I want to use my time machine backup to go back to Snow Leopard

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Level 1

5 points

I want to use my time machine backup to go back to Snow Leopard

I can't live without having my great old golf game (Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2003) readily available, and playable, which I always had on my iMac with Snow Leopard. Since upgrading to Mavericks - and using Parallels with Mac OS X 10.6 Server - I am told there's a color/display problem (something about 16-bit color) and I can't get the game to play even though it's the same computer, only upgraded to Mavericks. Parallels says it's an Apple (Mac OS X Server 10.6) problem but from what I can see the server version of this OS is exactly the same as the non-server version - at least insofar as the display/color/graphics is concerned - and Parallels either doesn't want to help (with an appropriate graphics controller) or can't.... so I'm left with having to go back to Snow Leopard from Mavericks. What a huge disappointment! Can I use - and how do I do it - my Time Machine backup of my Snow Leopard OS, apps, documents, iTunes, etc. to wipe out Mavericks?

iMac, OS X Mavericks (10.9.2)

Posted on Mar 20, 2014 6:10 PM

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Answer 1

ssls6

Level 4

2,879 points

Mar 20, 2014 6:21 PM in response to ehstoker

Did you install parallel tools on your 10.6.8 Snow Leopard Server virtual machine? Mine was stuck at XGA with low colors until I installed the parallel tools on the VM.

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Answer 2

ehstoker Author

Level 1

5 points

Mar 20, 2014 7:27 PM in response to ssls6

Well, yes, I installed parallel tools and then reinstalled a couple of times as the bottom of the OS X Server window kept on saying (while booting up or whatever the expression is) that the parallel tools weren't installed. In the hardware>video pane of tools there's not much choice - only video memory (mine is set at the max, of 1 GB) and 3D acceleration (mine is set at On).

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Answer 3

ssls6

Level 4

2,879 points

Mar 20, 2014 7:42 PM in response to ehstoker

Good luck with your downgrade. I took one of my system back to ML for hardware support reasons. A lot of work but doable.

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Answer 4

babowa

Level 9

78,133 points

Mar 20, 2014 8:16 PM in response to ehstoker

If you want to go back and your machine originally came with Snow Leopard, you will need to wipe your drive completely after booting from your original install disk; when done, it will install Snow Leopard. Since Time Machine is not a bootable backup, I don't see a way to do it using TM.

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Answer 5

ehstoker Author

Level 1

5 points

Mar 20, 2014 8:41 PM in response to babowa

Yes, the machine came with Snow Leopard but not sure where the install disc(s) are. Perhaps they got lost in the shuffle as we moved a few months ago. I do have a Snow Leopard install disc - can I use that and if so, is there a different way to do the install than if I was using the original install discs that came with the computer? Maybe I will jsut have to try it and see what comes up....

But for the computer's inability to play the game, I would have stayed with Mavericks. Now I'm installing a trial version of VMware Fusion but probably the results will be the same as for Parallels. I'll report back in a few minutes!

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Answer 6

ehstoker Author

Level 1

5 points

Mar 21, 2014 7:55 AM in response to babowa

Nope.... same display error with VMware Fusion. Now I'm going to do an experiment to see if it just might be something to do with Mac OS 10.6 Server: I'm going to install it on my old iMac (2010) as the sole OS and will see if the game will play. I know it plays on a plain old Snow Leopard OS so this way I can reduce the problem source to either Parallels or Mac OS 10.6 Server...unless somehow Mavericks is changing things....

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