How uninstall El Capitan and replace with Snow Leopard clone?

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Level 1

14 points

How uninstall El Capitan and replace with Snow Leopard clone?

I've had terrible luck running El Capitan, particularly in conjunction with CS5. It takes (literally) 10x longer to save a .tiff file in El Capitan than it did in Snow Leopard. I suspect far too many processes running in the background, most of which are probably not needed, but I don't know that for sure. Something is wrong.

I have a perfect clone of my old Snow Leopard installation and am wondering if that can just be installed right over El Capitan, like when one does any update of the OS, or do I need to erase the entire partition first and then install the clone?

(I know, I'll then have browser problems, but...)

FTR: Mac Pro (early 2009, 2.66 Ghz, single quad-core), currently running OS 10.11.5

Thanks very much,

Mac Pro, OS X El Capitan (10.11.3)

Posted on Sep 26, 2016 2:06 PM

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Answer 1

Teddy_B

Community Specialist

Sep 27, 2016 4:27 PM in response to CFS88

Hi CFS88,

Thanks for reaching out to the Apple Support Communities. I see from your post that you are looking to revert your operating system to Snow Leopard from El Capitan. I'm glad to help!

To install Snow Leopard on your system, you'll need to either use a Snow Leopard install DVD or your original installation disc if your Mac shipped with Snow Leopard originally. Once you insert the disc, restart your Mac and hold down the C key as it restarts. This will allow you to boot from the installation disc. From here, you can use Disk Utility to erase your disk and then reinstall OS X. After the installation is complete, you can choose your preferred option to migrate your data back to your Mac using the Setup Assistant.

If you use Time Machine, then you can restore from a Time Machine backup with 10.6 installed as well:

macOS Sierra: Revert to a previous macOS version

Cheers!

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Answer 2

CFS88 Author

Level 1

14 points

Sep 27, 2016 4:44 PM in response to Teddy_B

Thank you. Alas, the problem with doing that is that I would lose applications I can't replace. I'm aware I've not been too clear in stating the problem, as the other commentator pointed out. I could of course just erase the partition and then transfer the clone to that same partition for my Mac OS installation. The clone contains all of the apps I had installed at the time I made the clone. What I'm really wondering is if I could use the Snow Leopard CD to install Snow Leopard right over El Capitan without first erasing the drive, thereby leaving my apps intact. I hope that makes sense? If you see what I'm wanting to do?

I have no Time Machine backup, and should have made one. I didn't, knowing I already had two clones. One of my clones, the latest one, was somehow wiped from a WD external drive. The partitions I'd made were wiped out. How that happened remains unknown, even after talks with WD tech. They had no answer other than to say that they recommend no more than two partitions. I never saw that recommendation anywhere at their website and made three partitions on a 2 TB drive. I still don't know why that's a problem and the tech didn't explain. I doubt she knows.

Thanks again for your suggestion, but I'm afraid it just won't work for my purposes.

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Answer 3

braden85

Community Specialist

Sep 27, 2016 5:06 PM in response to CFS88

What I'm really wondering is if I could use the Snow Leopard CD to install Snow Leopard right over El Capitan without first erasing the drive, thereby leaving my apps intact. I hope that makes sense? If you see what I'm wanting to do?

Thanks for your follow up, CFS88. It is not actually possible to reinstall Snow Leopard over El Capitan. In this situation, you will need to first erase the drive before you'll be able to install an earlier version of OS X.

Have a great rest of your day!

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Answer 4

CFS88 Author

Level 1

14 points

Sep 27, 2016 5:10 PM in response to braden85

That was my suspicion, so thanks for the confirmation. I doubted I could do it, but thought I'd ask.

Thanks again.

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