Macbook Pro will not boot from Snow Leopard dvd, but reads fine when booted from hdd

What year MBP? The new ones will not work with older versions of Snow Leopard released before the laptop. Only the DVD that came with the laptop will work.

I get 3 beeps when I try to boot off of 10.6.3 on my 2011 MBP, but works fine with the DVD that came with it.

Hi there....
I have a 13" MBP 2011 running 10.6.7

I had the same problem as OP...

Apple Care sent me out a replacement DVD version 10.6.3, while trying to boot this also I get the grey screen....and then the computer starts beeping...3 at a time...

After I restart the MBP and remove the disk the computer boots fine....
I am getting my original disks in a couple of days...will post the results then.

I think clickclickw00t is probably on the mark with his comments that the MBP just doesn't like the versions that were created before the computer itself...

I have the same problem. And the same MBP, 15 inch, Intel I5.

I can not get the MBP to startup from the DVD that came with the MBP (Leopard) or the Family Pack Snow Leopard DVD.

I have done the Option Key during startup and see both the hard drive and the DVD. When I select the DVD it does not boot but after restarting with the power button and holding down the eject button, the DVD pops out and the MBP starts up off the hard drive.

I have done the same with the c key down and the DVD in the drive, no luck.

I have inserted the DVD, from then clicked on the install Snow Leopard, then clicked on Utilities and continue. No luck.

If anybody was a solution, I would appreciate it also.

Bruce

Thank you.

clickclickw00t said:

What year MBP? The new ones will not work with older versions of Snow Leopard released before the laptop. Only the DVD that came with the laptop will work.

I get 3 beeps when I try to boot off of 10.6.3 on my 2011 MBP, but works fine with the DVD that came with it.

Click to expand...

Thanks 4 this info. Spent 24 hrs trying 2 install retail version of Leopard on my MacBook Pro and only get the beeps when restarted. Now I know why! Why do u think Apple have made it this way?

Do you know how I can remove the Lion hidden partition from my HDD? I upgraded to Lion & changed mind so reinstalled Snow Leopard using shipped disks but when starting Mac in recovery mode it shows the small Lion partition. I guess it's not a problem but is space I could use! Thanks in advance.

MacBookNick said:

Thanks 4 this info. Spent 24 hrs trying 2 install retail version of Leopard on my MacBook Pro and only get the beeps when restarted. Now I know why! Why do u think Apple have made it this way?

Do you know how I can remove the Lion hidden partition from my HDD? I upgraded to Lion & changed mind so reinstalled Snow Leopard using shipped disks but when starting Mac in recovery mode it shows the small Lion partition. I guess it's not a problem but is space I could use! Thanks in advance.

Click to expand...

They made it this way because a version of OS X that is older than the computer does not have the proper drivers included and could result in system instability.

snaky69 said:

They made it this way because a version of OS X that is older than the computer does not have the proper drivers included and could result in system instability.

Click to expand...

It has nothing to do with incapacity or instability. snow leopard is perfectly compatible with the new machines. it is simple apple controlling their products to the detriment of the user.
i moved an old 2tb internal harddrive out of an 2008 imac 24" into a new 2011 27" imac, and it works fine and has been doing for 6 months. but the time came when the OS needed to be reinstalled because its became clutter and slow, just like it was on the old 2008 machine. ie the new machine wasnt the cause of the slow down.

this is apples compulsive control freak attitude, nothing else. they want everyone to move to icloud and lion so they are making it impossible for anyone to revert to snow leopard, even tho its the superior OS.

There are ways around this. you can link two mac with a firewire cable and put the one you wish to install snow leopard on into target disk mode by holding T at boot, then on the other mac which is booted (has to be an older mac, pre lion) load the Snow Leopard installer disc or partition, and then choose the target disk mode computer as the installation destination, which is the newer mac
there are other ways of modifying the installation image to achieve a similar result also
hope this helps.

My solution was simple after much thought

I have a early 2011 iMac that came with Snow Leopard 10.6.6 / iLife DVD's (which now has Mountain Lion on it)

I also have a mid 2011 MackBook Pro that came with Lion 10.7.x

I had purchased a Snow Leopard from Apple a year before that, (it was the 10.6.3 DVD), and I wanted to put that on my MBP, but like everyone else I got the 3 beeps indicating no hardware support.

SO, I got a BlacX USB docking station for SATA HDD (2.5" / 3.5") and simply took the drive out of the MBP, attached it to the iMac via USB and restored it from my iMac using it's DVD of SL 10.6.6 and all is now good

there's also a $40 SATA cable you can get from Best Buy that will do the trick- if you have another computer to restore from. . .

good luck all!