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Best way to migrate applications from Lion to Snow Leopard?

Hello! own a mid 2011 MacBook Pro and upgraded to Lion back when it came out. I've now realized that Lion and CIFS network drives don't get along well. I want to downgrade back to Snow Leopard. I didn't have any Time machine back ups or anything like that so I believe I have to do a fresh install, this shoudln't be a problem as I have a 6 TB FreeNAS box to back everything up to. My question is about software. Most of the software I have on my computer is free, but some of it, namely the Adobe Design Suite Standard, Quickbooks, and a few other photo/business related pieces of software have been purchased. Is there any easy way of reinstalling them? I guess what I'm asking is, how can I back up my software? Maybe a better question is how do I uninstall software in such a way so that when I reinstall it later it won't give me an error saying the serial number has already been used.

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.1)

Posted on Nov 26, 2011 1:25 PM

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Nov 26, 2011 1:27 PM in response to jefffitz

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 (see below.) I suggest you make a separate backup using Carbon Copy Cloner 3.4.1.


If you have Snow Leopard Time Machine backups, do a full system restore per #14 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions. If you have subsequent backups from Lion, you can restore newer items selectively, via the "Star Wars" display, per #15 there, but be careful; some Snow Leopard apps may not work with the Lion files.


You will need to reinstall your third-party software.

Best way to migrate applications from Lion to Snow Leopard?

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