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

Downgrading a 2,1 Mac Mini from 10.7 to 10.4?

T

twotone

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 9, 2024
29
3
Hi folks,

I've just bought a Mac Mini A1176, it's serial number on apple's site suggests it's mid 2007, and was running 10.4 originally.

It was the 1.83ghz intel duo, and has had the CPU swapped out for a 2.16ghz, and the ram maxed out at 4gb.

It's running 10.7 (that's Lion from memory!) however I'm using this for old hardware which can run on 10.4.11 max.

I've downloaded a 10.4.7 from internet archive but I'm aware the various 'grey' disks of this era are model specific. I'm also aware that sometimes the retail discs for this era Mac won't work if the Mac came with a higher version originally.

Can anyone confirm:
  • Which version of 10.4 these came with originally? E.g. 10.4.7, 10.4.11 etc?
  • Which image on internet archive would be the appropriate one?
  • And finally, the best route of reinstalling 10.4.11 on this machine? I have access to my normal Mac to make bootable USB with Balena Etcher, or I can burn a dvd. Not sure if I'd just boot off the USB/DVD and wipe or do it via recovery mode?
Any guidance is greatly appreciated!

Thanks
 
You will need to download an Intel version of 10.4.7 or later. All retail disks are PPC only.
 
The Core 2 Duo (Mid 2007) variant first came with 10.4.10 (10.5 Leopard was release two months later). I don't know if 10.4.7 supports the 64-bit Intel CPUs that came with the 2007 models. Here are ISO's for the discs that would have originally came with your machine: http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/mac-mini-183-core-2-duo-2007-install-discs

Once booted from the DVD (or USB drive made with Balena Etcher) you can use Disk Utility to format the internal hard drive.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DeltaMac
According to Mactracker app, max RAM on that mini2,1 is 3GB, not 4GB. So, booting with 4GB installed will (probably) work, but will only recognize 3GB
 
  • Like
Reactions: twotone
That’s right on the osx version.
I read 1.83 intel duo, there were 2 versions.
First the 1.83 core duo and then the later 1.83 core 2 duo.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: headlessmike
Thanks All,

I have downloaded what looks to be the same files as linked by @headlessmike from InternetArchive and have made a bootable image of disk 1 with Etcher (I have used this previously for 10.6 installs).

I've got the Mac arriving on Tuesday so I'll keep you all posted how I get on! If it works okay on the install, and does what it's supposed to do with the old hardware I'm using it with, I'll be pulling a spare Samsung 250GB SSD I have in my Mac Pro 5,1, cloning the Mac Mini's 10.4 HDD and installing an SSD to help it on it's way.

Thanks!
 
  • Like
Reactions: headlessmike and Chuckeee
Hi folks, a bit of an update.

The 10.4.10 install from macintosh garden (and the likely identical version on internet archive) did not work, it booted with the USB but after a while of the loading grey screen it came up with the no entry sign, so I didn't get the opportunity to install.

Is there any reason this would come up except it being the wrong version of the OS X? It was made bootable with Balena Etcher and I have no reason to think it's not worked properly. Assuming the Mac had 10.4.7 originally, would it not have allowed a straight to 10.4.10 fresh install? I was thinking this may not have been possible with this for one reason or another.

When I inserted the bootable USB when the Mac was already on, I selected the install icon and it asked me to restart to start the install. I pressed it and then held down option which put it into start up manager or whatever the name is for it, and after selecting the USB installer it then did the grey screen described above.

I'm currently downloading this which I'm hoping may work, we'll see.

Any tips/suggestions welcome!

Thanks
 
As a follow up:

The 10.4.7 installer mentioned in the link above didn't work. It opens and asks to select the language, however it then states:
'Alert
The software cannot be installed on this computer.' My immediate thought was whether it was too old e.g. mine actually came with 10.4.10 instead of 10.4.7, or whether it was an incompatibility e.g. taken from a grey disk for a different model of mac.

This is before I've even opened up to specify where to install etc, or wipe the HDD.

My next thought was that the hard drive's current OS may not be allowing itself to be effectively downgraded, so I wiped it via Firewire Target Disk mode with my Mac Pro. After this, and with a blank HDD, I tried again but it still did it.

After a bit of googling, someone on reddit suggested this which essentially involves changing the approved machines list within the respective installer to make it accept your computer.

A few minutes later I had modified the list in text edit and reflashed my USB stick for probably the 20th time this evening and gave it one last go...

It is now running the installer - however the installer now cannot find any HDD to install it on!

From tonight's silly business the HDD isn't happy and despite having 2 partitions on there created via firewire, I think it wants a volume instead to recognise it.

The issue is, there is nothing to boot off, no recovery or anything so I'm trying to figure out how to reformat the disk so that the installer is happy. I'm at the point of opening it up, pulling the HDD, sticking in my spare formatted SSD and carrying on.

As a final point, the disk utility will crash if you try and do anything with partitions etc in the installer so I'm a bit stuck at the moment.

I'll probably proceed tomorrow with the SSD route but feel very optimistic now the installer is working! (Great little workaround!)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back