Tara Hollander

Q: How do I go from Mavericks back to Snow Leopard

I updated my late 2009 MacBook Pro to Mavericks as I thought the system efficiency upgrades the new OS tauted would be good, but alas my computer is super slow for ALL functions.  I won't give details, because now after the fact, I'm learning others have had this problems.  I don't have time to hope it will improve, I want to go straight back to Snow Leopard and will wait for Mavericks to have more updates, improvements and better reviews on speed.

 

Technical question on how to go back/ reinstall Snow Leopard? 

First my stats:

I have 2 partitions on my MacBook Pro: 1. my usual use 400gb partition, which was on snow leopard and went up to Mavericks, and 2. 100gb "test" partition running 10.6.8. 

I have an external backup hard drive with Time Machine backup of the 400GB partition.

 

There was an apple support article - http://support.apple.com/kb/PH14176 - that said to revert to previous OS you simply:

  1. Choose Apple menu > Restart. Once your Mac restarts (and the gray screen appears), hold down the Command (⌘) and R keys.
  2. Select “Restore from a Time Machine Backup,” then click Continue.

Is this indeed going to work for me?  Or will it delete the 2 partitions? 

 

Or do I pull out the Snow Leopard install disc and launch Disk Utility and erase the partition drive and install snow leopard that way?

 

Would like some confirmation on the best way to go before proceeding, but hoping to tackle this right away.

 

Thanks!

MacBook Pro (15-inch Mid 2009), Mac OS X (10.6.8), iPod Touch 3rd gen. 64GB(late 2009)

Posted on Mar 21, 2014 8:27 AM

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Q: How do I go from Mavericks back to Snow Leopard

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  • by Eric Root,

    Eric Root Eric Root Mar 23, 2014 8:05 AM in response to Tara Hollander
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    Mar 23, 2014 8:05 AM in response to Tara Hollander

    You can't install an OS on a Time Machine partition. You can partition the external and then install Mavericks on the new partition which should give you a bootable Mavericks if the external is attached to the computer.

  • by Kate_Mac,

    Kate_Mac Kate_Mac Mar 23, 2014 8:07 AM in response to Tara Hollander
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Mar 23, 2014 8:07 AM in response to Tara Hollander

    Tara,

     

    Once (if) everything is working the way you want on the external drive, you can then use a backup app like SuperDuper (very easy) to copy the entire new setup on the external drive over to your main drive, replacing your old setup.   This will probably take a few hours.

     

    Honestly, in the future, I wouldn't consider installing any new OS from Apple unless you have a  specific reason for doing so.  Don't upgrade just because upgrading generally sounds like a good idea.  If you have a setup that reliably does what you need to do, leave it be.

     

    If you really do need one or more features of a new OS, then the procedure I've described above will ensure you can fully test a new setup before losing your old set up.  

  • by Tara Hollander,

    Tara Hollander Tara Hollander Mar 23, 2014 9:27 AM in response to Eric Root
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Mar 23, 2014 9:27 AM in response to Eric Root

    As I thought, thanks for the confirmation.

  • by Eric Root,

    Eric Root Eric Root Mar 23, 2014 9:42 AM in response to Tara Hollander
    Level 9 (73,732 points)
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    Mar 23, 2014 9:42 AM in response to Tara Hollander

    You are welcome.

  • by Tara Hollander,

    Tara Hollander Tara Hollander Mar 23, 2014 9:56 AM in response to Kate_Mac
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Mar 23, 2014 9:56 AM in response to Kate_Mac

    I have used SuperDuper in the past, but since keeping Time Machine backups, I have relied less on keeping up with having a bootable backup clone.  I know it's probably best to have multiple backups and I used to, but as amount of data increases, if one doesn't keep up with having enough space on backup drives, one makes fewer backups.  I am going to double up again with two solid backups.

     

    I am not usually an "early adopter" to new OS.  I had heard Apple was stopping support for Snow Leopard, and know that eventually 3rd party software stops being supported eventually as well, was looking forward to multiple enhancements that came with Lion/Mt. Lion and Mavericks and thought jumping to Mavericks would be potentially without problems. 

     

    Next time, I will go for the procedure you describe.

  • by Tara Hollander,

    Tara Hollander Tara Hollander Mar 23, 2014 10:08 AM in response to Eric Root
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Mar 23, 2014 10:08 AM in response to Eric Root

    Actually, one more question.  I've forgotten whether this is possible or not. 

     

    Can I partition my 500 GB external hard drive now, after the fact, with the Time Machine backup already on it? And make a 25GB partition say, to install a Mavericks bootable/recovery drive on a 2nd partition? 

    Will this in any way effect my backups? 

    I have used 422 GB and have 77 GB available.

     

    I remember adding that 2nd "test" 100 GB partition on my HD after the fact but I had my complete Time Machine backup so wasn't concerned should anything go wrong. 

     

    I don't want to have any problems now, however with my Time Machine backup because it has all my data as "Snow Leopard" and it's the only place I have it in that version.

     

    Thanks.

  • by Eric Root,

    Eric Root Eric Root Mar 23, 2014 11:36 AM in response to Tara Hollander
    Level 9 (73,732 points)
    iTunes
    Mar 23, 2014 11:36 AM in response to Tara Hollander

    Yes, you should be able to do that by partitioning it like you did your hard drive. I would suggest that 25 GB is probably a bit small. I'd do about 40 GB. It will/should not affect your backup as it is now; however, it will limit how much larger the backup can get. Your Time Machine backup drive should be about 2-4 times the size of your hard drive, so depending on the size of your hard drive, you may want to consider getting a larger external hard drive for use with Time Machine and retain your 500 GB drive for the Mavericks installation. The other advantage is you could use a cloning program to make a second backup of your hard drive. Two backups are better than one. Hard drives eventually fail and 2 backups increases the chances you will be able to recover your data.

     

    If you do get a 2nd external, you can use Disk Utility/Restore to copy your existing backup to the new external. After making sure the copy was successful, if desired you can delete the existing one or keep it for 'just in case.'

  • by MichelPM,

    MichelPM MichelPM Mar 23, 2014 12:23 PM in response to Tara Hollander
    Level 6 (14,196 points)
    iPad
    Mar 23, 2014 12:23 PM in response to Tara Hollander

    Tara Hollander wrote:

     

     

    Question: Can installed software that's on the HD and not the most updated version, but not being used, cause problems or slow down a computer? 

     

    Thus, if I uninstall these programs, and update ones needing updating, will Mavericks and my computer run more normally and faster and not be super slow?

     

    Thanks

    Any older software that installs anything into the OS X system folder has the potential of causing issues with the OS whether that application is running or not.

     

    Also, if your MBP has a FireWire 800 port on it, purchasing an external drive with FireWire 800, and clone/create a bootable volume on the drive, that drive will be just about as fast as your MBP's internal hard drive.

    Basically, the only thing that is slower running OS X off of a FireWire 800 drive is the initial booting and startup.

    Once OS X is up and running off of the external FW800 drive, there is no real or noticeable slowness in regular operation.

    I am still running OS X Mavericks off of my connected, external FW800 drive, and it runs great from this drive.

  • by MlchaelLAX,

    MlchaelLAX MlchaelLAX Mar 26, 2014 11:50 AM in response to Kate_Mac
    Level 4 (2,256 points)
    Mar 26, 2014 11:50 AM in response to Kate_Mac

    Kate_Mac wrote:

     

    Tara,

     

    Honestly, in the future, I wouldn't consider installing any new OS from Apple unless you have a  specific reason for doing so.  Don't upgrade just because upgrading generally sounds like a good idea.  If you have a setup that reliably does what you need to do, leave it be.

     

    And with that said, I continue to use Lion which was supplied when my iMac G5 died for the last time in Fall, 2011 and I purchased the new 2011 Mac Mini.

     

    On that note, since it is free, I did install Mavericks on an external drive just to see what I am missing.  I couldn't find anything...

     

    Quite honestly, what am I missing from Mountain Lion and now Mavericks?

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