Q: Unable to install Snow Leopard after El Capitan

I am not happy with El Capitan, and it is also not compatible with both music hardware and software that I have, so I want to go back to Snow Leopard on my late 2009 iMac.

After installing El Capitan the CD drive on my iMac is not working, and I was unable to install Snow Leopard from it.

So I made a bootable USB that gets recognized when I hold option when the machine is booting. When I choose it, I get the white screen with the Apple logo, but it doesn't go into the installation phase. I have formatted my drive and no longer have El Capitan on it.

How can I install Snow Leopard? It looks to me like El Capitan has blocked the option to downgrade to an earlier OS, and it is a bit infuriating that I am not in control of hardware that I have spent a lot of money on.

Posted on Sep 27, 2016 5:47 AM

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Q: Unable to install Snow Leopard after El Capitan

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by anonyme4321,

anonyme4321 Sep 27, 2016 7:24 AM in response to ArnsteinK
Level 2 (333 points)

Mac OS X

Sep 27, 2016 7:24 AM in response to ArnsteinK

Check this doc How do I downgrade my Mac OS X operating system
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by ArnsteinK,

ArnsteinK Sep 27, 2016 7:54 AM in response to anonyme4321
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Mac OS X

Sep 27, 2016 7:54 AM in response to anonyme4321

Thank you for your reply. Unfortunately, this did not solve my problems :/ I still am unable to install Snow Leopard, as it won't be installed either from CD (it doesn't read CDs anymore after the Mavericks update) or USB.
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by anonyme4321,

anonyme4321 Sep 27, 2016 7:59 AM in response to ArnsteinK
Level 2 (333 points)

Mac OS X

Sep 27, 2016 7:59 AM in response to ArnsteinK

So you can't boot from USB with the alt button pressed during boot ?
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by ArnsteinK,

ArnsteinK Sep 27, 2016 8:07 AM in response to anonyme4321
Level 1 (18 points)

Mac OS X

Sep 27, 2016 8:07 AM in response to anonyme4321

No. If I choose the Snow Leopard USB after pressing alt during boot, I just get the white screen with the Apple logo. No progress bar and no progress at all, even though I've waited for hours.
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by anonyme4321,

anonyme4321 Sep 27, 2016 8:09 AM in response to ArnsteinK
Level 2 (333 points)

Mac OS X

Sep 27, 2016 8:09 AM in response to ArnsteinK

Maybe there was a bug during flashing Snow Leopard on your USB key and the image is corrupted.
Did you try to re-flash ?
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by ArnsteinK,

ArnsteinK Sep 27, 2016 8:12 AM in response to anonyme4321
Level 1 (18 points)

Mac OS X

Sep 27, 2016 8:12 AM in response to anonyme4321

Yes.
The first time I flashed it in Windows with an app called Transmac.
The second time I did it in the recovery disk utility.

Maybe third time's the charm?
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by Lexiepex,

Lexiepex Sep 27, 2016 8:14 AM in response to ArnsteinK
Level 6 (10,497 points)

Mac OS X

Sep 27, 2016 8:14 AM in response to ArnsteinK

Assuming you formatted the startupdisk with GUID Partition Table, Mac OS Extended (journaled) - this is not absolutely necessary, the CD will take care of it -
put in the CD (grey disc): then start while holding the C key.
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by ArnsteinK,

ArnsteinK Sep 27, 2016 8:17 AM in response to Lexiepex
Level 1 (18 points)

Mac OS X

Sep 27, 2016 8:17 AM in response to Lexiepex

When I put in the CD(either on a fresh El Capitan install or during bootup when pressing C) it just reads it for a moment and spits it out, it doesn't work reading it. The whole CD drive stopped working after upgrading.
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by ArnsteinK,

ArnsteinK Sep 27, 2016 8:22 AM in response to Lexiepex
Level 1 (18 points)

Mac OS X

Sep 27, 2016 8:22 AM in response to Lexiepex

And yes, the startup USB is GUID and OS X journaled extended.
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by Lexiepex,

Lexiepex Sep 27, 2016 8:34 AM in response to ArnsteinK
Level 6 (10,497 points)

Mac OS X

Sep 27, 2016 8:34 AM in response to ArnsteinK

Is there anything on it at all ? I mean, did you do a complete format (from the Recovery Partition) ?
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by ArnsteinK,

ArnsteinK Sep 27, 2016 8:37 AM in response to Lexiepex
Level 1 (18 points)

Mac OS X

Sep 27, 2016 8:37 AM in response to Lexiepex

Thank you for your reply.
Yes, I have formatted the internal iMac HD(1TB). And yes, I formatted the USB through the recovery partition disk utility before restoring it with the Snow Leopard dmg file.
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by Lexiepex,

Lexiepex Sep 27, 2016 9:41 AM in response to ArnsteinK
Level 6 (10,497 points)

Mac OS X

Sep 27, 2016 9:41 AM in response to ArnsteinK

Put the disk that you want to install SL from the disc on, inside the Mac. After the installation you can take it out again.
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by ArnsteinK,

ArnsteinK Sep 27, 2016 9:56 AM in response to Lexiepex
Level 1 (18 points)

Mac OS X

Sep 27, 2016 9:56 AM in response to Lexiepex

Sorry for being unclear.
When putting in the grey SL installation disc, the mac ejects it after 10 seconds.
When starting from the bootable USB I don't get past the white screen with the Apple logo.
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by Lexiepex,

Lexiepex Sep 27, 2016 10:05 AM in response to ArnsteinK
Level 6 (10,497 points)

Mac OS X

Sep 27, 2016 10:05 AM in response to ArnsteinK

You were not unclear, I was perhaps.
Originally you boot with a CD with SL on it, to install SL on the inside disk, not an outside disk.
The actual inside disk is not really "clean" I suppose. Since you want it on the outside (USB) disk, I propose to put that one inside first.
The issue may go away when you do a SMC and a PRAM reset, but I doubt it.
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