its been mentioned that the 9.99 disc wont allow you to install Snow Leo on a brand new drive.
I too want to know this. I know for Leopard, there was an "UPGRADE" disc. So far with Snow Leopard, it's the box set (for Tiger) and then the RETAIL version. Maybe the up-to-date version is the "UPGRADE" for Snow Leopard similar to that of Leopard.
No, you are painfully incorrect.
The upgrade disc (which is free, we pay $9.95 shipping) is NOT the same disc as the $29 DVD. While both will allow you to fully erase your existing install of Leopard using Disk Utility, only the $29 will allow you to install Snow Leopard directly to an empty drive from the start. Please do not get confused about this.
If you bought a new unformatted hard drive and just installed it on your Mac then only the $29 will allow you to boot up to the installer and begin installation. The upgrade disc for $9.95 will check for an existing installation of OS X, if it doesn't see it a message pops up and tells you that you "Mac OS X version 10.5 needs to be installed before installation can continue." I have both discs and I already ran into this situation.
No, you are painfully incorrect.
The upgrade disc (which is free, we pay $9.95 shipping) is NOT the same disc as the $29 DVD. While both will allow you to fully erase your existing install of Leopard using Disk Utility, only the $29 will allow you to install Snow Leopard directly to an empty drive from the start. Please do not get confused about this.
If you bought a new unformatted hard drive and just installed it on your Mac then only the $29 will allow you to boot up to the installer and begin installation. The upgrade disc for $9.95 will check for an existing installation of OS X, if it doesn't see it a message pops up and tells you that you "Mac OS X version 10.5 needs to be installed before installation can continue." I have both discs and I already ran into this situation.
Thank you!
This is the exact info I needed.
Guess I'm gonna make another run to the apple store.
Oh okay, so I must have IMAGINED having just used the UTD DVD (2Z691-6557-A) boot from, and install Snow Leopard FRESH on a BLANK *INTERNAL* hard disk (the ONLY hard disk, all externals were UNPLUGGED) where the Macintosh HD is the *ONLY* partition!.
Yeah, I must have imagined doing that...
Sorry, but I did it, and I am not so stupid as to not be able to read the words "Upgrade DVD" on my disc I purchased for £7.95 via UTD. This may be YOUR experience, but certainly not DE-FACTO!.
Painful FAIL, because I can assure you 110% I did that an hour ago.
Maybe there is something you did that was not straight forward in how others installed it. I'm having this issue right now installing onto a blank hard drive.
Care to give detailed installtion method?
Thanks.
No, you are painfully incorrect.
The upgrade disc (which is free, we pay $9.95 shipping) is NOT the same disc as the $29 DVD. While both will allow you to fully erase your existing install of Leopard using Disk Utility, only the $29 will allow you to install Snow Leopard directly to an empty drive from the start. Please do not get confused about this.
If you bought a new unformatted hard drive and just installed it on your Mac then only the $29 will allow you to boot up to the installer and begin installation. The upgrade disc for $9.95 will check for an existing installation of OS X, if it doesn't see it a message pops up and tells you that you "Mac OS X version 10.5 needs to be installed before installation can continue." I have both discs and I already ran into this situation.
Are you 100% sure you can not do a fresh install with the UTD? I was just about to do this as I have read posts on here that said people have been able to do this.
Are you 100% sure you can not do a fresh install with the UTD? I was just about to do this as I have read posts on here that said people have been able to do this.
You CAN do a fresh clean install with the UTD as long as Mac OS X Leopard is preinstalled. When booting up to the install screen you will be able to go to Disk Utility, select the boot volume in question, select erase and erase and format the hard drive to Mac OS X Extended Journaled. Come out of Disk Utility and proceed with the installation of Snow Leopard.
What you cannot do is buy a brand new unformatted hard drive (as I mentioned earlier), shove it in your Mac, put in the UTD disc and boot up to the installer and begin installation. A message will appear telling you that Leopard needs to be installed and it will not even allow you to access Disk Utility or anything other than shutting down the computer. I just bought a new hard drive for my Macbook and his this issue.
And you have experienced this?
Ha ha, well my last line that you quote said I did.. I have 3 Macs, iMac 24", new 13" MBP and and 13" white Macbook. I ordered the UTD DVD for my 13" MBP. I'm only answering your question so let's not get into EULA stuff. The white Macbook had a failing hard drive so I ordered a new drive off Ebay, it arrived the same day as my Snow Leopard UTD DVD. I decided to upgrade all three Macs with the UTD DVD.
First I decided to use it on the white Macbook after installed the new hard disk. I shoved in the UTD DVD, started up the Macbook and it went to the install screen. After it got there I thought it was fine until a message appeared saying I need Mac OS X version 10.5 to proceed and it wouldn't allow to do anything but shut down the computer.
I took out my Leopard DVD, installed it into the white Macbook and then used the UTD DVD and all went well. I was able to go to Disk Utility, fully erase Leopard and then proceed with installing Snow Leopard.
After then, I used the UTD DVD for the 13"MBP and the iMac since they both had Leopard and have had no issues.
This is not an opinion, this is fact and if that other poster wants to keep fighting about this, keep on, this will be my last post. If you want the best experience without trying to figure all of this out then go and buy the $29, it's not much to spend, why waste all of this time trying to figure out who's right or wrong?
EDIT: BTW, the UTD DVD does say "upgrade" on it. The $29 DVD says "Install DVD" on it.
EDIT: BTW, the UTD DVD does say "upgrade" on it. The $29 DVD says "Install DVD" on it.
Boom! That's what I was looking for. So there is an "upgrade", "retail" and box set. That's all I needed to know and now know how each one functions/installs! Thanks HLdan!
Yep, and I'm halfway through investigating whether the UPGRADE DVD checks for Mac model - for example: "Macmini3,1" if it cannot find a Leopard or Snow Leopard installation, to qualify the Mac. This makes perfect sense, as all Macs sold since the release of Leopard, CAME with Leopard on them, so why would they need an existing install to be present, when the Model ID can tell the installer that those specific IDs are Macs which came with Leopard!!.
I get what you're trying to do but it doesn't make complete sense. The reason I say that is this say you have a MacBook that is (MacBook 4,1). During that time, the OS that came with it was Tiger but when Leopard was introduced, some of those generation MacBooks (4,1) then came with Leopard so that generation alone could've came with Tiger or Leopard. By your test, Apple would give the benefit of the doubt to the user in that if they had (4,1) install would work. If anything, I think the check is done while booting off the disc and not after booting and has nothing to do with product identity, just my opinion.
(NOTE: numbers used aren't facts, just explaining that computers at a time had both Tiger or Leopard, depending on the time they were bought).