Uninstalling Mavericks to go back to Mountain Lion

[Brother Seamus]

Installing Mavericks was the single worst thing I've ever done with my Mac.
Installed it about 8 months ago and have had nothing but problems and a slow running computer.

Now Mail seems to have gone screwy. Won't send any e-mails at all. 3 different mail account. Sometimes it sends a mail, and other times it won't, for no apparent reason.

I've bought a large external drive to back up and save everything, so I can get rid of Mavericks.

Can anyone let me know the actual procedure for doing this?


Do I just drag the entire contents of my HD into the new drive?

I have a disc of OS 10.6, so will have to revert to that until I can upgrade further.

 

[hallux]

If you're going to wipe the system anyway, why not try doing a fresh install of Mavericks first?

 

[crazzapple]

Sorry I can't help... I really wish apple would offer long term support for osx versions instead of releasing a new one every year, complete with bugs, and inevitable slowdowns on old hardware. Really don't have time for all that.

I would gladly pay whatever MS charges ($100) for windows in order to get the length of support that windows has (10+ years).

 

[Fishrrman]

If you want to revert back to 10.6, here's what I'd suggest:

1. You'll need to create a bootable external cloned backup of your internal drive as it exists now (before the restore). Use either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper to create it. You can download CCC for free and use it for free for 30 days. SuperDuper can create a "full clone" without having to register it.

2. Once done, boot the Mac from the 10.6 DVD, use Disk Utility to re-initialize the drive, and install a completely "fresh & clean" copy of 10.6 from the DVD.

3. Next, create a new account for yourself and get the Mac up-and-running

4. Next, use Software Update to get the OS updated to 10.6.8

5. Now, connect the external backup. Before you do anything else, click ONE TIME on the backup drive's icon to select it. Now type "command-i" to bring up the "get info" box. At the bottom, click the lock icon and enter your new administrative password. Next, click the small checkbox nearby that says "ignore ownership on this volume". Close the get info box.

6. At this point, you might try the "migration assistant" app to see if it will be able to "reach into" the backup drive and migrate your stuff over. Success IS NOT guaranteed when trying to migrate from a newer OS to an older one. Might not work at all.

7. If #6 doesn't help, then it will be time to manually re-install your old apps, and "manually migrate" your data from your old home folder and elsewhere.

IMPORTANT NOTE about manually copying stuff from the old home folder to the new one:
You CANNOT copy the entire home folder from one drive to another -- certainly will produce problems
You CANNOT copy the subfolders inside the home folder, such as "Pictures", "Movies", "Music", etc.
You CAN copy the -contents- of these subfolders, however.

Example:
You can open the Pictures folder, and select whatever is inside, and copy those contents to the new Pictures folder in your new home folder. I have done this myself.

I also suggest you have paper and pencil, to keep notes through the whole process.

It sounds like a little work, because it is.
Mostly, however, it's just taking the time to do things in order...