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Tried to downgrade OS X Lion and have messed up my MacBook Pro

M

makeahat

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 30, 2012
6
0
I have a copy of Vectorworks 2008 which will only work on OSX Snow Leopard or earlier.

I had bought a Macbook Pro which had Mountain Lion installed on it, and hence I wished to downgrade to Snow Leopard.

Foolishly I took to advice from online forums and erased my hard drive through disk utility thinking after purchasing a retail version of OSX Snow Leopard I thought I would be able to boot from this and do a fresh install that way.

I appear to be wrong.

If i dont put the the new disc in I get the following error message

'No Bootable Device -Insert boot disk and press any key'

If i put the new disc in and hold down the command key to attempt to boot from it I just get the grey screen and the apple logo and nothing happens.

I have also tried creating a USB boot disk on another computer but this also results in the grey screen and the apple logo and nothing happening.

I am away from home at the moment, but have the original install discs is it a case of needing to use these to reinstall OSX on my Macbook Pro, or have I ruined my Macbook Pro completely?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Makeahat
 
You can't run snow leopard on a machine that never ha it as the drivers aren't there.

Your machine will only ever run mountain lion as the min os.

However, you might be able to run snow leopard server in a virtual environment which may suffice for you
 
dukebound85 said:
You can't run snow leopard on a machine that never ha it as the drivers aren't there.

Your machine will only ever run mountain lion as the min os.

However, you might be able to run snow leopard server in a virtual environment which may suffice for you
Click to expand...

Thanks for the swift response.

So I should be able to use the original discs that came with it to restore it?

Makeahat
 
makeahat said:
Thanks for the swift response.

So I should be able to use the original discs that came with it to restore it?

Makeahat
Click to expand...

Yes. Your computer is not ruined! Regarding a virtual machine using Vectorworks - a quick google search showed this is a CAD type program. I don't know how well it will run within a virtual environment, it may be useable, it may not be. All you can do is try.
 
makeahat said:
So I should be able to use the original discs that came with it to restore it?
Click to expand...
What exact year and model is your MBP? Macs sold with Mountain Lion didn't come with "original disks" -- they use a Partition built in to the disk (or the firmware) to reinstall the OS.
 
Thanks for all your help

Just got this information from the ebay auction i bought it from

Release Year: 2010
Release Month: April
Product Family: MacBook Pro
Screen Size: 15.4"
MPN: AppleMacBook Pro15.4April201

It was of the i5 processor type, it was running Mountain Lion, I presume this wasn't originally installed on it.

Can I therefore reinstall osx using the retail version of Snow Leopard i have bought?
 
makeahat said:
Can I therefore reinstall osx using the retail version of Snow Leopard i have bought?
Click to expand...
The mid-2010 MBPs came with a special build of 10.6.3. If your Snow Leopard disk is later than that, then it should run.

However: downgrading your entire OS for ONE application is ... not the best solution. There are plenty of benefits in running the latest OS -- not least iCloud syncing -- and you're likely to find some other apps that are too new to work in Snow Leopard!

I would suggest that you cut your losses. Reinstall Mountain Lion, using the Recovery Partition.
Spend any further money on upgrading Vectorworks to a newer version, or finding some other software that has the same capabilities and compatibilities.
Alternatively, you may be able to run Snow Leopard in a Virtual Machine inside your existing OS, as already suggested.
 
benwiggy said:
The mid-2010 MBPs came with a special build of 10.6.3. If your Snow Leopard disk is later than that, then it should run.

However: downgrading your entire OS for ONE application is ... not the best solution. There are plenty of benefits in running the latest OS -- not least iCloud syncing -- and you're likely to find some other apps that are too new to work in Snow Leopard!

I would suggest that you cut your losses. Reinstall Mountain Lion, using the Recovery Partition.
Spend any further money on upgrading Vectorworks to a newer version, or finding some other software that has the same capabilities and compatibilities.
Alternatively, you may be able to run Snow Leopard in a Virtual Machine inside your existing OS, as already suggested.
Click to expand...

The version of Snow Leopard i Have is 10.6.3 I have tried holding down the command button and booting from the install disc but nothing happens? I just get the grey screen with the apple logo.

Should there be an option to boot from the Mountain Lion partition, I can't see this and don't know how to get there?

Thanks for the Help

Makeahat
 
makeahat said:
The version of Snow Leopard i Have is 10.6.3 I have tried holding down the command button and booting from the install disc but nothing happens? I just get the grey screen with the apple logo.
Click to expand...

You'd need the original 10.6 discs that came with the computer in order to use Snow Leopard. You can get them from Apple.
 
makeahat said:
The version of Snow Leopard i Have is 10.6.3 I have tried holding down the command button and booting from the install disc but nothing happens? I just get the grey screen with the apple logo.
Click to expand...
The Retail version of 10.6.3 isn't good enough. You need 10.6.4 or higher.
However, assuming you're not going to bother with Snow Leopard, you will need to follow these steps to get ML back:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
 
dukebound85 said:
You can't run snow leopard on a machine that never ha it as the drivers aren't there.

Your machine will only ever run mountain lion as the min os.

However, you might be able to run snow leopard server in a virtual environment which may suffice for you
Click to expand...

How would I do this?
 
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