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PowerPC applications are no longer supported???

I just bought my Macbook Pro and I have the newest operating system. I am in college and one of my textbooks has an interactive cd that I would love to use for study purposes. However, I get the "PowerPC applications are no longer supported". HELP?

MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Oct 11, 2012 2:16 PM

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8 replies

Oct 11, 2012 2:23 PM in response to p3rf3ctlyflaw3d

PPC-only applications are no longer supported by Lion or Mountain Lion. If it's possible to install Snow Leopard on your computer, then you would need to do so on a separate partition or external hard drive. But to do so either your computer must have come with Snow Leopard pre-installed or your computer must be bootable by the last versions of Snow Leopard.


How To Run Snow Leopard On A New Mac


This does not apply to new Mac Minis or MacBook Airs. When newer models are introduced that also require Lion/Mountain Lion for hardware support, the techniques described below will no longer work with the possible exception of using Parallels 7.


What has to be done:


  1. Create a new partition on the hard drive.
  2. Get a clone of a 10.6.8 Snow Leopard system. Put the cloned Snow Leopard system onto the new partition.



Step One: Create a new partition on the hard drive


To resize the drive and create a new partition do the following:


1. Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.


After the main menu appears select Disk Utility and click on the Continue button. Select the hard drive's main entry then click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.


2. You should see the graphical sizing window showing the existing partitions. A portion may appear as a blue rectangle representing the used space on a partition.


User uploaded file


3. In the lower right corner of the sizing rectangle for each partition is a resizing gadget. Select it with the mouse and move the bottom of the rectangle upwards until you have reduced the existing partition enough to create the desired new volume's size. The space below the resized partition will appear gray. Click on the Apply button and wait until the process has completed. (Note: You can only make a partition smaller in order to create new free space.)


4. Click on the [+] button below the sizing window to add a new partition in the gray space you freed up. Give the new volume a name, if you wish, then click on the Apply button. Wait until the process has completed.


You should now have a new volume on the drive.


It would be wise to have a backup of your current system as resizing is not necessarily free of risk for data loss. Your drive must have sufficient contiguous free space for this process to work.


Step Two: Obtain a clone of a Snow Leopard system:


You will need access to a Mac already running Snow Leopard. You will need a 16 GB USB flash drive or an external hard drive to which you can clone the Snow Leopard system from the Mac that has Snow Leopard installed. Alternatives are:


Option One:


  1. Install a new Snow Leopard system onto a USB flash drive. Boot the Mac used for installing with the USB flash drive. Update the flash drive system to 10.6.8 using the Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1 to update Snow Leopard. Verify that you can boot the Mac with the USB flash drive.
  2. Take the USB flash drive to your new Mac and try booting from it. If it works then clone the system from the flash drive to the newly made partition:



Clone using Restore Option of Disk Utility


  1. Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
  2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
  3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
  4. Check the box labeled Erase destination.
  5. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
  6. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
  7. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.

Destination means the new partition on the internal drive. Source means the USB flash drive.


Option Two:


If you have a large enough external drive you can erase and use, then it would be easier to just clone the entire Snow Leopard system from the source Mac computer to the external drive.


Clone using Restore Option of Disk Utility


  1. Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
  2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
  3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
  4. Check the box labeled Erase destination.
  5. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
  6. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
  7. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.

Destination means the external drive. Source means the Snow Leopard Mac's internal drive.


After cloning verify that it will boot the source Mac. If so then take the external drive to your new Mac boot with it. If all is well then restore the clone to the new partition on your new Mac:


Restore the clone using Disk Utility


  1. Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
  2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
  3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
  4. Check the box labeled Erase destination.
  5. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
  6. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
  7. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.


Destination means the new partition on the internal drive. Source means the external drive.


You will need a retail copy of Snow Leopard. If you need to purchase Snow Leopard contact Customer Service: Contacting Apple for support and service. The price is $29.00 plus tax. You will receive physical media - DVD - by mail.

Oct 11, 2012 2:30 PM in response to Kappy

I thought your post meant for me to install snow leopard instead of the mountain lion..... And i honestly dont wanna go thru that much work as I really dont have enough time and Im not very knowledgable on Macs yet, so i wouldnt wanna screw it up. Its not imperitive that I use this disk so its not a huge deal if i doesnt work. I just thought there may be an easy fix

Oct 11, 2012 2:46 PM in response to p3rf3ctlyflaw3d

My suggestion was to partition the drive and install Snow Leopard on the new partition. I never recommended installing Snow Leopard instead of Mountain Lion.


I assure you there is no easy fix. The suggestion of installing Snow Leopard as a virtual machine using Parallels or similar software is the "easiest." But this method also requires sharing resources between OS X and the VM. Snow Leopard does not run as well in a VM as it does standalone. But this may not be of consequence to you. Parallels would be the best choice by far for the VM, but it will cost you money.


If you use a computer you will eventually screw up something. Buy a backup drive and keep regular backups religiously. This is far less troublesome than a screw up. 🙂

Oct 11, 2012 8:52 PM in response to p3rf3ctlyflaw3d

You are bumping into a big problem in the educational field: CD-ROMs written for the Mac in the mid-2000's that the publisher never upgraded to Intel code after Apple switch the Macs from the PowerPC CPU platform to the Intel CPU platform.


Apple performed a minor miracle for its existing base of users by licensing and implimenting technology that they called Rosetta to transparently run existing users library of PPC software on the new Intel Macs. However, Apple's license to continue using the technology underlying Rosetta expired with the release of Lion and versions of OS X thereafter (so far Mountain Lion).


As we all know from our morning newspaper headlines, educational institutions are stretched financially and do not easily go out and buy new versions of textbook and CD-ROMs, even if newer versions are available.


What is the name of your textbook and its interactive CD-ROM? Have you checked with the publisher to see if they offer an updated version of the CD-ROM? The more details I have to work with, the better I will be able to fashion a solution to your problem.


Although Kappy has a comprehensive coverage of installing Snow Leopard (the last version of OS X that comes with an optional feature to install Rosetta) on computers, the newest computers come with Mountain Lion installed and will probably not boot into Snow Leopard based upon their firmware. Kappy is more knowledgeable about this issue than I am.


I was surprised that Kappy's initial post left out the issue of installing Snow Leopard in a virtual program, such as Parallels; but he did bring it up in his subsequent post.


Given your admission that you are not very knowledgeable about Macs and have limited time due to your studies, you have to weigh cost vs. time!


The easist solution is to purchase Snow Leopard Server on eBay ($100-$125) and Parallels has a 14 day free trial version availalble ( http://trial.parallels.com/index.php?lang=en&terr=us ), which would then cost $79 to purchase (maybe cheaper if you shop around and look for internet bargains). Parallels offers instructions for you to easily install Snow Leopard Server into Parallels.


If you need to save money, I offer instructions on how to install Snow Leopard client into Parallels:


User uploaded file

[click on image to enlarge]


http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1365439


Snow Leopard client costs $19 directly from the Apple Store; call

online store's telesales agents [1-800-MY-APPLE (1-800-692-7753)] or Customer Service and Sales Support at 1-800-676-2775 (ask for a Sales Representative)


Running Snow Leopard Server or Client in Parallels will not "screw up" your Mac in any way. I recommend a minimum of 4Gb RAM and suggest you get more if possible; as Bill Gates says: "you can never be too rich or have too much RAM!"


Lastly, I am available, especially to students, to help out directly: send me a fresh copy of the Snow Leopard Install DVD, a 16GB flash drive and return postage and I will install it for you and return it to you. That's the "easiest fix" I can offer you!

PowerPC applications are no longer supported???

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