Hey everyone, I have a big problem: i bought a macbook pro in december with lion. I read online that its possible to partition the hard drive and install snow leopard on that partition and still have lion on the main drive. I decided to do this because i have a few programs i cant run with lion, but it went completely wrong. When insterted the first disk, it said it wasnt possible to install the software with lion so inserted the second disk. Something popped up saying i had to restart my computer in order to begin the installation. When it restarted, i saw the apple and heard the startup sound and then my screen was grey with a few weird black numbers and letters and in the middle a window saying: "you need to restart your computer. Hold down the power button for several seconds or press the Restart button." in several languages. I did that like 5 times already and i keep getting the same screen! What should i do? And most important, did my computer crash and did i lose everything on my hard drive?
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Installing snow leopard with lion went wrong
- Thread starter MaryMarie
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You did not lose any of your data, as what you experienced is called a kernel panic.
About "You need to restart your computer" (kernel panic) messages
Resolving Kernel Panics
Mac OS X: How to log a kernel panic
It happened, because you cannot install Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard with a DVD on that Mac, as no drivers for 2011 hardware exist in the 29 USD Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard DVD and any other grey Restore DVD will not work too, as they are model specific.
[SUCCESS!]Late 2011 Macbook Pro with Snow Leopard
About "You need to restart your computer" (kernel panic) messages
Resolving Kernel Panics
Mac OS X: How to log a kernel panic
It happened, because you cannot install Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard with a DVD on that Mac, as no drivers for 2011 hardware exist in the 29 USD Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard DVD and any other grey Restore DVD will not work too, as they are model specific.
[SUCCESS!]Late 2011 Macbook Pro with Snow Leopard
Thank you so much for your help! I was afraid i had lost everything 
Im trying to start up now in safe mode using shift but that doesnt work either! It stays on the apple, the disk (thats still in the computer, cant get it out) starts to make weird noises and after a few minutes it goes back to the "you need to restart" screen
Im trying to start up now in safe mode using shift but that doesnt work either! It stays on the apple, the disk (thats still in the computer, cant get it out) starts to make weird noises and after a few minutes it goes back to the "you need to restart" screen
If the Mac still hangs:
Thank you so much for your help! I was afraid i had lost everything
Im trying to start up now in safe mode using shift but that doesnt work either! It stays on the apple, the disk (thats still in the computer, cant get it out) starts to make weird noises and after a few minutes it goes back to the "you need to restart" screen
Safe mode won't help you because Snow Leopard cannot run on that machine. Hold Command-R during startup to boot from your recovery partition (if it's still available) or Internet Recovery in order to reinstall Lion.
Actually after reading the post better, just hold Option and boot from your Lion partition, then remove the Snow Leopard partition.
jW
Set up your second partition.
Install SL from an older Mac onto an external Firewire drive and use software update to get the 10.6.8.
Plug the external with SL into your MBP and use Carbon Copy Cloner to copy the contents of the external into the partition.
Voila bootable Snow Leopard partition. Might be wise to keep SL backed up somewhere as you cannot boot straight from the install disc with your MBP.
Install SL from an older Mac onto an external Firewire drive and use software update to get the 10.6.8.
Plug the external with SL into your MBP and use Carbon Copy Cloner to copy the contents of the external into the partition.
Voila bootable Snow Leopard partition. Might be wise to keep SL backed up somewhere as you cannot boot straight from the install disc with your MBP.