samfromia
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Q: How to downgrade from OS X 10.8.2 to Mac OS X 10.7 on 2010 MacBook Pro

Hello all

 

I have a 17 inch MacBook Pro from mid 2010 and it came with snow leporad. In July 2011, I upgraded it to Lion and a year later to Mountain Lion. Mountain Lion has slowed down my computer somewhat. I would like to find out if it is possible to downgrade to at least 10.7 Lion. Lion shows up under the purchasses in the Mac App Store so I can still download it but how do I downgrade to Lion or snow lepoard? Snow lepoard was the OS that it came with but I would be fine either with Lion or Snow Lepoard

Posted on Jan 19, 2013 9:10 PM

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samfromia

Q: How to downgrade from OS X 10.8.2 to Mac OS X 10.7 on 2010 MacBook Pro

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  • by Kappy,

    Kappy Kappy Jan 19, 2013 9:12 PM in response to samfromia
    Level 10 (271,794 points)
    Desktops
    Jan 19, 2013 9:12 PM in response to samfromia

    Lion is no longer available. You can downgrade to Snow Leopard if you don't mind the time. But Snow Leopard is not faster than Mountain Lion.

     

    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.

  • by samfromia,

    samfromia samfromia Jan 19, 2013 9:14 PM in response to Kappy
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 19, 2013 9:14 PM in response to Kappy

    I would like at least Lion because it is under the purchases in the Mac App Store. And I think I tried this once and it did not work

  • by samfromia,

    samfromia samfromia Jan 19, 2013 9:17 PM in response to samfromia
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 19, 2013 9:17 PM in response to samfromia

    Or what about buying a Lion flash drive from ebay?

  • by Kappy,

    Kappy Kappy Jan 19, 2013 9:19 PM in response to samfromia
    Level 10 (271,794 points)
    Desktops
    Jan 19, 2013 9:19 PM in response to samfromia

    You can try re-downloading Lion provided you can still find it under your App Store purchases. You will have to install Snow Leopard and update it to 10.6.8 first.

  • by samfromia,

    samfromia samfromia Jan 19, 2013 9:20 PM in response to Kappy
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 19, 2013 9:20 PM in response to Kappy

    Kappy, is your first post gurranted to get me Snow Lepoard? All of the apps I would use are compatiable with 10.6.8

  • by Kappy,

    Kappy Kappy Jan 19, 2013 9:23 PM in response to samfromia
    Level 10 (271,794 points)
    Desktops
    Jan 19, 2013 9:23 PM in response to samfromia

    If you have the Snow Leopard DVD it will install it for you. All you do is erase the drive and install.

  • by samfromia,

    samfromia samfromia Jan 19, 2013 9:24 PM in response to Kappy
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 19, 2013 9:24 PM in response to Kappy

    I have the two disks that came with the computer

  • by stevejobsfan0123,

    stevejobsfan0123 stevejobsfan0123 Jan 19, 2013 9:26 PM in response to samfromia
    Level 8 (44,007 points)
    iPhone
    Jan 19, 2013 9:26 PM in response to samfromia

    Boot off of Install Disk 1 to erase the disk.

  • by samfromia,

    samfromia samfromia Jan 19, 2013 9:28 PM in response to stevejobsfan0123
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 19, 2013 9:28 PM in response to stevejobsfan0123

    And use all of the steps that kappy gave me? And is there anyway if I get snow lepoard on the computer to get Lion? I know that apple sold a Lion USB drive and I can still find those on eBay and Amazon

  • by stevejobsfan0123,

    stevejobsfan0123 stevejobsfan0123 Jan 19, 2013 9:31 PM in response to samfromia
    Level 8 (44,007 points)
    iPhone
    Jan 19, 2013 9:31 PM in response to samfromia

    The thing is, you already have Lion, in your App Store purchases, there would be no reason to buy it again. It's just that you can't install it until you have Snow Leopard.

    And is there anyway if I get snow lepoard on the computer to get Lion?

    Yes. Download it from your Mac App Store purchases.

  • by samfromia,

    samfromia samfromia Jan 19, 2013 9:32 PM in response to stevejobsfan0123
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 19, 2013 9:32 PM in response to stevejobsfan0123

    How do I boot up in the installer disk? What keys do I press?

  • by samfromia,

    samfromia samfromia Jan 19, 2013 9:33 PM in response to samfromia
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 19, 2013 9:33 PM in response to samfromia

    Is this even possible to do? I am worried I will mess up everything on my computer.

  • by stevejobsfan0123,

    stevejobsfan0123 stevejobsfan0123 Jan 19, 2013 9:34 PM in response to samfromia
    Level 8 (44,007 points)
    iPhone
    Jan 19, 2013 9:34 PM in response to samfromia

    Hold option. This should show your partitions, and the CD should appear after a few seconds.

  • by samfromia,

    samfromia samfromia Jan 19, 2013 9:34 PM in response to samfromia
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 19, 2013 9:34 PM in response to samfromia

    And then what do I do?

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