02-10-2012, 11:41 PM

I am trying to partition my harddrive for bootcamp but because of files that cannot be moved on my disk I need to reformat my harddrive. I do not currently have access to the install disks that came with my computer (17" macbook pro running 10.6.8) so a friend of mine gave me the .dmg of the snow leopard install disk to make my own using a 8gb USB stick drive. I erased the drive and restored it to be the disk image created by the .dmg (the snow leopard install dvd) and tried to boot off of it. It will give me the option to boot off of it but get stuck on the gray apple logo with no spinning wheel (left it on this screen for 10+ minutes). I tried to boot off the key on my roommates imac which had a kernal error when I selected is as the bootdrive upon start up. This makes me think that the problem is something to do with my usb drive but I cannot think of any reason it shouldnt be working. (the friend that gave me the disk image has reformated several different machines using the same disk image on a usb stick)

02-11-2012, 02:28 AM

Pirated software isn't going to work.

Go out and buy the $30 retail Snow Leopard DVD while you still can and use that.

02-11-2012, 05:21 AM

Originally Posted by Roweshan

..... This makes me think that the problem is something to do with my usb drive but I cannot think of any reason it shouldnt be working.

The problem is not with the USB stick, it is with you and your friend.
If you do things the legal way, it will work.

Do as Chas says, buy the correct disks for your machine and all will be well.

Cheers ... McBie

02-11-2012, 12:38 PM

its not pirated software, its straight from apple, my friend is a licensed software dev.

02-11-2012, 12:44 PM

Physical possession of the software doesn't make it any more legal. You are licensed on a per machine basis. And your friend, despite being a developer, doesn't have the right to transfer a license to you. Also note, that we don't discuss illegal activity on this forum, so no need for any more discussion of the topic.

Regardless, you probably don't need to reinstall the OS in order to repartition for Boot Camp. What troubleshooting steps have you taken to date with the current install? Many times, a simple defragmentation or disk repair is all that is needed to get it to work. You could also clone the existing drive to an external and then format the internal drive and clone it back.

02-11-2012, 01:05 PM

Originally Posted by cwa107

Physical possession of the software doesn't make it any more legal. You are licensed on a per machine basis. And your friend, despite being a developer, doesn't have the right to transfer a license to you. Also note, that we don't discuss illegal activity on this forum, so no need for any more discussion of the topic.

Regardless, you probably don't need to reinstall the OS in order to repartition for Boot Camp. What troubleshooting steps have you taken to date with the current install? Many times, a simple defragmentation or disk repair is all that is needed to get it to work. You could also clone the existing drive to an external and then format the internal drive and clone it back.

I have tried to defrag and it would not because of an error on the disk (I believe a broken file), I backed up my drive to reformat but everything I encounter seems to require me to boot off of my cd's which are currently unavailable to me at this time (back at my families house which is several hours away) hence trying to use the image of what should be a valid disk. If I get my orignal disk (or buy a copy of snow leopard from apple) will the machine boot properly, or is there anything else that could be preventing my machine from booting up on a different drive incorrectly?

02-11-2012, 01:10 PM

Originally Posted by Roweshan

I have tried to defrag and it would not because of an error on the disk (I believe a broken file), I backed up my drive to reformat but everything I encounter seems to require me to boot off of my cd's which are currently unavailable to me at this time (back at my families house which is several hours away) hence trying to use the image of what should be a valid disk. If I get my orignal disk (or buy a copy of snow leopard from apple) will the machine boot properly, or is there anything else that could be preventing my machine from booting up on a different drive incorrectly?

Did you run Verify/Repair disk and Verify/Repair Permissions in the First Aid tab in Disk Utility? Are you sure the drive is physically healthy?

02-11-2012, 01:11 PM

I ran verify and it said there was an issue and that I should boot and repair from my OS X DVD

02-11-2012, 01:32 PM

You can download AppleJack, which will allow you to do the same function without the disc...

AppleJack Project Page