Q: How do I uninstall Lion

I tried to put the Snow Leopard disc in my computer, which is new with Lion, and not my first Apple Computer!  It did not work!  I Booted from the SL Disc and it never got that far, but a gray screen and a low beep.  That was it!

Wich key is the OPTIONS key??

VinnieVibes wrote:

 

Wich key is the OPTIONS key??

I'm pretty sure it's the one that says "Option" on it....

a wiseguy eh

or maybe it's the one that says 'alt' and/or has the ⌥  symbol, perhaps , next to the left-hand Apple/Command key on the English layouts I've seen.

Now this is a funny discussion!

Options key...... hee, hee, heeeeeeee, LOO..... (laugh out option):^)

Did you try holding down the "c" key on booting up from the Installer disc?

andyBall_uk wrote:

 

a wiseguy eh

 

or maybe it's the one that says 'alt' and/or has the ⌥  symbol, perhaps , next to the left-hand Apple/Command key on the English layouts I've seen.

Kinda, but honestly on my Apple wired keyboard the option key says "Option" on it, clear as day!

Yeah... PC's break down...... this is a funny discussion!

I too love PC's, because they break down all day, every day, keeps the paycheck coming in.

For all my Mac clients, I have them finely tuned and the Mac's don't break, bad for paycheck!

Either way, it doesn't really matter, I'm fully busy with both, but I do much, much prefer a Mac, even buggy Lion, it is far, far better than any PC version.

Linux, on the other hand, if it only had some serious Applications for video editing, graphics and the, like Final Cut Pro, and Adobe products, I might start spending more time with Linux....

BUT, I love my Mac's too much to change!  (I have ALL varieties).

Plus I develop APP's for iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch and I would only want to do that on a Mac!

Seriously!

John Avatar  (search in APP store to see my APP's) and the new one is almost available this week?

>>  but honestly on my Apple wired keyboard the option key says "Option" on it, clear as day!

yep - seen those  too, it'd make more sense if they all said option, surely.

Yeah, and what are you supposed to do when Time Machine has declared that its backup needs updating and has wiped out your Snow Leopard backups?

The only option is a clean install and losing quite a lot of stuff which is not retroactively compatible such as Mail archive and, given the new versions feature, possibly a lot of documents.

When I installed Lion it proved to be extremely problematic for me. One problem was that it would not connect to my Time Machine backup due to WiFi issues. When those issues were fixed in 10.7.1 several weeks later, Time Machine deleted all my old backups saying that they needed updating. I was given no choice, it was either 'now' or 'later', so I was forced to bite the bullet.

I never really had a realistic option to go back to SL without forfeiting my backups. For that, I'll not forgive Apple in a hurry. As my e-mail archive is essential, I am stuck with this lumbering creature which used to be like a Ferrari.

I was afraid that would happen to me, so I archived the TM disk I used with 10.6. With 10.7, I used an older 250GB disk that cost a fortune way back when. It came in real handy when 10.7 wouldn't jive with Aperture 2 and ARD.

Alf Megson wrote:

 

Yeah, and what are you supposed to do when Time Machine has declared that its backup needs updating and has wiped out your Snow Leopard backups?

 

I'm sorry for all the trouble you had with Lion, honestly it sounds like a nightmare. 

But as with ANY major update to an OS if you have any data that's essential to you then you need to have at LEAST one full backup of it before doing the update. 

For instance, I did a full bootable backup of my internal drive before even considering the update.  I considered backing up my time machine drive as well but decided it wasn't necessary since there's not much on there I can't live without, I have multiple backups of everything in other places, TM is just another type of safety net for me.

But if your TM drive contained critical info for you you should have backed it up first.

Hahaha,

you guys I have a european version, so it should be the alt button you guys meant.
And I don't have a PC but a Macbook Pro love it much more.

Peace,

VV

@ Micah: i thought TM was my backup! After my Lion disaster, i erased my HD, reinstalled and updated SL. Then with migration assistant i wanted to reinstall all my data and user account from TM. This doesnt work because TM isn't recognized by MA.

Finder does recognize this though, and i see the files and data if i click on the time machine-logo in the dock.

I did use this TM with LION, but it also contains backups from before.

Any ideas what to do?

@huubd:  I'm on Lion now so I don't know for sure, but instead of performing a clean install and then using migration assistant can you restore the computer from TM?  Maybe this article will help, it claims to have info on restoring a new computer from TM...

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1427

If that doesn't work, the next thing I'd do is try to get the TM drive to play nice with whatever new system I'm running and then enter TM, go back to my "Home" folder at the point I was happy with everything and restore the entire home folder?  I'm not even sure if TM can restore that large of a chunk of data in one swoop, but it's worth a try.

If that doesn't work I'd try to restore via TM my critical documents, then make a bootable clone of my HD so at least I have a backup of what I've done so far.  Then I'd just start updating the new computer with all the settings etc. I need.

If that doesn't work I'd start doing google searches on how to erase part of your TM backup without corrupting the other data and try to figure out which parts of the TM backup are lion and erase just those.... but be SURE to backup the entire TM drive before doing that though, unless you can afford to lose it.

As you're in the middle of discovering TM is *not* a robust, reliable backup.  It's useful for sure, but not as a main backup in the event of disaster, it's too complicated for that IMO.

I strongly urge anyone who relies on their computer to have TWO external hard drives:  One is only used for TM, the other is only used as a bootable clone of your internal HD and is backed up on a preferably daily schedule.  Superduper is great for this, very easy and you can schedule it to run at a certain time every day.  That way even if your computer completely fries you will lose no more than 24 hours worth of work.  Also then you have your system "as is" that you can return to if you install an OS update that you don't like... just be sure to update and unplug that bootable clone BEFORE you upgrade your system!  For me, I do a clone update, unplug the drive, then immediately upgrade to the new os.  Now if I hate the new OS I can simply clone the backup and I'm exactly where I left off the minute before the OS upgrade.

I've been where you are.  That's why I have TM, two bootable clones of my internal HD which are both updated every day, all my data is backed up in the cloud using Crash Plan and I also keep a bootable clone of my internal hard drive in a safe deposit box, updated once a month.

Having 5 separate backups of my data may sound excessive, but once you've been through the absolute **** (apparently the grown up version of "heck" is too much for the apple forums, that's just absurd) of losing *everything* and having to start from scratch... it won't seem so crazy any more.

Greetings,

I have successfully restored SL via TM. I don't know anything about MA. You should not need to use it. Once you've reinstalled lion, go to TM and go to the last save you did in SL. Then restore that to your Mac. Worked fine for me.

Good luck!