Need assistance with iMac, Snow Leopard to Yosemite

[FreemanW]

Late 2009 27" iMac, quad core i7, A1312, EMC No. 2374

Currently has a generic fresh install of Snow Leopard 10.6.3 (from legitimate Apple OS X disc) . . . . due to frustration at not being able to have my way with Bootable Yosemite USB stick.

If I knew how, I could create a bootable DVD Yosemite installer, I've got the Installer dmg file as well as DL DVDs.

I have a late 2012 iMac and have been using that as my production platform.

But . . . . . . this late 2009 iMac . . . . I am completely puzzled as to why this iMac will not recognize the bootable USB stick.

When I execute a cold boot with the 'C' key pressed. After a prolonged grey screen, then finally the Apple logo, it defiantly goes straight to desktop screen.

When I use the Snow Leopard disc and boot to the "Recovery/Installer" environment, Disk Utility does see the USB stick, I've also re-done the stick just prior to posting here, so I do not have any reason to suspect the stick is bad.

Please tell me how I am being a complete moron and show me the light.

 

[AppleNewton]

I believe all its doing is creating a recovery partition, where it will download the installer over the network. but you can try disk maker http://diskmakerx.com
just drag and drop the install os x yosemite installer into the app.

 

[FreemanW]

Yeah, I actually gave that app a shot. It did see the Mavericks as well as my Yosemite Installer(s) but only wanted to create a Bootable USB stick. It would not provide a facility to highlight or select the DL DVD in my Superdrive.

[edit]
I'm finishing up on the 14 step Terminal process to create a Yosemite iso image (detailed here by tywebb13) and will attempt a boot, nuke, and pave with the DL DVD shortly.

 

[FreemanW]

No more pinwheel, it has the Yosemite boot progress bar under the Apple on the grey boot screen while making seek noise on the optical drive.

The DL DVD Bootable did the trick . . . . at least, that is what it looks like.

I still do not know why it would not recognize or play nice with the USB stick.

[edit]
Yes, we're all good here. The DL DVD has the installation goin on.

Thanks

 

[redheeler]

Holding down the C key will not boot from a USB drive, only the optical drive. It will search for a disk at the gray screen, then give up and boot from the primary partition. What you needed to do was hold down Option instead to see if the USB boot drive appears in the boot menu, or System Preferences > Startup Disk.

 

[FreemanW]

Thank you for that information!

Cheers

 

[BradHatter]

I don't believe Snow Leopard will see a Yosemite volume. Yosemite uses an inline compression in the resource forks that Snow Leopard can't understand. Yosemite can see Snow Leopard, though.

The only way out of the problem is hold the "alt" key at boot time then select which one you want to boot. Anything newer than Snow Leopard will see the Yosemite partition. You will not be able to read many of the files using the new compression on a Yosemite volume if you booted from any OS earlier that Mavericks.

 

[redheeler]

I don't believe Snow Leopard will see a Yosemite volume. Yosemite uses an inline compression in the resource forks that Snow Leopard can't understand. Yosemite can see Snow Leopard, though.

The only way out of the problem is hold the "alt" key at boot time then select which one you want to boot. Anything newer than Snow Leopard will see the Yosemite partition. You will not be able to read many of the files using the new compression on a Yosemite volume if you booted from any OS earlier that Mavericks.

Good point, I remember having trouble seeing the Yosemite partition while in Snow Leopard on my 2010 iMac. In that case, holding down Option at boot like I suggested is the only way to go.