How do I uninstall Lion

Downgrade Lion to Snow Leopard

1. Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.

2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.

3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.

4. Quit DU and return to the installer. Install Snow Leopard.

This will erase the whole drive so be sure to backup your files if you don't have a backup already. If you have performed a TM backup using Lion be aware that you cannot restore from that backup in Snow Leopard. I suggest you make a separate backup using Carbon Copy Cloner 3.4.1.

I'm pretty upset with apple for the first time in my 25 years of using macs. My Macbook air late 2008 (2gig ram, 128 gig flash drive)is now so darn slow that it is nearly unusable now that i've loaded Lion.

I want to go back to the 10.6 I had yeaterday. Are you serious that I need to partition/erase etc???

Isnt there an easier way to just go back to yesterday?

so i just boot from my sl disc and update to the latest, what was it, 10.6.8 then use a time machine save from befor the mistake of lion and all should be back to normal?

I saved my Time Machine backup on a completely different external HDD. I am going to boot from the 10.6 disc and choose "Restore from Time Machine backup". Hopefully, that will work.

Jason Watkins wrote:

I saved my Time Machine backup on a completely different external HDD. I am going to boot from the 10.6 disc and choose "Restore from Time Machine backup". Hopefully, that will work.

As long as you select a Snow Leopard backup, yes, that should work.

This is your moment to liberate yourself and start off fresh.

Just clean install old faithfull (snow leopard)

You got a time machine backup, go grab your personal stuff and DL the rest online

Lion install tip - Clean install is the only way to go

I like the idea of a clean install, biut for now I'm stuck.

As I mentioned, my MBA is late 2008, 2 gig RAM; flash drive. It came with 10.5. I purchased 10.6 and was happy with that. 10.7 made it unusable in two areas:

1. insanely slow (unusable) if more than one application was open (safari and mail)

2. they minimized the scrolling bars in safari, so someonw with long fingernails now has a problem because thats hard to do i=on a trackpad

So, I tried my 10.6 purchased disck to reinstall (to downgrade) from 10.7. Not possible. I have to erase everything with 10.5 then I will upgrade to 10.6; and then hopefully get my stuff back from my time machine backups from right before I switched to 10.7.

Your tip, plastic, is interesting, but not based on any relevant data. There is no "clean install" in Apple's vocabulary, by the way - they dropped that years ago. A "clean install" in a Windows world is normal, but, IMHO, completely unnecessary for OS X. A "clean install" also increases the opportunity for problems in retaining your personal data.

I am not posting to argue, but I want to dispel the notion (for many other readers of posts on ASC) that jumping through extra hoops in installing OS X is either desirable or necessary.

Barry

As I mentioned, my MBA is late 2008, 2 gig RAM; flash drive.

Note that I believe 2 GB is the absolute minimum requirement for Lion, while 1 GB was the requirement for SL. You'd be wise to upgrade that.

So, I tried my 10.6 purchased disck to reinstall (to downgrade) from 10.7. Not possible. I have to erase everything with 10.5 then I will upgrade to 10.6

Your machine would not have qualified for a SL upgrade disk, so you must have bought the retail SL disk. That disk should be perfectly capable of installing with no need to go back to 10.5, but note that you can't just install an older system on top of a newer one. You would have to erase the hard drive first, then install 10.6.

Kappy f'ing rocks.. thanks man

That is all which is on the disk. 10.7's backup went on another, separate disk all together.

Interesting, but just because Apple decides to take "clean install" out of the nomenclature, does not mean the option is not available. There will always be the possibility of placing a fresh copy of an operating system on a hard drive. Apple is certainly making it difficult in Lion's case, but I feel as if they are doing that out of an "ease of use" principal. Majority of those upgrading to Lion will not need to do a clean install, or even know about the option to do so. Clean installs, albeit en masse, are what happens to OEM Macs, shipped from the factory.

I would like to downgrade. No, I WANT to. But this is Apple's problem not mine. Why should I have to perform a back up at the risk of loosing all my data by reinstalling Snow Leopard from disc? I have lost so much functionality already from this 'upgrade'. My business depends on my ability to print and all my drivers are useless!

There is no warning of the detrimental effects of 'upgrading' only the advertised benefits.

I think Apple should be offering a 'Restore to Snow Leopard' option NOW.

Lion works just fine for me so far. If you are having problems because some of your software is not compatible, that is your fault for jumping off a cliff without looking to see how deep the water below is. You should have researched it before upgrading. When your business relies on your computer, it is your responsibility to research every change you make to ensure that those changes are not going to interfere with your ability to get work done. You should not be installing a major system upgrade that is only days old.

Ultimately, you made a mistake, and now you expect Apple to bail you out.

Upgrading a computer's operating system is not a trivial matter. One is changing the system on which the computer's hardware is used and the software programs run. Also, the upgrade is not mandatory, it is discretionary. Apple did not make anyone upgrade their operating system, the choice is upon the user. One should ALWAYS make a backup of their data, to an external storage medium, on a regular basis. Especially, if an operating system upgrade is to be performed. Asking that is not a stretch of any situation. Since a restore would require wiping the hard drive, reinstalling the former operating system, a restore of user data is the next logical step.

Waiting, for manufacturers to catch-up and produce drivers for the new OS is always a good idea. Many device manufacturers have such a small customer base in Apple users that they often do not obtain beta version of OS X software for development/testing, it is just not a priority for them. Those same folks often do not pre-create new drivers for new versions of Windows either (HP).

I don't mean to be pedantic, but this is not Apple's problem. Waiting and a little bit of background-checking may have prevented what seems to be a bad upgrade experience. I am far from an Apple apologist and often call them out on some of their questionable choices.