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Downgrading to Snow Leopard?

G

GizmoDVD

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Oct 11, 2008
2,670
5,775
SoCal
Hey all.

I am selling one of my Mac Books which currently has Lion installed and want to do a fresh wipe. The new owner requested just Snow Leopard and not Lion be installed. I have Snow Leopard on DVD...but how do I install it? When inserted, it says I can not downgrade.
 
Had the same problem recently. Seems that around the 10.6.4-5 update there were some firmware changes that makes it impossible to use the 10.6.0 install disk. Or at least, I wasn't able to find a way. I could start the installation (boot with option key, choose disk utility, format disk, start SL installation), but after a while it would crash or reboot.

Eventually I found some posts of people who had the same problem and received a new install disk from Apple that already had one of the latest 10.6 updates (so not the 10.6.0 install disk). But I'm not sure if Apple will even give those out anymore now that Lion is out.

I decided to use a Time Machine backup to go back to 10.6.8, but of course that's not a clean install.

If you do find a way, please share :)
 
Last edited:
C64 said:
Had the same problem recently. Seems that around the 10.6.4-5 update there were some firmware changes that makes it impossible to use the 10.6.0 install disk. Or at least, I wasn't able to find a way. I could start the installation (boot with option key, choose disk utility, format disk, start SL installation), but after a while it would crash or reboot.

Eventually I found some posts of people who had the same problem and received a new install disk from Apple that already had one of the latest 10.6 updates (so not the 10.6.0 install disk). But I'm not sure if Apple will even give those out anymore now that Lion is out.

I decided to use a Time Machine to go back to 10.6.8, but of course that's not a clean install.

If you do find a way, please share :)
Click to expand...

Arggg.
 
So I re-formatted the hard drive. Is it possible to install Snow Leopard now? When I insert my disc and click the icon, after a few minutes it comes up with a warning telling me to restart my computer.
 
GizmoDVD said:
So I'm screwed and have to go with Lion?
Click to expand...
Your MacBook came with Snow Leo originally right? Try this if you haven't already:
Pop in your Snow Leo disk, shut down the computer, hold down the option key while turning on the computer until your mouse curser appears, select the dvd, select disk utility, erase your HD at the highest level (the brand name, not "Macintosh HD"), once that's done close disk utility and run the installer.
 
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