Roy Miller

Q: HowTo revert new MacBook Pro, Mac Pro or iMac to Snow Leopard

Hi all,

 

the following instructions were provided to me by our Apple Enterprise tech, and I've successfully performed these steps on a newly purchased MacBook Pro.

 

Please note the following - as of 15 Aug 2011:

- this technique will work on new MacBook Pro, Mac Pro or iMac computers UNTIL Apple modifies the hardware in these computers

- this technique will NEVER work on currently shipping MacBook Air or Mac Mini computers

- this configuration of Snow Leopard installed on a computer that shipped with Lion is not supported by Apple Support.  It is entirely possible that after a trip for an AppleCare support incident, or the Apple Genius Bar, that the computer will return with Lion installed.

 

with these caveats, here are the step-by-step instructions:


---------------------------------------------------------------------

 

HowTo - NetRestore - Install Mac OS X 10.6.8 on new Mac delivered with Mac OS X 10.7.0

 

    note:  this only applies to Macbook Pro, Mac Pro, and iMac computers that originally shipped with Mac OS X 10.6.x. 

               Current Macbook Air and Mac Mini computers cannot be downgraded.

 

Required resources:

    - another computer, running Mac OS X 10.6.8

    - spare external disk

    - Snow Leopard installation disc  (Mac OS X 10.6.0 or 10.6.3 Box Set)

    - Snow Leopard 10.6.8 Combo image file  (download from Apple Support Downloads page)

    - System Image Utility 10.6.8  (download Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1.dmg from Apple Support Downloads page)

 

 

Procedure:

 

A. Create the NetImage:

1) mount the base source image  (Mac OS X 10.6.3.dmg - created from Box Set Installer)

2) launch System Image Utility  (from Server Admin Tools)

3) when source (from mounted image) appears in SIU screen, click Custom button

4) drag "Customize Package Selection" from Automator Library window to location

        between existing "Define Image Source" and "Create Image"

5) drag "Add Packages and Post-Install Scripts" from Automator Library to location

        between "Customize Package Selection" and "Create Image"

6) in the "Customize Package Selection" section:

    a) expand the "Mac OS X" triangle

    b) select options desired

    c) collapse the "Mac OS X" triangle

7) mount the appropriate update image  (Mac OS X 10.6.8 v1.1 Combo.dmg)

8) copy the MacOSXUpdCombo10.6.8.pkg package to a new local directory  (Desktop/parts/)

9) drag the MacOSXUpdCombo10.6.8.pkg icon from local directory to the

        "Add Packages and Post-Install Scripts" section of the SIU window

10) in the "Create Image" section:

        a) select the type "NetRestore"

        b) set the "Installed Volume:" field to "Macintosh HD"  (no quotes, can be any name)

        c) select the "Save To:" location

            (will be faster to a second local internal disk)

            (not faster to another partition on the same disk)

        d) set the "Image Name:" field to "Snow Leopard 10.6.8 NetRestore"

        e) the fields "Network Disk:", "Description:", and "Image Index:" don't

            matter unless one is going to use results on a NetBoot Server

11) click the Run button

12) when the dialogs appear, ignore the text and click OK for proper completion

            Dialog text:    "Image creation in progress. 

                            Cancel the image creation to proceed"

 

B. Post-process to create Restore Image:

1) find the directory created in the above process, named as in A.10d above

            (Snow Leopard 10.6.8 NetRestore.nbi)

2) in this directory are three files:

    - i386

    - NBImageInfo.plist

    - NetInstall.dmg

3) mount the NetInstall image  (double-click the NetInstall.dmg file)

4) navigate into the Contents of the package, to:  System/Installation/Packages/

5) copy the System.dmg file out to desktop or other work location

6) rename System.dmg to meaningful name, such as "Snow Leopard 10.6.8 System.dmg"

7) copy this .dmg file to external, bootable, Snow Leopard 10.6.8 system disk  (install in /Users/Shared/)

 

 

C. Install Snow Leopard 10.6.8 on new MacBook Pro or Mac Pro

 

via command line:

1) boot MacBook Pro or Mac Pro from external source prepared in B.7

2) open Terminal

3) find the restore target device specification

        a) run the command  "diskutil list"

        b) look for a 650 MB partition, labelled "Recovery HD" (likely disk0s3)

        c) the target partition should be immediately prior to the "Recovery HD" partition

        d) for a new computer with a 500 GB drive, this partition should be

                labelled "Macintosh HD", with a size of 499.2 GB

        e) make note of it's Device Identifier, likely disk0s2

4) issue the following asr (Apple Software Restore) command

    sudo asr restore --source "/path/to/restore.dmg" --target /dev/disk0s2 --erase

        (replace "/path/to/restore.dmg" with the path to the location and name used in step b.7)

5) this process proceeds and completes quickly, about 3-5 minutes. This is due to

        the "--erase" parameter; it indicates a block-copy operation

        If the process seems slow, likely the "--erase" option was omitted and

        the copy is being done as a file-copy operation.  Quit (ctl-c) and

        examine the command used...

 

 

via DiskUtility GUI:

 

1) boot MacBook Pro or Mac Pro from external source prepared in B.7

2) launch /Applications/Utilities/DiskUtility.app

3) select the computer hard drive  (typically "Macintosh HD")

4) click on the "Restore" tab

5) click on the "Image..." button to specify the "Source"

6) navigate to /Users/Shared/ and select the "Snow Leopard 10.6.8 System.dmg" file

7) drag the computer hard drive volume (Macintosh HD) to the "Destination" field

            (note: grab the volume, not the disk!!)

8) enable the "Erase destination" checkbox

9) click the "Restore" button

10) in the ensuing "Are you sure?" dialog, click the "Erase" button

11) authenticate with the local admin credentials

 

 

Apple Tech recommends leaving the Restore partition alone, and installing in the "Macintosh HD" partition only

 

commands to know:

    - asr

    - diskutil      (diskutil -list to see partitions)

    - hdiutil

Posted on Aug 15, 2011 9:00 AM

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Q: HowTo revert new MacBook Pro, Mac Pro or iMac to Snow Leopard

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  • by MacCekko,

    MacCekko MacCekko Feb 24, 2012 5:38 PM in response to Tech Harmony
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 24, 2012 5:38 PM in response to Tech Harmony

    Friends,

    my experience has been a good one, and without your astonishing and kind help, I could not have done it.

    Hhere's what happened and how I succeeded; I shall try to be brief, but since my english is horrible I can't often avoid to appear a bit "formal" in my written posts. I apologise for this.

    Here we go:

    - My brand new iMac 27" Quad i7 Sandybridge 3.4 GHz, has shipped this morning.

    - I tried a booting with the 10.6.3 Retail DVD but three beeps occured. I expected them...

    - The day before I created a "special" HD containing 10.6.3 then updated to 10.6.8 v1.1 via Apple Software Update, so I could in fact boot the new 27" with this external HD.

    - Because of my "human error" (I am lieing: I wanted to try an installation starting from scratch on a blank HD) I wiped out the entire original internal "Macintosh HD" Lion partition, the one tha had on it the Lion "Recovery HD", but I've managed to stick it on an USB stick (!!) BEFORE wipeing it out, with the help of Lion Recovery Disk Assistant and your advice.

    - I booted in SnowL

    - Launched Disk Utility and created two partitions: a 64 Gb one for Lion and a 2 Tb (well, 2 Tb minus 64 Gigs to be precise...) for the other one, onto I had planned to install SnowL. Err... not "install" but "Clone"!

    - The Lion Installation began, DLing files from the net. After a bit (here in Italy bandwidths are mostly ridiculous compared to yours in America, as far as I can tell), since it tooked too long (and I began somehow to worry: keep in mind that this has been my absolutely FIRST "relationship" with Lion and all of its somehow new procedures), I then canceled it and inserted the Lion DVD that I had DLed from AppStore and burned to a physical Single Layer DVD.

    - I booted from this one and started up the Lion Installation process.

    - It took a while anyway, but it ended up with the normal partition and the Recovery HD partition witch is invisible in Finder® etc.

    - Restarted the iMac.

    - This time I booted from the External USB HD containing SnowL 10.6.8.

    - I then began cloning my external HD with 10.6.8 SnowL onto the blank 2 Tb partition using CCC.

    Actually I am running the process, but my expectations are quite obvious: ending with a Dual Boot System, composed as follows: Mac HD with SnowL, Mac HD with Lion, Recovery HD plus a Bootcamp Partition with Win (which has to be created from scratch, I am afradi. Bootcamp 3.0 drivers for my iMac 24" will NOT most certainly work for the 27" iMac).

    - In the end, I will use, as noted by Tech Harmony, Migration Assistant with which I plan to restore the entire OS X 10.5.8 from my Time Machine Backup, that has been taken form my "old" iMac 24" (the one I am currently on).

     

    If everything goes well, apart from the enormous time that it will need to finish (1 Tb is a BIG mass of data to be restored via an USB external Time Machine disk, after all), I will have succeeded in my fantastic plan.

     

    Again, thanks to each and everyone of you for having shared such "secret" although pivotal information.

     

    Cheers!

  • by rpg2288,

    rpg2288 rpg2288 Feb 26, 2012 5:04 PM in response to Roy Miller
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 26, 2012 5:04 PM in response to Roy Miller

    @ Tech Harmony -- totally agree. I haven't installed 2.7 yet. Not sure if new bugs will happen, new boot problems. So, that's ok... :)

     

    @Roy -- I also saw that the 'operating system support' was Lion 10.7.3, however, the 'EFI 2.7 for Macbook Pro (early/late '11)' update appeared in the list via software update. hmm :\

     

    I kinda like 'Mountain Lion'....maybe the developers will take out a couple Lion features people don't like. I'm hesistant to switch to Lion at all b/c the battery life for the 15" Macbook Pro (on 2 different Macbook Pros) was about ~50% of that in Snow Leopard. huh? ...

  • by moonrabbit,

    moonrabbit moonrabbit Mar 5, 2012 5:58 PM in response to Joe Weisman
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 5, 2012 5:58 PM in response to Joe Weisman

    Joe Weisman wrote:

     

    I bought a new MacBook Pro with Lion on it and was not happy with Lion at all.  I tried to 'revert' to Snow Leopard and had no success following this elaborate procedure. but then I just booted off a bootable hard drive made from my previous MacBook Pro, which was running Snow Leopard.  That was a clone made with Carbon Copy Cloner. 

     

    It booted up just fine, and then I used Disk Utility to wipe the disk on the new Lion machine, and then I used Carbon Copy Cloner to copy my Snow Leopard clone onto the new machine, and then I shut everything down and disconnected the hard drive and my new machine now runs Snow Leopard without any problems, and without any Lions.

     

     

    Was yours an early or late 2011 Mac Pro?  After following this thread, I had come to the sad conclusion that running SnowL on a late 2011 machine was impossible?

  • by rpg2288,

    rpg2288 rpg2288 Mar 6, 2012 6:55 PM in response to moonrabbit
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 6, 2012 6:55 PM in response to moonrabbit

    hey, btw....I have the macbook pro 15" late/october 2011. Snow Leopard has been running w/ out any issues since Oct.. (I guessed that you meant  macbook pro...instead of Mac Pro  )


    moonrabbit wrote:

     

    Joe Weisman wrote:

     

    I bought a new MacBook Pro with Lion on it and was not happy with Lion at all.  I tried to 'revert' to Snow Leopard and had no success following this elaborate procedure. but then I just booted off a bootable hard drive made from my previous MacBook Pro, which was running Snow Leopard.  That was a clone made with Carbon Copy Cloner. 

     

    It booted up just fine, and then I used Disk Utility to wipe the disk on the new Lion machine, and then I used Carbon Copy Cloner to copy my Snow Leopard clone onto the new machine, and then I shut everything down and disconnected the hard drive and my new machine now runs Snow Leopard without any problems, and without any Lions.

     

     

    Was yours an early or late 2011 Mac Pro?  After following this thread, I had come to the sad conclusion that running SnowL on a late 2011 machine was impossible?

  • by moonrabbit,

    moonrabbit moonrabbit Mar 6, 2012 8:24 PM in response to rpg2288
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 6, 2012 8:24 PM in response to rpg2288

    That's good to know.  I got my Macbook Pro 15" late 2011 to boot up to an external hard drive that had Snow Leopard installed (via Carbon Copy). But I am wondering if I could partition the hard drive on my MBP and have both Lion and Snow Leopard.  Don't have time to play with it now, but will later.

    rpg2288 wrote:

     

    hey, btw....I have the macbook pro 15" late/october 2011. Snow Leopard has been running w/ out any issues since Oct.. (I guessed that you meant  macbook pro...instead of Mac Pro  )


    moonrabbit wrote:

     

    Joe Weisman wrote:

     

    I bought a new MacBook Pro with Lion on it and was not happy with Lion at all.  I tried to 'revert' to Snow Leopard and had no success following this elaborate procedure. but then I just booted off a bootable hard drive made from my previous MacBook Pro, which was running Snow Leopard.  That was a clone made with Carbon Copy Cloner. 

     

    It booted up just fine, and then I used Disk Utility to wipe the disk on the new Lion machine, and then I used Carbon Copy Cloner to copy my Snow Leopard clone onto the new machine, and then I shut everything down and disconnected the hard drive and my new machine now runs Snow Leopard without any problems, and without any Lions.

     

     

    Was yours an early or late 2011 Mac Pro?  After following this thread, I had come to the sad conclusion that running SnowL on a late 2011 machine was impossible?

  • by vinodhmoodley,

    vinodhmoodley vinodhmoodley Mar 11, 2012 5:40 AM in response to moonrabbit
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 11, 2012 5:40 AM in response to moonrabbit

    I used the method in the first post and it worked perfectly on my 2011 MacBook Pro. I made one change:

     

    Once you have the install dmg with 10.6.8 already integrated, in Lion, open Disk Utility and create a new partition for Snow Leopard. Mount the install dmg by double clicking on it. Select the newly created Snow Leopard partion and then click on restore. Select the mounted install image as source and the new Snow Leopard partition as destination. Click restore and wait for it to complete.

     

    Restart the MacBook while holding down the option key and then select the Snow Leopard partition to boot from. The Apple welcome video will then play and you can then login in to your new Snow Leopard installation. Disk Utility can then be used to delete the Lion partition or you can use the Boot Disk tool found in System Preferences to set the priority of which OS to boot from if you want to dual boot.

  • by ratmz,

    ratmz ratmz Mar 25, 2012 10:33 AM in response to Roy Miller
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 25, 2012 10:33 AM in response to Roy Miller

    I can apply this method to my new late 2011 13" mac book pro without problem

  • by Shootist007,

    Shootist007 Shootist007 Mar 25, 2012 10:43 AM in response to ratmz
    Level 6 (16,660 points)
    Mar 25, 2012 10:43 AM in response to ratmz

    Do you mean cloning from a nearly new Mac running SL 10.6.8 to a newer, 2011, Mac running Lion. Yes you can but you must either wipe the drive or create another partition on the drive in the newer Mac.

  • by ratmz,

    ratmz ratmz Mar 25, 2012 10:54 AM in response to Shootist007
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 25, 2012 10:54 AM in response to Shootist007

    Using the Procedure Method, I'm not clone my running SL, only make image from retail 10.6.0 CD and 10.6.8 update combo.

     

    https://sites.google.com/site/downgradeyourmac/the-procedure

     

    And I never delete the recovery partition include in new late 2011 macbook pro.

  • by Shootist007,

    Shootist007 Shootist007 Mar 25, 2012 10:57 AM in response to ratmz
    Level 6 (16,660 points)
    Mar 25, 2012 10:57 AM in response to ratmz

    Have never used that method so I am not sure. But one of the first thing you should do is use the Apple Recovery Disk Assistant program to create a Lion Recovery USB thumb drive that contains all the files and functionality of the Recovery HD partition. Just in case you have a drive failure and or can't access the built in Recovery HD.

     

    You can go one step further and create a real Lion install USB thumb drive from the downloaded Lion InstallESD.DMG file. That way you would never need to download Lion again from the internet.

     

    Good Luck.

  • by Tech Harmony,

    Tech Harmony Tech Harmony Mar 25, 2012 11:27 AM in response to ratmz
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mar 25, 2012 11:27 AM in response to ratmz

    @ratmz Nice, are you saying you were successful on the new 13"?

     

    @Shootist007 has a good point about backing up the Lion Recovery partition but it's listed on that "Procedure" Google Site you linked... there's a link to the Apple page unless there's a new one up?

     

    That Google site is just an old summary of Roy's original post with a few fixes he couldn't make to it (because you can't re-edit old posts). This whole thread is about cloning from a 10.6.8 system restore image that you make yourself. Although naturally people have piped in with many other methods including cloning from another computer runing 10.6.8

  • by ratmz,

    ratmz ratmz Mar 25, 2012 6:54 PM in response to Tech Harmony
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 25, 2012 6:54 PM in response to Tech Harmony

    @ Tech Harmony: Yes, I have succesfully install SL on macbook pro 13" late 2011 with sn C02H3607DV14

     

    @Shootist007: Yes I have do all procedur for back up pre installed lion on another HD and USB thumb.

  • by Silly rabbit,

    Silly rabbit Silly rabbit Mar 28, 2012 7:02 PM in response to moonrabbit
    Level 4 (2,980 points)
    Mar 28, 2012 7:02 PM in response to moonrabbit

    Why won't anybody listen to me? You can use BootCamp to partition the drive and install Snow Leopard without jumping through a thousand hoops! When you use BootCamp it fools Lion into thinking you are installing Windoze and it installs with ease. If you want SL as your main OS just create a huge partition. Gees!

     

     

    Look!

     

    start up disc.jpg

  • by Ian Cheong,

    Ian Cheong Ian Cheong Mar 28, 2012 7:25 PM in response to Silly rabbit
    Level 1 (34 points)
    Mar 28, 2012 7:25 PM in response to Silly rabbit

    What hoops do you mean?

     

    Partitioning works with Disk Utility. How does bootcamp make it easier?

     

    New machines will not boot from a retail SL disk, giving the three beeps (= memory problems, according to documentation) error, which will seriously confuse anyone who tried.

     

    Some hoops are essential to get SL on new hardware. Roy's method permits us to make a bootable SL disc that will install on new hardware.

  • by Silly rabbit,

    Silly rabbit Silly rabbit Mar 29, 2012 4:03 AM in response to Ian Cheong
    Level 4 (2,980 points)
    Mar 29, 2012 4:03 AM in response to Ian Cheong

    Hoops? Using BootCamp there is no need to reinstall Lion. You can keep your original install of Lion and install Snow Leopard/ And, if you want Snow Leopard as your main OS you can adjust the partition to 90% of your hard drive, でしょお?

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