Can I revert back to my old OS from OS X 10.6?

Hey all, I used the search function a few times and couldn't seem to find an answer. So I'm hoping that someone could help me out. Anyways, I installed snow leopard when I got my new 13" MBP and I have had nothing but trouble. I always seem to get a beach ball, whether it be me making a video on vimeo full size or looking at a website. My startup time is also really really slow. I've reinstalled snow leopard and I also have all of the newest updates so I have tried to fix it. My question is if I want to go back to os x should I back everything up? Will I still have all of the applications that came with it or will I have to install the 2nd cd entitled "applications install" also. I know when I reinstalled snow leopard I didn't lose anything will this be the case with os x?


Thanks for all the replies in advance this is really driving me nuts.


Tom

When you say "OS X" I assume you mean the retail version of Snow Leopard DVD. In which case, iLife suite will not be installed and then you use the "Applications install" DVD to install the suite. If you use the repair disc that came with the computer, you won't have to install iLife as it gets automatically installed along with the OS. Hope this answers your question.

You can't go "back" to OS X. Snow Leopard is OS X. 10.6 to be exact.

What version OS X are you referring to?

I'm sorry I guess I want to go back to version 10.5, these would be the 2 discs that came with my computer. I had to install snow leopard myself.

Being that you are a new mac user, I would recommend that you read the following link:
http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/os-x-operating-system/93819-basic-os-x-mac-troubleshooting.html
Also, you say nothing but troubles, but you have only mentioned a few problems that you are having, which if you take the time to address each issue in the post, you may have resolution. Searching individual problems in the forums before posting is the first step.
As for overall issues, to start fresh, you have the option of a clean install of 10.6, which means erasing your hard drive from the install disc, and then continuing with installation. Following that, installing all the updates that will keep popping up with software update. After each OS X update, it is good practice to run disk permissions repair in utilities>disk utility.
Video issues can often be resolved by downloading flip4mac, and browser issues that you may encounter using Safari may not occur using firefox.
Installing incompatible software is a major issue that causes the spinning ball, and many other problems, so before installing any version of any software, you should always check it's compatibility with Snow Leopard, or for that matter, Leopard as well.

You can easily go back to 10.5 and even have all of your settings and applications.

You need to do a Time Machine backup though. AND (very important!) your time machine backup has to exclude the system files.

After you have that you'll want to run the Leopard 10.5 installer from the DVD. When you choose the install location you will have to do an Erase and Install.

The next step comes when you get to the Migration section of the install. Where it asks you if you wish to import your users/settings from another mac, some other option, time machine backup or not migrate at this time. You'll want to choose your time machine backup.

After that the installer should complete and at the end you should be back at 10.5.x with your apps/settings/desktop as you had it in Snow Leopard.

Cheers.

I had the constant beach ball issue. I found that after excluding my Boot Camp partition from Spotlight indexing, the problem was solved. If you're using Boot Camp, give that a shot.