New HD and can't clean install with SL upgrade disc

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Level 1

25 points

New HD and can't clean install with SL upgrade disc

I am really stuck here...

My '07 white MacBook HD died last week. It originally came with Tiger, I bought Leopard when it came out, and also bought the Snow Leopard upgrade disc.

When I got the MacBook back today, I thought I'd try a clean install of SL - but it wouldn't install, telling me I needed 10.5 or later in order to install SL. So I then tried installing Leopard, but the disc verification failed multiple times (it only has minor scratches on it!).

I then tried the Leopard install disc that came with my '09 MacBook Pro - but of course it must check the hardware, as it said it could not be installed on the MacBook.

So I then installed Tiger from the original MacBook discs, thinking I could upgrade Tiger to SL (had seen mention of this) - but again, I got the message stating I needed 10.5 or later.

I've seen a YouTube video of someone doing a clean install of SL - but the person had a new Unibody Macbook - and I think the SL must do a hardware check and if it's an older MacBook that wouldn't have originally come with Leopard installed, it doesn't let you do a clean install of SL.

Very frustrating I can't get SL installed on a new HD, even though I do own Leopard!

MacBook Pro 13" 2.26 GHz and MacBook 13.3" 2.13 GHz, Mac OS X (10.6.1)

Posted on Sep 23, 2009 4:24 AM

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Answer 1

thomas_r.

Level 7

31,989 points

Sep 23, 2009 4:39 AM in response to KieranK

If you bought a SL upgrade disk, and it's requiring that Leopard is already installed before it will install the upgrade, then you have no choice but to install Leopard first. If your Leopard disk won't work because it is scratched, you'll have to get a new disk. I think that Apple may replace it for you at minimal cost... though they'd be well within their rights to make you buy another copy at full price, since you damaged it.

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Answer 2

Jolly Giant

Level 7

25,464 points

Sep 23, 2009 5:16 AM in response to KieranK

hi

actually you should be able to install SL over a Tiger install. i posted here recently with my (positive) experiences and here's an excerpt:

+1. Used the install disks that came with my MBP to put a fresh Tiger on an external FW drive. Updated install to 10.4.11 and installed SL over that. Started to install 3rd party SW one by one – NO ISSUES+

+2. Did a fresh install of SL on an external FW drive and migrated settings, programs, etc. from my MBP – NO ISSUES+

+3. Then I took the plunge and just “upgraded” my 10.5.8 on the internal drive using the SL install disk – NO ISSUES+

+I want to point out that during all 3 installs above I had 2 external FW disks and 1 external FW optical drive (used that for the SL disk) connected to my MBP !+

+Obviously, I took the “usual” precautions (make a bootable clone plus regular TM backup) before I upgraded my internal drive.+

maybe i am lucky that i have 2 external FW drives to juggle with. but if you have one (or get one) this ought to work.

you may also want to read this http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2170211

Message was edited by: Jolly Giant

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Answer 3

Sep 23, 2009 5:39 AM in response to KieranK

Have you checked the partition on your drive when trying to install Sno? It must be GUID. If not, then maybe the installer tells you that you must install Leopard because it's partition typically is GUID. You should be able to upgrade Tiger to Sno, but not without the GUID partition map.

Message was edited by: donv (The Ghost)

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Answer 4

Jolly Giant

Level 7

25,464 points

Sep 23, 2009 5:47 AM in response to donv_the_ghost

darn, i should have thought of that, oh mighty one !

of course, GUID is precondition for L or SL ...

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Answer 5

KieranK Author

Level 1

25 points

Sep 24, 2009 1:47 AM in response to donv_the_ghost

Thanks for the suggestion about GUID - but I checked Disk Utility and the drive is already GUID partition table.

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Answer 6

KieranK Author

Level 1

25 points

Sep 24, 2009 2:09 AM in response to KieranK

I've done some more searching, and it looks like the cause of my problems might be that my Snow Leopard upgrade is the up-to-date $10 upgrade disk (10.6 2Z691-6430-A) rather than the retail $29 (more here in Australia). I've seen mentions that this $10 upgrade disk does look for a previous Leopard installation.

Anyway, thanks for all the suggestions.

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