Initially the mac mini A1176 accepted the Lion disk .... no warning that it was incompatible and installed. It was only when it restarted that the screen showed the ominous circle with a slash. Now I need to uninstall Lion and Reinstall Snow Leopard (and being an imperfect world, I can't find my original Snow Leopard disks) *sigh* ...
Mac mini
You can purchase replacement discs from Apple:
Apple Store Customer Service at 1-800-676-2775 or visit online Help for more information.
To contact product and tech support: Contacting Apple for support and service - this includes
international calling numbers..
Yes I know ($19.95) but I am currently vacationing out of the country with my macmini and MacBook Pro and it will be over a month before I'm back in the US. I have a Snow Leopard install dmg on my MacBook Pro desktop ... how can I use this to reinstall (if I can) over the Lion? Can I use a USB and if so how? Maybe I should be clearer ... I want a method where I can use an USB to reinstall Snow Leopard OVER the Lion. Do you know how this can be done? Last resort would be to connect the MacBook to the macmini .. that has never worked well for me 🙂
If you erase the drive then you can attempt to install Snow Leopard, but it may be unlikely that you can use the one that came with your other computer. If you have a clone of your other computer's hard drive, then you could clone that to the Mini. That may work. You could use Target Disk Mode if both computers have Firewire ports.
The retail version of Snow Leopard may not work on your Mini even if it came originally with 10.6.3.
Thank you for your patience but I don't know how this helps me. I don't have a clone. Could you be more detailed as I am not tech savvy. When you say "drive" do you mean USB flashdrive or are you referring to macmini? Can I use my USB to install Snow Leopard over the mal functioning Lion? And if so how?
I found this technique for a USB but it mentions from OX 10.7 on and not 10.6.8 which I have. Do you know if this technique will work on A1176 that takes only Snow Leopard:
I was referring to your MacBook that you asked about. I have difficulty understanding what you are saying. First you said you did have Snow Leopard but then said you don't. Next you stated you have a Snow Leopard disc image on a MBP you can use. I was suggesting that if you have a computer running a compatible system that you can clone it to the computer without a system by using Target Disk Mode. Since I'm not sure what you have that you can use it's difficult giving you workable alternatives. Maybe you can give me more precise information to work with. What is this disc image you have on your MBP?
A "clone" is a duplicate of something such as a startup drive.
A drive means any rotating drive, a hard drive, or a solid state drive like a flash drive.
Cloning is making an exact copy of one drive to another.
Ok sorry for testing your patience. I'll try and be clearer. I am asking about a macmini. I have a A1176 macmini that had Snow Leopard. I tried to upgrade the macmini Snow Leopard to Lion and initially the macmini accepted the Lion change BUT when I restarted the A1176, it failed. I see a circle with a slash through it. My question is how can I reinstall Snow Leopard on the macmini without having my Snow Leopard disks with me? My MacBook Pro runs Yosemite and they are not compatible. Again, I DO NOT have my Snow Leopard disks that came with purchase. What I DO HAVE, however, on my MacBook Pro is a Snow Leopard DMG (I keep all the apps I use in an Application file in case of emergencies on my MacBook Pro). I am not asking about my MacBook Pro. It works fine. .. I hope I'm clearer. . I'm sorry .. I'm a little worried about this as I need my macmini working tomorrow because I am volunteer/charity work tutoring English.
It looks to me like I can follow the instructions on the link I left above and use the USB Flash drive to reinstall Snow Leopard on the macmini. I've read the instructions. What do you think? Do I need to erase Lion off of my macmini first? Thanks for your help. I am a novice obviously.
You aren't testing my patience. I just wanted to be sure I fully understood the situation. I think that i do.
I take it, then, that you haven't made an effort to reinstall Lion? If you haven't then you might give this a try. If the hard drive on the Mini is OK this may work. If the first attempt at installing Lion did not fail completely, then you should have a Recovery HD on the HDD. So start with this:
Reinstalling OS X Without Erasing the Drive
Boot to the Recovery HD: 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.
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the main menu. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall OS X: Select Reinstall OS X and click on the Continue button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.
If this does not work because there is no Recovery HD or it's corrupt, then check this document: Computers that can be upgraded to use OS X Internet Recovery. If your Mini is on the list of usable Macs, then you can do a full Internet Recovery:
Install OS X Using Internet Recovery
Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.
Boot to the Internet Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND-OPTION- R keys until a globe appears on the screen. Wait patiently - 15-20 minutes - until the Recovery main menu appears.
After the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After Disk Utility loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall OS X: Select Reinstall OS X and click on the Continue button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.
You will note that you are doing the same thing as the first set of instructions, except this time you will get the network Recovery HD.
Now, I would need more information on this Snow Leopard disc image you have. However, I'm out of town for a wedding tomorrow, so I don't know how much time I'll have to see how this goes for you. If it doesn't work, then you will need to tell me all about your Snow Leopard disc image such as what it's an image of. If it's an image of a Snow Leopard installer DVD, then you could clone it to a USB flash drive from which to boot your Mini and install Snow Leopard.
Your other option might be to use Target Disk Mode to clone your MBP's hard drive to the Mini's HDD. This assumes the OS on the MBP is compatible with the Mini. Your MBP must have Firewire ports.
Thank you again ... I tried the suggestions and in all instances, again see only the circle with the slash. The A1176 should not take the Lion I've read. Snow Leopard is it's last system so I made a mistake and now wish to correct it by going back to Snow Leopard. How can I do this without having my disks?
"The A1176 should not take the Lion I've read."
Sidebar: Apple used the A1176 designation on no less than three mini models:
Macmini1,1 Core Solo or Duo (early 2006)
Macmini1,1 Core Duo (late 2006)
Macmini2,1 Core 2 Duo (mid 2007)
Only the mid 2007 A1176 can be upgraded to Lion--and then no further. The other two A1176 models top out at Snow Leopard.
Yep from personal and painful experience, this is true 🙂
Kappy. I read your insightful instructions on how to uninstall Lion dated July 2011 ... and I have another question ... I've created an install disk on my USB flash drive and it is an option on my mac mini. And in the Disk Utility that I have opened on the macmini, I can see that all of my files are still on my mac mini ... all 355G of programs. Is there any way of keeping these files and uninstalling Lion and Reinstalling Snow Leopard WITHOUT losing these files?
Try the target disk mode Kappy provided a link for. This will allow you to copy the files to your other computer or an external. You can then erase the mini and install Snow Leopard.
Will Try !! and btw: You'rem ALL GREAT!!! THANKS !!!
The problem has shifted. I've been able to start the MacMini from an External Hard Drive which has Snow Leopard on it. Now I'm trying to install Snow Leopard disk that I have on my external hard drive. What's odd is that I have all of my Hard Drive apps on the hard drive that sits on my mac mini but I can't restart the Mac Mini witout the external hard drive. I am such a novice. 😝
Mistakenly installed Lion on a disk that only accepts Snow Leopard. I get a circle with a slash. What can I do?
