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Just bought a new MBP with Lion. I need to dualboot Snow Leopard. HOW????

M

MaestroDT

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 11, 2010
7
0
Topic title pretty much says it all.

Just bought a Macbook Pro with Lion. I need Snow Leopard installed for some compatibility reasons while doing certain tasks, but I'd like to keep Lion as well for general use.

How exactly do I do this? I took the snow leopard .dmg file and burned it to a DVD, but I can't boot from it. Is there some other way I need to burn the disc?
 
The lowest OS you can install is the one that came with your computer, so no you cannot install Snow Leopard onto it. Sorry.
 
The 10.6.3 retail disc won't boot it no matter how hard you try. You'll need to install via target disc mode or something then apply the 10.6.8 combo onto the drive in the same way.

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ThomasBoss said:
The lowest OS you can install is the one that came with your computer, so no you cannot install Snow Leopard onto it. Sorry.
Click to expand...

Incorrect in this case. You can only install the OS that your computer ORIGINALLY shipped with which, in the case of the current MacBook Pros was 10.6.6 or thereabouts.

MacBook Air and Mac mini 2011 are the only "Lion-only" machines at the moment.

Apple never updated their retail discs beyond 10.6.3 so you need to do it in two stages using target disc mode from another machine.
 
Incorrect in this case. You can only install the OS that your computer ORIGINALLY shipped with which, in the case of the current MacBook Pros was 10.6.6 or thereabouts.
Click to expand...

??????

My current iMac was a system clone from leopard on a partitioned hard drive and works perfectly. Is this something new with Lion or these newer macs?

I know 2010 model and older never had this problem of being able to install another system by cloning a hard drive from another mac onto your new one...... :confused:
 
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ThomasBoss said:
The lowest OS you can install is the one that came with your computer, so no you cannot install Snow Leopard onto it. Sorry.
Click to expand...

thats garbage..Chundles is correct.

the current macbook pro's were launched while SL was the OS....The current version you have to install is 10.6.7 but its very advised to go with 10.6.8.

i should know...i just did it, but was tricky as there is no installer for 10.6.8 as it was only an update, so as Chundles says, you need to install a different way.

I used disk utility and the OSX server utility to do it and it works perfectly.

there is another thread on this forum outllining exatly what needs done...if i get a chance ill look for it and post.

there is also a great thread on Apple Support communities about this..
 
I think if you are really aiming for dual boot. Running an old OSX in a VM is the more convenient and simpler solution. I assume you need it for compatibility, in which case you might as well go further back pre leopard which would also lower the requirements for the VM.
 
I'd create a second partition on your hard drive and install SL onto that; better yet just clone it over from a backup drive. And YES, you can run SL on the current MBP. Hold down the option key when you boot up and you can then choose which OS to run.
 
Minicube said:
I'd create a second partition on your hard drive and install SL onto that; better yet just clone it over from a backup drive. And YES, you can run SL on the current MBP. Hold down the option key when you boot up and you can then choose which OS to run.
Click to expand...

Exactly what I said & as can see does work.



Also what has Apple done with this LION os? IM still using Snow Leopard and will not use Lion as certain programs I use do not work with Lion......

What a mess!
 
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Another option is to run the Mac off a Snow Leopard installation on an external Firewire drive. I have done it when one of my Macs is in the shop for repairs. In my case I use a clone of the drive that is being repaired. When the Mac returns I simply copy the external clone to the Mac and begin where I left-off before the Mac was repaired.

If you only need SL occasionally it's a viable way to do what you want without having to go to the trouble of partitioning the internal drive and installing SL and Lion.

BTW, thanks for the heads-up about being able to run SL on an early 2011 MBP. When I purchased my MBP from Amazon a couple of months ago the product description indicated that it would ship with Snow Leopard. A couple of days after I received the MBP Amazon corrected the product information...
 
It's for some Pro Tools issues, the version I have isn't compatible with Lion at all.

I need the best performance possible, and I imagine I'd get better power dual-booting than running it in a VM.

I'm very PC based... could someone direct me to a more step-by-step way to accomplish this?
 
Assuming this is the early 2011 model, just ring up apple care, saying you need the snow leopard installation disc for your early 2011 macbook pro, and you should just have to pay shipping for the discs.
 
Specklez said:
Assuming this is the early 2011 model, just ring up apple care, saying you need the snow leopard installation disc for your early 2011 macbook pro, and you should just have to pay shipping for the discs.
Click to expand...

I had the .dmg file and I burned it straight to a disc, was there something else I'm supposed to do? Also, everyone previously said I can't install over Lion from the disc. I have to use another Mac in target mode or something... is there any way to do it from an external hard drive?
 
I just took it to the Genius Bar. Took about an hour.

The strange thing was, he told me he wasn't allowed to make a new partition, he'd have to completely format the drive, install Snow Leopard first, then install Lion.

So I opened disk utility, made a new partition. After that, he said he could install onto the new partition directly. Is this some weird Apple policy? He just booted from an external drive and did some terminal commands and copied the SL installation to the new partition.
 
MaestroDT said:
I just took it to the Genius Bar. Took about an hour.

The strange thing was, he told me he wasn't allowed to make a new partition, he'd have to completely format the drive, install Snow Leopard first, then install Lion.

So I opened disk utility, made a new partition. After that, he said he could install onto the new partition directly. Is this some weird Apple policy? He just booted from an external drive and did some terminal commands and copied the SL installation to the new partition.
Click to expand...

Re-partitioning can rarely result in data loss, which is probably why he didn't want to do it. Didn't need an angry customer with data loss.
 
goMac said:
Re-partitioning can rarely result in data loss, which is probably why he didn't want to do it. Didn't need an angry customer with data loss.
Click to expand...

but... completely formatting the drive always results in data loss :p
 
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