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Clean install of OS X 10.6

I have an early 2008 Mac. It is completely backed up and all data is safe.


I would like to do a clean install of Snow Leopard 10.6 and then upgrade to Lion 10.7 and update from there to 10.7.5 which is as far as I can go on this particular Macbook. I have good reason to do a fresh clean install and will briefly explain it. I originally upgraded from Leopard to 10.6 and then forward to Lion. Right up to 10.6.8 the computer worked perfectly as soon as I installed Lion 10.7 user permissions became corrupted. I could not delete or install files no matter what I set permissions to. I followed all the advice on here including repairing permissions, resetting ACL's and entering specific corrective code in terminal of which nothing worked. I now want to (have no choice) to start from fresh with 10.6 as I have exhausted all options of repairing permissions.


I am ready to erase my drive in the disk utility and I see the following 2 items...


- Macintosh HD 120.03GB


- disk1 Mac OS X Base System Capacity 1.52 GB Avail 378.5MB


Here are my 3 questions ...


1. Do I erase 'disk1' (the OS X base system) and even if I do I can't install Leopard there as it's over 6GB and disk1 is only 1.52GB?


2. Do I leave disk1 alone and just install 10.6 on the main hard drive?


3. Is there anything else that is important to know when erasing the disk(s) prior to clean installing 10.6?


I have the disks for both 10.6 and 10.7 (and understand I have to do the updates up to 10.6.8 prior to 10.7 and am confident installing them once I know how and what to erase first.

Please note that I am not technical enough to understand complex terminology, so simple explanation is really appreciated. I was good to go until I saw disk1 and that has thrown me off. Thank you!

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.6)

Posted on Apr 27, 2015 7:59 AM

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Posted on Apr 27, 2015 8:34 AM

Since Lion was never released on disk, I assume you mean you created your own bootable Lion DVD from the App Store installer? If so, you don't need to install Snow Leopard at all. Just boot to the Lion DVD, use Disk Utility to erase the main drive and install Lion directly.

4 replies

Apr 27, 2015 8:16 AM in response to Kurt Lang

Thank you for your very quick reply. Yes actually I have it on a bootable flash drive.


Okay I must have misunderstood (not from here) that I 'had' to officially have 10.6.8 to install Lion. From your very definitive answer then that is not the case?


And I take it that disk1 with the Mac OS X Base System should never be touched?


Thank you so much!

Apr 27, 2015 8:40 AM in response to watwazat

10.6.6 at minimum is required if you have no other way to install Lion or later. That version of Snow Leopard was the first point release to include the App Store. So you needed at least that level of SL to access the App Store, and then to purchase and install Lion or later.


But, since you have Lion on a bootable flash drive, you can install it directly onto an erased drive.


I've created bootable flash drives of Lion, Mavericks and Yosemite. All of which can be installed as is to a blank drive. As long as the Mac I want to install OS X to supports a particular release, that is.

Clean install of OS X 10.6

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