Installing Snow Leopard over Lion?

Recently bought an Apple MacBookPro 15inch and was told that it would have Snow Leopard and two backup DVD's with the Operating System,etc. Checked the apple site and they confirmed that my computer would have snow leopard installed and two backup dvd's. Unfortunately this was not the case; what I got was LION (which I did not want) and NO backup DVD's (which I did want). My question: is it possible to install and old version of mac osx over LION and what could be the eventual problems? Anybody have any experience in this area?
p.s. don't want Lion because I'm still running quite a few old programs that need Rosetta. Installed everything and these programs were rejected by LION with the remark that they wouldn't work anymore and that Apple didn't support these programs any longer.

G'day and welcome top the forums.

As your MBP came with Lion, Snow Leopard may not even install as a rule of thumb for new machines is usually they cannot go to older operating systems. To try this out you would need to get aSnow Leopard full retail install DVD and see if you can format the drive and do a clean install. And depends on what you mean by recently. All machines sold since Lion introduction date come with that operating system.

Think you are much better off running Lion and updating old PowerPC applications.

well... good news and bad news...

Now, Snow Leopard CAN install and run on an early '11 MBP. I know this, mine came with it. That said, the retail install disks won't work. You'd need a restore set, from Apple. Have you called them and asked them? Tell them your situation, it should be a reasonable request (and if they CAN provide these, you'll probably have to pay for them). Good luck.

And, you may also be able to install Snow Leopard on a Mid 2011 iMac but as Dysfunction states.. you would need a SL restore disk set specific for the hardware. Luckily my Mid 2011 iMac came pre-installed with SL 10.6.6. However, Lion has worked well for me.

I have a Mid-2010 system and it didn't want to install off of the retail DVD for Snow Leopard. I instead was forced to use the ones that came with the system. Not sure why that was, but it never did work. I would think that the retail would be cross-compatible, but guess not.

The problem is the retail disks came out before his system did. Same with yours.

Dysfunction said:

well... good news and bad news...

Now, Snow Leopard CAN install and run on an early '11 MBP. I know this, mine came with it. That said, the retail install disks won't work. You'd need a restore set, from Apple. Have you called them and asked them? Tell them your situation, it should be a reasonable request (and if they CAN provide these, you'll probably have to pay for them). Good luck.

Click to expand...

called apple and the disks are on their way. They couldn't tell me if it would work or not.

harryb2448 said:

G'day and welcome top the forums.

As your MBP came with Lion, Snow Leopard may not even install as a rule of thumb for new machines is usually they cannot go to older operating systems. To try this out you would need to get aSnow Leopard full retail install DVD and see if you can format the drive and do a clean install. And depends on what you mean by recently. All machines sold since Lion introduction date come with that operating system.

Think you are much better off running Lion and updating old PowerPC applications.

Click to expand...

I know that Apple and others would love for me to spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars/euros to upgrade my programs but I have no intention of doing so. These programs work fine on my macpro and other macs (running Snow Leopard and are a bit slow, I admit). Won't bore you with a list of my 'power mac' programs that don't run.

Dysfunction said:

The problem is the retail disks came out before his system did. Same with yours.

Click to expand...

noticed that: tried my Snow Leopard Retail and the system just hung.....

Dysfunction said:

well... good news and bad news...

Now, Snow Leopard CAN install and run on an early '11 MBP. I know this, mine came with it. That said, the retail install disks won't work. You'd need a restore set, from Apple. Have you called them and asked them? Tell them your situation, it should be a reasonable request (and if they CAN provide these, you'll probably have to pay for them). Good luck.

Click to expand...

Talked to apple and they promised to send me the two dvd's. Can't wait to try them out.

ismo said:

Talked to apple and they promised to send me the two dvd's. Can't wait to try them out.

Click to expand...

Good news! Let us know how that worked out!

Borrowed the recovery dvd's from an acquaintance who'd recently bought a similar macbook pro. Booted up (was amazed) and started installing. Halfway thru got an error message that it couldn't install drivers (or something like that). This was leopard 10.6.6 from April of this year. Beginning to fear for the worst.....

Seems ismo it all hands on your definition of 'recently'. If you purchased the machine after the release of Lion in mid July, then as you say fearing the worst may in fact be .. fact.

Another problem which is overlooked thinking that Snow Leopard can be reinstalled is the fact that some of the machines have had their firmware updated. My Mid 2011 iMac came pre-installed with SL 10.6.6, however, the first time I turned it on and logged in (after migration) it updated Snow Leopard and then subsequently installed a large firmware update.

I haven't had the nerve to test to see whether or not my original install media will work - I suspect it won't after the firmware update. This machine may be Lion only.

Just had an interesting email from an Apple Guru who suggested that I use BOOT CAMP to make a partition and install it on that. Unusual concept but might work?
p.s. read the link and it's just TOO complicated for my taste!

No, not unusual at all. It was recommended not only by Apple but also by MacWorld magazine. And, you don't have to use Boot Camp. You can use the Lion Recovery tools to create another partition on the drive and install Snow Leopard to it.

Got Snow Leopard 10.6.8 up and running via an external LaCie drive. Works fine. Called apple and heard that the DVDs could take between 2 and 6weeks to reach me. Was wondering about the EFI firmware upgrade and if it would make it impossible for me to install snow leopard afterwards?

Personally, I'd hold off on that update until after you have snow leopard installed. Do I know anything about it? Nope. But it's also a pretty specific set of fixes as far as I can tell from the description.

chscag said:

Another problem which is overlooked thinking that Snow Leopard can be reinstalled is the fact that some of the machines have had their firmware updated. My Mid 2011 iMac came pre-installed with SL 10.6.6, however, the first time I turned it on and logged in (after migration) it updated Snow Leopard and then subsequently installed a large firmware update.

I haven't had the nerve to test to see whether or not my original install media will work - I suspect it won't after the firmware update. This machine may be Lion only.

Click to expand...

My early 11 mbp reinstalled SL off the restore media after a FW update. But, that was for the initial thunderbolt FW

Last Saturday I borrowed an install DVD form someone who had a similar macbookpro; Snow Leopard 10.6.7 installed like a dream and am now running it. The apple DVDs finally arrived yesterday (after three weeks) but I didn't need them anymore. Nice to have for backup though. Thanks to everyone for your advice and support. A happy Snow Leopard camper.......