I have a 3 week old MacBook Pro 2.66 (4GB RAM) bought online with the Leopard 10.5.8 Operating System installed. I've tried to install Snow Leopard tonight and it gives me the message "You can't upgrade this version of Mac OS X." How can that be? I've tried the REPAIR DISK option and it says that my internal HDD is OK - in green. Yet I am unable to install the new OS. What gives?
I am hoping someone else has had this error and has found a way to remedy the problem and get the OS to install and run properly. Please help. Absolutely brand new to Mac and disappointed already at the seemingly continuous stream of difficult encounters with the platform.
It is possible that you are "stuck in the middle." The build of Snow Leopard resident on the DVD may actually have been "solidified" prior to the build that came with your Mac. As a result, the Snow Leopard installer doesn't "recognize" what is currently running on your Mac. Put another way, it doesn't know how to go about upgrading that installation. Yours is the first case of this that I have seen, if that is indeed what is going on here.
Regardless of the cause, you do not have to "upgrade." You can simply erase what's currently on your Mac and install Snow Leopard. You'll want to have a good Time Machine backup first, of course, and I recommend you find a suitable external drive to do so, if you haven't already.
When you do have that backup, you can boot to the Snow Leopard installer, open Disk Utility to erase the internal hard drive, install Snow Leopard, then use the "Migration Assistant" to bring your user data and account(s) back into the new installation. You probably have not had much time to accumulate a bunch of third-party apps, so having to reinstall those
should be no problem. Even if you have found some that you like, keep in mind that all of our user data and settings for those apps will already be back in place, along with your HOME folder(s).
If you need further instructions to complete any of the steps I have outlined, we'll be glad to help.
If possible, and you just bought a new system, but if you have some external hard drives, clone your system to one for safe keeping, then use SL DVD to format the internal drive. You can migrate or import; or even restore back. Or use the OEM DVD your MBP came with to reinstall.
Other than it may have a later build of 10.5.8, or there are updates pending....
