to the other machine), and the drive should show up on the other machine's desktop. Initialize, or reformat the target drive with Disc utility, then start CarbonCopyCloner (After reading the instructions thoroughly!), and clone your complete boot volume to the new machine's blank drive.
Shut down both machines when it's all done. Unplug the Firewire cable, and restart your new Mac holding down the 'X' key to force OSX startup from the local drive, in case it doesn't know where to boot from (set it to your new boot volume in system prefs, assuming everything had gone according to plan and your system is successfully cloned onto the new machine, allowing normal start up & login).

Google is your friend.... Try a search on 'install snow leopard in Lion imac' etc. and you'll find lots like these:

For iMac 27" Owners - How to downgrade from lion to SL - Mac-Forums Discussions for Apple Products & Services (http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/os-x-operating-system/272310-imac-27-owners-how-downgrade-lion-sl.html)

and

How to install Snow Leopard on a brand-new Lion-based Mac | ZDNet (http://www.zdnet.com/blog/government/how-to-install-snow-leopard-on-a-brand-new-lion-based-mac/10652)

or choose any of the other hits.

Maybe try out SL on your new computer first by reversing the above info in my previous post.
Connect the two with a FW cable and start up your older (SL) computer in target disk mode.
Now boot your new computer while pressing the ALT key and your SL drive should show up as a bootable option.
Select it and see if your new computer can handle and boot from the older Operating system.

In another thread (http://www.ehmac.ca/anything-mac/100932-late-2011-macbook-pro-running-snow-leopard.html) I asked a similar question whether a late 2011 Macbook Pro presintalled with OS 10.7 could be downgraded to OS 10.6.

I got my friend's refurb late 2011 MBP yesterday. Indeed OS 10.7 was on it and there was no OS 10.6 installation disc. I tried to boot up the machine using a generic OS 10.6 install disc. Couldn't do it. I got a kernel panic.

I wanted to preserve OS 10.7 on the MBP hard drive in case for whatever reason the machine wouldn't boot up on OS 10.6. I have an external notebook drive with OS 10.6 installed on it. As a test I opened the back cover of the MBP, took out the drive and replaced it with the OS 10.6 notebook drive from my external drive enclosure. The MBP booted up fine under OS 10.6.

In your situation, you could prepare an external hard drive with OS 10.6 installed and clone it to the drive on the iMac.

Depending on your Mac OS X volume cloning options you want preserved, you may want to consider using the latest version of 'Carbon Copy Cloner' (CCC) that provides an option to also clone the normally invisible Lion "Recovery HD" partition.

I'm standing by this, especially for a new machine. I'm running Mountain Lion on a Retina MacBook Pro, and it rocks. You're going to really like Notifications on a computer.


Give Mountain Lion a chance. Don't bother with Lion (which is perfectly fine). Mountain Lion fixes things for you.

First off, thanks to all for the info so far!

So much to consider. I am now in possession of said machine and haven't done anything yet. Do you think it's best to set up with Lion and then try the SL install? As was mentioned earlier, It seems like a good idea to leave Lion lurking in there somewhere, if for nothing else, the resale of the machine.

I say this because there is talk out there in the ether of voiding warranties by doing this etc. etc. I suppose if I erased the drive I could always buy Lion for the purposes of setting up the machine for resale.

The elimination of physical installation discs flummoxes me somewhat. I've been happily tootling along in my SL world (Macbook and and iMac), both of which were installed the 'old' way. Does Lion exist in my HD somewhere or is it downloaded and installed.

Sorry for all the questions.

I guess my main question is, can I maintain the original setup of my machine and still load SL on it?

First off, thanks to all for the info so far!

So much to consider. I am now in possession of said machine and haven't done anything yet. Do you think it's best to set up with Lion and then try the SL install? As was mentioned earlier, It seems like a good idea to leave Lion lurking in there somewhere, if for nothing else, the resale of the machine.

I say this because there is talk out there in the ether of voiding warranties by doing this etc. etc. I suppose if I erased the drive I could always buy Lion for the purposes of setting up the machine for resale.

The elimination of physical installation discs flummoxes me somewhat. I've been happily tootling along in my SL world (Macbook and and iMac), both of which were installed the 'old' way. Does Lion exist in my HD somewhere or is it downloaded and installed.

Sorry for all the questions.

I guess my main question is, can I maintain the original setup of my machine and still load SL on it?

You can't install SL over top Lion. You'd need to erase and install SL (clone from another machine, I mean) or, erase and partition the drive into two partitions, install Lion on one and SL on the other. Lion or Mountain Lion, when not installed on the machine, can be downloaded again via Internet Recovery, or from booting from the Recovery HD (hold down the Option key on startup if Lion is already installed - if Lion is not installed; i,e; after a fresh reformatting, holding down Command + R will start Internet Recovery).

Honestly, I'd suggest using Lion as is and see if it works for you - upgrading is inevitable, since you can't use Snow Leopard forever and there is a lot of software (and more coming regularly) that has already dropped pre-10.7 support.

I guess my main question is, can I maintain the original setup of my machine and still load SL on it?

No.

Thanks Lars.

At least I know I can revert back to Lion in order to sell the machine as it was meant to be.

SL works incredibly well for me. Also, I have a few programs requiring Rosetta and I don't want to get into the $$$ of upgrading. I don't want a computer to become a money pit.

This machine came out of the blue and was too good to pass up. I would have happily continued with my iMac 2.8 24" if the opportunity hadn't presented itself.

Back to the cloning issue. On a few of the links pm-r so kindly included, it had people doing a fresh install of 10.6.3 and then running the 10.6.8 combo update. What advantage does CCC have over this? (The Caveat being I don't use and am not familiar with CCC).

You can't install 10.6.3 since it requires 10.6.7 minimum to run Snow Leopard. You'd need to install 10.6.8 on a different computer, then clone it back to the new iMac via Disk Utility. (No idea why people use CCC when the built-in Disk Utility works...).

You can't install 10.6.3 since it requires 10.6.7 minimum to run Snow Leopard. You'd need to install 10.6.8 on a different computer, then clone it back to the new iMac via Disk Utility. (No idea why people use CCC when the built-in Disk Utility works...).

This may be largely historical at this point. I can certainly remember trying the DU method and ending up with so many permissions errors that the clone was unusable. Used CCC or SuperDuper from that point forward.

You can't install SL over top Lion. You'd need to erase and install SL (clone from another machine, I mean) or, erase and partition the drive into two partitions, install Lion on one and SL on the other. ... ... ...

I guess my main question is, can I maintain the original setup of my machine and still load SL on it?

No.


Sorry, all he needs to do is use Disk Utility to re-size and keep the existing Lion install and add another partition to clone the other Mac's SL 10.6.8 onto. No erasing or re-installing required.

Works well, and I have a similar setup, but I keep SL on the first outer partition that's much faster and my main daily used OS. Yup, still have some old apps that need Rosetta and they will never be updated.

Sorry, all he needs to do is use Disk Utility to re-size and keep the existing Lion install and add another partition to clone the other Mac's SL 10.6.8 onto. No erasing or re-installing required.

Yes, but if he really does not want to, nor will use Lion, then you may as well erase and start over with Snow Leopard. There is no point in partitioning a drive to keep Lion when it will not be used. But yes, you can partition via Disk Utility w/o erasing.

A personal choice I guess, and he may actually end up using Lion for some stuff that can't be done with SL that he hasn't considered, and like Mickey, he may actually "like it". Sort of the best of both worlds.

And Lion only needs 10-20GB HD space for minimal use, which isn't that much space on a big drive, and the size can always be increased "in-place" later if necessary. And no OS X re-installs needed later on.

That would be my choice and method I'd use with a new iMac.

Give it a couple of years. The same cast of characters will be desperately trying to preserve Mountain Lion installs on new Macs that come with "OS X 10.10 "Fluffy Pussycat".

Give it a couple of years. The same cast of characters will be desperately trying to preserve Mountain Lion installs on new Macs that come with "OS X 10.10 "Fluffy Pussycat".

Like.

Now where can I get and install "OS X 10.10 "Fluffy Pussycat" from???

It sounds like a "must have" and "new and improved" Apple Mac OS X product. ;) ;)

Resurrection!

So I'm about to undertake this procedure over the holidays and I thought I'd recap.

So, if I have the 10.6.7 disc, I can just load SL directly... or,

Go the target mode/ CCC route. I think I'd go target as it requires no additional software, or does it?

Further thought, insights?

(please, no 'why are you doing this' types of response. SL works well for me and I'm happy to use it for as long as I can. ;)

Resurrection!

So I'm about to undertake this procedure over the holidays and I thought I'd recap.

So, if I have the 10.6.7 disc, I can just load SL directly... or,

Go the target mode/ CCC route. I think I'd go target as it requires no additional software, or does it?

Further thought, insights?

(please, no 'why are you doing this' types of response. SL works well for me and I'm happy to use it for as long as I can. ;)

I am currently setting up a newer computer to run Snow Leopard. Comes down to twain drivers for my old Epson Scanner and some elements of AppleWorks being more or less irreplaceable at least at home user prices.

I much prefer being able to make my computer work for me, rather than spend my time figuring out how to make it work without replacing perfectly good peripherals.:)

I am currently setting up a newer computer to run Snow Leopard. Comes down to twain drivers for my old Epson Scanner and some elements of AppleWorks being more or less irreplaceable at least at home user prices.

I much prefer being able to make my computer work for me, rather than spend my time figuring out how to make it work without replacing perfectly good peripherals.:)

Me too.

So how are you doing it?

Maybe I'm missing something with the seemingly problems of getting a new Lion/MLion Mac to install Snow Leopard. But if one has a bootable clone SL backup on an external drive, and the new ML Mac can boot and run from the SL backup, wouldn't a CCC clone just work to get it onto the new Mac?

Me too.

So how are you doing it?

Bought an older Xeon chip MacPro. Just slightly more than a new MacMini. Will run everything from Leopard to perhaps Mountain Lion. Liking Snow Leopard so far. No glitches as yet. Still getting everything set up so I have as yet to put it to any serious work. Rosetta so far is a lifesaver and does not slow anything down to slower than me.:)

Hopefully the old eMac will hold in for awhile so I can do a really leisurely transition and clean-up about 10 years of accumulated files, at least half of which can be discarded as I take the time to review them.

Also just finishing a time consuming project. Down to printing everything, probably tomorrow.

Yeah the 2.66 Quad MacPros are a bargain now and very flexible - even the 8 core 3,1 are finally at a decent price point and both very flexible for legacy software and the 8 core still easily hangs in there with everything below a 3.33 MacPro.

I have a new in the box iMac i5 quad core 2.7. My 'target mode' machine is a 24" iMac running 10.6.8.

Should be as simple as connecting the two together, no?

I've also been Googling how to create a universal 10.6.7 install DVD. Trouble is I need a 10.6.7 DVD from an iMac. Seems to be too much trouble but it would be nice to have as after I get the 27" running, I plan on selling the 'target mode' 24".

As far as CCC, I've never used it so that option is less attractive to me.

If you have 10.6.8 should work okay but 100% use CCC.

If you have 10.6.8 should work okay but 100% use CCC.

Not in target mode?

Not in target mode?

Not if you were planning to use the Finder, and even creating a disk image can be dubious to create a bootable OS X. Use CCC - it works!!

Not if you were planning to use the Finder, and even creating a disk image can be dubious to create a bootable OS X. Use CCC - it works!!

Any good tutorials out there?

Of course in Target mode
you put the NEW Mac in target mode clone from the old one to the new one.

Any good tutorials out there?

It seems that MacDoc just posted one. But use a compatible CCC version of course.

Of course in Target mode
you put the NEW Mac in target mode clone from the old one to the new one.


I haven't done the deed on any recently released Mac. If in doubt, go a-googling with an appropriate search maybe. ;)

You may get a bunch of nonsense googling- but the just discoed iMacs all run 10.6.8 but it is important to have either 10.6.7 or 10.6.8
There is no direct installer available.

You may get a bunch of nonsense googling- but the just discoed iMacs all run 10.6.8 but it is important to have either 10.6.7 or 10.6.8
There is no direct installer available.

Hmmm... getting all this OS X install stuff on any on any Apple "unsupported" Mac stuff reminds me of the methods I had to use on an old "unsupported" G4 733 (Quicksilver) I had to use to get the unsupported OS X 10.5.x installed on it.

I sure don't recall any such hassles getting Mac System 9.x OS installed on any older PPC Macs, except some REALLY legacy old Mac models.

Just reminiscing here I guess ... ;)

You may get a bunch of nonsense googling- but the just discoed iMacs all run 10.6.8 but it is important to have either 10.6.7 or 10.6.8
There is no direct installer available.

Google and nonsense??? Never!!! ;)

It seems as though this model shipped with SL at some point. Not mine though... Would the hardware be any different in the Lion machine vs the one that shipped with SL?

You say it will run but will it run well?

So let me get it straight (patience please as this is not my field of expertise):

I use CCC to clone the drive of my 10.6.8 machine
I hook the two up via firewire
Have the new computer as 'the target'
Clone old computer to new.

Couldn't I just drag everything from one to another?

It's better to use something like CCC because dragging and dropping a whole system may not get you the results you want. Hidden files and folders may or may not get copied. You could use Terminal and arcane Unix commands, but that is what CCC is doing for you.

Google and nonsense??? Never!!! ;)


...


Couldn't I just drag everything from one to another?

....

Couldn't I just drag everything from one to another?

Absolutely not. The last time that worked was with OS 9.2.2

Carbon Copy Cloner is incredibly easy to use. If the price is an objection then Super Duper is almost as easy and you can pay or not depending on whether you need to do incremental back ups.

Unless I am not getting something, this should be an incredibly simple task.

Once you have acquired: An external HD of sufficient size to hold the contents of the Mac HD you are cloning, a copy of Carbon Copy Cloner and a retail copy DVD of Snow Leopard

The process would be:

1. Erase and reformat the external as a Mac Extended (Journaled) using Disk Utility.

2. Launch CCC with the external plugged in and clone the Mac HD (in the old machine) to the external. (Will take 2 to 3 hours depending on size.)

3. Test to see that the clone will boot the old machine by restarting holding down the option key, then selecting the clone. If the clone boots the old Mac, shut down the Mac, unplug the external and continue to step 4.

4. Erase and reformat the internal Mac HD on the old machine as a Mac Extended (Journaled) again using Disk Utility.

5. Insert the retail Snow Leopard Disk in the old machine and install SL.

6. When the install is finished, it will automatically ask if you want to transfer data from either another Mac or hard drive. Select 'Another Hard Drive'. It will then instruct you to plug in and turn on the external and it will automatically do the rest to complete the install and transfer all your data.

7. When the install is complete, run Software Update to upgrade SL to its highest version. (You may have to do this a couple of times.)

Isn't that about it?

I'll add another suggestion before using CCC and to prevent any confusion, give each Mac an appropriate name, at least temporarily, so that they aren't both called "Macintosh HD". That can get confusing, like who's on what or which?????

But I don't see if the 'old' Mac is running OS X SL 10.6.8 why you don't just use CCC and clone it to the new Mac that's running in Target Disk Mode.

You can't. The machines are (were) made with specific install discs for that computer, and were unable to load an operating system more outdated than the computer. Now, Lion is just on it and there is no way to change it. Just make the best of it and don't upgrade to Mountain Lion.


Agree...

So I finally un-boxed my iMac and fired it up. From what I've researched, this model cam with SL installed and I was holding out hope. Sadly no, Lion...

I began to warm to the idea of just going with Lion until I discovered my USB Apple modem and beloved Pagesender were not compatible. Faxing is a large part of what I need my machine to do. Grrr... So I'm back to forcing SL onto the new machine.

Read a little about CCC. My new question is, do I need to do a clean install of SL (I have a retail version of 10.6.3) on the new machine before using CCC to send my data over? I'm beginning to think I should just start from scratch and reinstall everything.

5 days left of vacation and so much to do!

... ...

I began to warm to the idea of just going with Lion until I discovered my USB Apple modem and beloved Pagesender were not compatible. Faxing is a large part of what I need my machine to do. Grrr... So I'm back to forcing SL onto the new machine.

Read a little about CCC. My new question is, do I need to do a clean install of SL (I have a retail version of 10.6.3) on the new machine before using CCC to send my data over? I'm beginning to think I should just start from scratch and reinstall everything.
...

Just make a backup clone with CCC if you have any data worth preserving, install SL and run Software Update, then run CCC again with its option set to delete anything from the backup that's not on the source drive.

You shouldn't need to do a clean install.

Just make a backup clone with CCC if you have any data worth preserving, install SL and run Software Update, then run CCC again with its option set to delete anything from the backup that's not on the source drive.

You shouldn't need to do a clean install.

So install SL + run software update on the new machine and then migrate everything else over using CCC afterwards?

So install SL + run software update on the new machine and then migrate everything else over using CCC afterwards?

I'm not sure that I'm understanding your question properly.

All I'm suggesting is using CCC to create a bootable clone backup, especially if you have any personal data to save, and then run the SL installer and do all the Software Updates.

Then use CCC to backup the new Mac when everything is working with SL.

No need to use CCC to "migrate" anything back - assuming that everything works and installed properly.

And just to add, If you have some personal saved data you need to save and/or 'migrate' on some other Mac or volume for your use, then doing so is a completely different situation.

And yes, CCC can do that for you with your added input as to what data you want and need.

BTW: Some of the later Mac models won't allow for any OS X 10.6.3 install, as Apple says a later 10.6.x is often needed, but if that's a situation that you encounter, there are other methods to get SL 10.6.8 installed that may work.

Keep in mind that Apple thinks "sales", and the user thinks of OS X "usability".

All you normally have to do is find a method to get around any of Apple's Mac model and OS X "restrictions".

Something that CCC and it's cloning can often get around and get things working. And sometimes, a Target Disk Mode is required to do so. ;)

A PITA at times IMHO!!!!