Q: Downgrading from Lion to 10.6.8?

Wow Roy - that sounds amazing.

As my promised Install DVD hasn't turned up today, I've got an entire weekend kicking my heels when I COULD be migrating stuff onto a Snow Leopard Mac.

Have you written up the instructions? If so, can you point me there, and if not, can you just tell me the key steps I might not be able to fathom (format of the external drive, how to apply that combo).

I'm Mac Savvy, but not Server Savvy, so I'm off to download the server tools and see whether I can make sense of it, but your help would be appreciated!
Derek

for sure Ziatron.  I use SuperDuper for all my cloning needs, and have for the last several years.  Carbon Copy Cloner is also a fine way to go.  I've tried it as well, and for some rather arbitrary reason, settled on SuperDuper.

Hi Derek,

I've put the instructions in a new thread.

please take a look at:  "HowTo revert new MacBook Pro, Mac Pro or iMac to Snow Leopard"

https://discussions.apple.com/message/15935966#15935966

hope this helps,

Roy

Thanks Roy

In point of fact, my own determination to get my machine up and running over the weekend saw me finally crack the nut myself.

There wasn't really anything wrong with your previous instructions, except that they were a bit vague and ambiguous and I went down the wrong path the first 3 times, at 2 hours a pop! But it was all there....

Once I realised that the NetInstall.dmg was the *container* for what I wanted, not *what* I wanted, I was pretty much home and dry.

I actually Unzipped the System.DMG onto my portable hard drive, and added the zipped DMG as an extra payload.

The machine booted from the portable drive, I used Disc Utility to reformat the iMac drive (point of no return, that was!) and then restored the zipped DMG onto the iMac drive, so that the iMac drive was a clone of the portable disc, which I had proved was OK, by firing up the iMac.

I migrated my old files from two different machines, did a software update of things like Safari, and it's running sweet as a nut.

Thank you for typing it up - I'm sure others will be as grateful for the complete instructions as I was for your "enough of a hint to make me realise it was possible".

And I am *still* waiting for AppleCare to post me the disc as they promised. Good job you were there, Roy, I managed to set it up, migrate, and then Time Machine back it all up out of office hours.

Regards

Derek

I can't understand why one ask a simple question "Downgrading from Lion to 10.6.8?" (is it possible? any issues reported?) and everybody is replying how to carbon copy clone or restore from backup?!

I'll say, it is possible to downgrade from Lion, but some application stop working randomly, like iCal, iChat or iTunes. Re-installing iTunes did fix it.

Also, this is a system wide issue, and it persists even after one creates a new user.

Ricardo, you haven't downgraded properly then. Everything works as it should if you downgrade. You would get in a mess if you had, for example, changed some data files or libraries to suit Lion and you did not restore the Snow Leopard versions from your backup. But if you downgrade properly and make sure that there are no data files that Lion has upgraded, it will be perfect.

The fact that you reinstalled iTunes and your problem went away is proof that your iTunes, for example wasn't downgraded properly.

Hi Derek. Wrong, iTunes didn't work after re-install.

I tried re-install 10.6.8 combo v1.1, create new user, repair disk permission, pure old lame windows style restart... blasphemy, showing it the finger and some voodoo stuff, nothing worked... 

I'm on my way to a fresh install now :/

@ ds will i lost  my contacts if i downgrade to lepard ?

blackmombazo wrote:

 

@ ds will i lost  my contacts if i downgrade to lepard ?

Who knows, but if your snow leopard backup was done properly and you completely erase your hard drive and install your Time Machine back Up after booting from your Snow Leopard disk, then hopefully everything may be OK.

well i dont even know cos i dont have a back up on  time machine.

Can someone clarify one question...

I upgraded to Lion a few weeks back, and I do not have a copy of my 10.6 files (either on Time Machine or CCC or otherwise). Can I perform a clean install of 10.6 and then do a restore using Time Machine which was most recently backed up under Lion?

Or...is TM backup made under Lion inncompatible with 10.6?

Thanks,

Craig

Here's how I managed to reconfiguring a new iMac that has Lion preinstalled for Snow Leopard.  Took 2 calls to TechSuppt who told me it couldn't easily be done.  I now have 2 partitions, one with SL, one with Lion. 

What I used: 

New Mac: mine is an iMac 3.4 i7 - July 2011

Old mac with latest Snow Leopard installed: mine is an iMac 2.8 24"

External hard drive (firewire or USB - I used the latter) that has enough space for all the stuff from the old Mac.

Snow Leopard install disk (full version, not the one that is dedicated to a particular computer) 

Part 1: Creating a Snow Leopard disk usable by the new computer. 

1.  Use an external hard drive and a Snow Leopard Install disk to create a bootable external drive containing Snow Leopard.

2.  Boot up the old Mac using the external drive (by holding down the Option key) and do a System Update to ensure that the latest version of Snow Leopard is on the external drive (anything earlier than 10.6 won't work on the new Macs).

3.  Use Migration Assistant to transfer all of the data from the old Mac's internal drive to the external drive

4.  Power down the old Mac and move the hard drive to the new Mac

5.  Boot up at the new Mac while holding down the Option key. When the boot-up disk options display on screen, select the external drive as the boot-up disk.

The new Mac should now boot up with Snow Leopard and all of the files and configuration from the old Mac (subject to the limitations of Migration Assistant).  If using an external drive is OK, then stop here. 

Alternatively, to do away with the External drive altogether, here's how install all this on the internal drive: 

1.  Boot up the new Mac using its internal drive (i.e. Lion): ideally this won't have any data on it already

2.  Launch Disk Utility

3.  Select the internal hard drive (root directory) and select Partition Drive (can only do this from within Lion, not from Snow Leopard).

4.  Add a new partition and set its size according to how much space is needed both for Snow Leopard and home files plus any extra for the future.  Call the new partition by a recognizable name, e.g Macintosh HD SL

5  Select Create Partition and check that the partition is of the correct size.

6. Reboot the new mac from the External Drive (Option key)

7.  Use / download a cloning application (I used SuperDuper) to clone the contents of the external drive to the new partition, making sure you make the partition bootable. 

At the end of the process the new Mac will have 2 partitions on, one with Lion, the other with Snow Leopard.  It may be possible to avoid the partitioning and copy the External Drive (using SuperDuper) to the single original partition, thereby wiping out Lion, but I didn't try that (I felt it was too risky and I only need Snow Leopard for a few applications).  Of course more preferable, but totally outside my control would be for Lion to support Rosetta, or some other emulator…  In the meantime, this works, at least on my machines, though with the hassle of duplicate set ups.  Good job it has a 1 TB drive!  The bloody thing is half full already...

Here is my problem. My iMac was running 10.6.8 and then my wife inadvertently installed 10.6. How do I get my operating system back to 10.6.8? Any help would be appreciated and know that I am not very savvy when it comes to computer jargon. So please simplify any answers.

inadvertently installed 10.6 or 10.7? 

• if 10.6 is the answer, then you should download and install the combo update here Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1, coulnd't be more simple.
• if 10.7 and you don't have any time machine backups... forget it, you're stuck into 10.7!

The easiest way is to do the following:

Select from the Apple Icon in the menu: Software Update. 

This will check that your system needs an upgrade and will automatically install the Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo. It'll prompt you through the steps - you will need to be logged in as an Administrator.