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How do I downgrade to Mountain Lion?

T

tob866622

macrumors member
Original poster
Is it possible to downgrade from Mac OSX 10.9 to 10.8.3?
I'm having problems with skype and other main programs I need to access

Thanks in advance
 
can i get os x mountain lion back?

can i get os x mountain lion back? i don't want os x 10.9
i downloaded os mountain lion from app store
when i click on install it says "os 10.8 can not be installed on in computer"

need help
tank you
 
How do I downgrade to Mountain Lion?

I've created a boot disk of ML, but when I try to boot from it, I get a circle with a line going thru it. Any idea on how to fix this?
 
d-boy86 said:
I've created a boot disk of ML, but when I try to boot from it, I get a circle with a line going thru it. Any idea on how to fix this?
Click to expand...

Something tells me that you created the disk wrong. Are you holding the option key after you hear the startup chime? If it worked, you should be able to format your drive with disk utility and install ML. Hope you made a Time Machine backup!
 
Are you trying to do a clean install of 10.8?

I've had the same issue. The 10.9 recovery partition is the problem here. I formatted the drive and couldn't get the 10.8 installer to run. I had to run Disk Utility from the 10.9 installer and re-partition the drive to delete the recovery partition.

If you want to downgrade without wiping everything though, I'm not sure if it's possible...
 
To do a clean install:
Create a 10.8 installation usb drive.
Restart your computer and boot from it.
Go to Disk Utility first and erase your Macintosh HD.
Then install ML.

I haven't personally try it but I think this will work. I successfully erased the 10.9 HD and restored it to a ML Time Machine backup.
 
Crisis said:
To do a clean install:
Create a 10.8 installation usb drive.
Restart your computer and boot from it.
Go to Disk Utility first and erase your Macintosh HD.
Then install ML.

I haven't personally try it but I think this will work. I successfully erased the 10.9 HD and restored it to a ML Time Machine backup.
Click to expand...

You can't boot the 10.8 installer if the 10.9 recovery partition is present. You have to delete the partitions (using the 10.9 boot disk or other tools) first.
 
cheesemanpl said:
You can't boot the 10.8 installer if the 10.9 recovery partition is present. You have to delete the partitions (using the 10.9 boot disk or other tools) first.
Click to expand...

This is not correct. I have booted 10.8 installers just fine on a few computers running Mavericks with a recovery partition. I reckon the culprit is the USB installer. I am going to assume you have a Time Machine backup of 10.8 for the first set of instructions.

--Time Machine restore:

-Boot from your Time Machine drive by selecting "Option" at startup.

-In OS X utilities, erase and re-format your boot drive to a 1 partition HFS+ Journaled drive.

-Run "Reinstall OS X" from the OS X utilities window and choose restore from backup, selecting your latest 10.8 backup and you're done.



-- USB drive clean install (no Time Machine)

-Make sure you are properly creating a 10.8 USB boot drive. Follow these instructions: http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/07/how-to-create-a-bootable-backup-mountain-lion-install-disk/

- Boot from USB drive by selecting it in System Preferences or by selecting "Option" at startup.

-In OS X utilities, erase your 10.9 boot drive and re-install 10.8


I can't stress enough the importance of a good backup, especially if you intend to downgrade. Time Machine is fantastic and combined with Migration Assistant, they make a powerful combo to manage multiple OS X versions, backups, data transfers, clean installs, etc.

Good luck!
 
I continue to see these types of posts over and over and it just seems that nobody learns from the previous posters. Why aren't people just installing Mavericks on a separate partition so they can test it out, (play with it 🙄)?
I can't see any logical reason for someone to install a DP over their current primary setup that they need to use daily? 😕. Then they come here sorry and want to downgrade.
 
HenryDJP said:
I continue to see these types of posts over and over and it just seems that nobody learns from the previous posters. Why aren't people just installing Mavericks on a separate partition so they can test it out, (play with it 🙄)?
I can't see any logical reason for someone to install a DP over their current primary setup that they need to use daily? 😕. Then they come here sorry and want to downgrade.
Click to expand...
I can't imagine doing it without adequate backups. 😕

I eventually installed on my primary development machine, but only after (1) installing DP1 clean on a separate partition and briefly testing it and (2) installing DP1 on a CCC clone of my primary ML system and working out conflicts. After living with (2) for a week and confirming that XCode and Parallels and Office 2011 all worked perfectly, I installed DP1 on my primary drive. I still have a fresh ML clone and Time Machine backups back to March to fall back on if I need to. (And I did a fresh clone before I updated to DP2.)

FWIW, I don't keep a recovery partition on my primary "Fusion" drive. I keep recovery partitions on two backups drives, in addition to at least one bootable clone at all times (currently two, one ML, and one Mavericks DP1). The "option" boot menu shows all bootable drives and partitions, including recovery partitions on external drives.

John
 
DclutchS said:
we jhfenton had said he created a clone of ML, i was just curious what he meant by this and how he did it?
Click to expand...
Okay, he'll have to respond to that.

FWIW if you've purchased Mountain Lion you don't have to have a "clone", you can download/install it from the Mac App Store anytime. You can also create a USB boot disk:

http://liondiskmaker.com

For many years I've been using SuperDuper to clone my Mac's drives periodically. Carbon Copy Cloner will do the same thing.

Hope that helps, otherwise I'll defer to jhfenton.

Best of luck!
 
I just go into recovery, add a new partition, and then restore the drive I want to clone into the new partition. That is how I had to make my Mavericks install bigger than what I had originally set up.

And yeah, like others are saying, don't just upgrade. 🙄 That's asking for a disaster to happen, especially with startup items.
 
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