Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

swennyhenny

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 26, 2013
4
0
iMac 27" mid 2010 now running Mountain Lion

wish to create dual boot Snow Leopard and Mountain Lion to run older scanner and other peripherals.

Original OS X install disc gives error message "you can't use this version… you have 23.1.1

Created time machine backup.

Created bootable Mountain Lion USB

Created bootable Snow Leopard USB

Booted iMac from Mountain Lion USB and erased HD

Attempted to boot from original start up disc but it hangs on Apple logo screen

Attempted to boot from Snow Leopard USB and hangs at same point

Attempted to boot from Snow Leopard retail disc and hangs at same point.

Boots every time from ML USB

When I boot holding OPTION I can select from 3 different start up discs, but only ML gets past the Apple logo screen.

What is the reason why the iMac, which shipped from memory with
Snow Leopard, will now not start up from SL even when the HD has been erased?
 

Bruno09

macrumors 68020
Aug 24, 2013
2,202
153
Far from here
Booted iMac from Mountain Lion USB and erased HD
Hi,

did you erase "Macintosh HD" or the whole disc ?

Il you only erased "Macintosh HD", the (Mountain Lion) Recovery HD is still here, and you won't be able to use the Snow Leopard Installer.

When you erase the WHOLE disc, the Recovery HD will be erased too, thus you will be able to boot from SL Install disc or bootable USB.
 

swennyhenny

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 26, 2013
4
0
OK so I've double checked that the entire HD was erased and used the secure zero out option which took a couple of hours.

All startup discs still hang at the Apple logo screen except ML.

Going to try target disc mode next with a borrowed Mac.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.