Hi, Hi, Hi I have the old MacBook Pro. Upgraded to Mountain Lion which completely wrecked the system. So downgraded to Snow Leopard. The updated the combo update. Now stuck on blue screen at start-up. Need help. Greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Downgrade Lion/Mountain 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.

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.

Yes. I assume you read the last paragraph of my post about using Time Machine in connection with downgrading.

I would erase your drive and reinstall Snow Leopard. Do not yet restore anything from your Time Machine backup. If everything is functioning normally, then I would only restore your personal data in your Home folder from the Time Machine backup.

BD0910 wrote:

TM backup in snow leopard - then upgraded to M. lion - then backup again on TM - then downgraded to snow Leo (just as you have suggested above) - then had set up system using set-up assistant backing up with TM - but then I can see files but apps don't work (all iWork, iPhoto) - then updated combo update of snow leopard- then stuck in blue screen on start-up.

I think the problem is the TM backup on M. lion.

It is, you can't use 10.8 TM to restore to 10.6.

You'll have to upgrade to 10.8 again, then access TM, get your files transfered in as neutral state as possible to a external storage drive, then disconnect the 10.8 TM drive.

Then do the snow leopard erase (entire drive) and install, then update to 10.6.8, then access your external drive for files to return.

Erase the 10.8 TM drive or save it. Use another drive for 10.6 TM.

How to revert your Mac to Snow Leopard

See what Kappy says here:

but be careful; some Snow Leopard apps may not work with the Lion files.

What happens is this, 10.8 changes the User/Library and Apple program support files like the iPhoto Library (right click and show package contents) and iTunes Library (as well as other Apple programs)

So you have to, while in 10.8, get your files into a neutral state, like Mp3' out of iTunes Library and Jpg's out of iPhoto Library so your not using the 10.8 altered versions of these support files in 10.6

It would have been better if you made a 10.6 bootable clone BEFORE upgrading to 10.8, so reverting would take a few hours and be all done by software.

Most commonly used backup methods

Oh well, too late now. 😟

ds store wrote:

. . .

It is, you can't use 10.8 TM to restore to 10.6.

Wrong (as usual when ds store gives advice on Time Machine).

Just follow Kappy's instructions.

From where did you originally get iPhoto? If you got it from the App Store, then put the copy you have in the Trash for now, then re-download iPhoto from the App Store.

Right, iPhoto is past version 8.x.x. The iPhoto 9 on DVD came as part of the iLife Boxed Set. You can check on eBay or Amazon.com to see if you can find the iLife '09 or iLife '11 Boxed Set.

BD0910 wrote:

. . .

It came with the MacBook Pro when I had bought it.

It should be on the second (gray) disc that came with the Mac, labelled Applications Install DVD. (Along with the Snow Leopard versions of iMovie and iDVD.)

EDIT: If you've lost it, call AppleCare with your Mac's serial number. They can send a duplicate set for a nominal fee.

Message was edited by: Pondini

Great! 🙂

And thanks for the feedback.