Lion DP2 -> Lion Retail

[MacSimoPark]

I know this topic has been discussed and there are guides, but I've followed them exhaustively and I'm still at a loss.

I have DP2 installed on my iMac. I want to buy Lion Retail. I've tried downgrading to Snow Leopard but I can't! One SL DVD won't load, the other loads but says 'Mac OS X cannot be installed on this computer'.

I've erased the volume. I've tried partitioning and installing. I still can't downgrade.

Now I know someone's going to say 'erase your entire hard drive and GUID format it'. But my Windows partition is going to be a bitch to restore... please don't make me do that!

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

UPDATE: Just tried creating a separate partition and installing SL on that. 'Mac OS X cannot be installed on this computer'. Does that mean it's a problem with the Firmware?

 

[Hansr]

No it means you're trying to use a restore disk that's specific to another model of computer than you are trying to install unto as googling would tell you right away. Get a general disc, the correct restore disc or burn a new Lion one.

 

[r0k]

I know this topic has been discussed and there are guides, but I've followed them exhaustively and I'm still at a loss.

I have DP2 installed on my iMac. I want to buy Lion Retail. I've tried downgrading to Snow Leopard but I can't! One SL DVD won't load, the other loads but says 'Mac OS X cannot be installed on this computer'.

I've erased the volume. I've tried partitioning and installing. I still can't downgrade.

Now I know someone's going to say 'erase your entire hard drive and GUID format it'. But my Windows partition is going to be a bitch to restore... please don't make me do that!

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

UPDATE: Just tried creating a separate partition and installing SL on that. 'Mac OS X cannot be installed on this computer'. Does that mean it's a problem with the Firmware?

Do you have an external drive big enough to back up the windows partition? You can boot the SL DVD, run disk utility and create a disk image of the windows partition on a usb disk. You can then wipe the entire drive (I know this is painful) and create 2 partitions, 1 for OS X and 1 for windows. Hopefully this will delete the Lion recovery partition. I assume you are using the SL DVD that came with your iMac so it's not likely the problem is using the wrong DVD. My systems are so old, I have retail Leopard and SL DVDs I can use on any of my Macs. I also have retail Lion, manually burned to a USB stick in the event one of my recovery partitions goes away.

I'm not sure why you don't want retail Lion. If you really don't want to wipe your windows partition, retail Lion is something you could try. Was there a recovery partition with DP2? If so, you could at least get back to Lion DP2 and have a bootable system to work with. From there you could further investigate your options, including retail Lion before deciding to wipe everything and start over.

 

[MacSimoPark]

I'm not sure why you don't want retail Lion.

I do want retail Lion!

I assume you are using the SL DVD that came with your iMac so it's not likely the problem is using the wrong DVD.

Tragically, I can't find it. I'm using the DVD from my dad's same-gen iMac. And the SL retail DVD which doesn't seem to want to boot.

UPDATE: Found it. I'll try that when the Lion disk has finished burning.

Was there a recovery partition with DP2? If so, you could at least get back to Lion DP2 and have a bootable system to work with.

Yeah I restored from Time Machine and everything's back to square 1. But I would rather like square 2 (retail Lion) so I can update and add my cash to Apple's bottomless coffers.

burn a new Lion one.

Am reluctantly going down that path now. Obviously I have no way of purchasing Lion and burning it, which means when it comes to the 'your serial number will now be sent to Apple' stage, I'll probably come up against another brick wall.