Snow Leopard hangs after prep for upgrade

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Level 1

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Snow Leopard hangs after prep for upgrade

I have been running Snow Leopard 10.6.8 on my main, internal drive but have been preparing an upgrade (to Mountain Lion — recent enough for latest Java support while old enough to support sleep on my Firewire disks). I have now added SL to an external drive, from Apple's installer and then with updates bringing it to 10.6.8. I need SL occasionally for a key piece of legacy software. And yes, I do need the latest Java although for just one must-use website.

The problem is that SL now hangs on startup — both on the external and on the internal drive but in different ways. On the external I endure a long time with the blue screen. Worse, because more is at stake, is the main drive where it now hangs for 15 minutes or so at the login screen (a new symptom). I can see but not select my login account until enduring the long wait. This makes me fearful of upgrading to Mountain Lion, for fear a bad situation gets worse.

My disks verify and I've repaired permissions, before and after installation.

Any other ideas would be much appreciated.

24 inch Intel Core Duo iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.8), 2.8 GHz, 4GB ram

Posted on Apr 21, 2015 1:29 PM

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Answer 1

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Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Apr 21, 2015 1:40 PM in response to duncantho

Reinstall OS X without erasing the drive

1. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions

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. 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 installer.

If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.

2. Reinstall Snow Leopard

If the drive is OK then quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed with reinstalling OS X. Note that the Snow Leopard installer will not erase your drive or disturb your files. After installing a fresh copy of OS X the installer will move your Home folder, third-party applications, support items, and network preferences into the newly installed system.

Download and install Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1.

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Answer 2

duncantho Author

Level 1

67 points

Apr 21, 2015 1:34 PM in response to duncantho

And one other oddity… when running SL from the external HD I can't use the Startup Disk panel to switch drives. The options are grayed out. Instead I must hold down the option key on restart.

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Answer 3

duncantho Author

Level 1

67 points

Apr 21, 2015 1:44 PM in response to Kappy

Kappy, your reply came faster than I could add my my second missive. Impressive. Somehow I seem to have marked your answer as solving my question, which it may well have but I have not had time to try it yet. Anyway, I shall test your advice and report back. Could be a while though.

Regards

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Answer 4

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Apr 21, 2015 3:51 PM in response to duncantho

You did not mark it as solving your problem. Rather you marked it as helping you. Whether it has helped is obviously yet to be determined. If it helps by solving your problem; even better. 🙂

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Answer 5

duncantho Author

Level 1

67 points

Apr 21, 2015 3:54 PM in response to Kappy

The odd thing is that all the answers, included my replies, show in my browser as having solved my question (checkmark on green bubble). I didn't check them — and now I can't check yours (already checked) although you have indeed solved my problem.

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Answer 6

duncantho Author

Level 1

67 points

Apr 21, 2015 3:59 PM in response to Kappy

Hmm, even my last reply to you has the checkmark. And when I subsequently click the "This solved my question" nothing more happens. If I'm meant to be getting some sort of feedback (checkmark changing color?) it's not happening.

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Answer 7

duncantho Author

Level 1

67 points

Apr 21, 2015 4:00 PM in response to Kappy

OK it's working now. The other checkmarks have vanished and one appears in the window to your answer. Weird.

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