Help going back to OSX 10.6.3 from 10.7.2

I am not sure what I am doing wrong. I have a macbook Pro, 2.66ghz intel core 2 duo, 4gb ram, 320gb hd.

I purchased about 1 year ago and have purchased a new one and have sold this one. I was trying to restore the MBPro back to original so it would be fresh for the buyer and my stuff would be removed. Trying to restore or install from the original disc that came with my macbook pro, I get the message
"mac cannot start up from this disk." meaning my HDD.

I then tried from a different angle and it tells me that "You can't use this version of the application install Max OS X with this version you have installed Mac OS X 23.1.1

Can anyone help me accomplish getting my macbook pro fresh for the new buyer?

Thanks for any assistance

dfwsig said:

I am not sure what I am doing wrong. I have a macbook Pro, 2.66ghz intel core 2 duo, 4gb ram, 320gb hd.

I purchased about 1 year ago and have purchased a new one and have sold this one.

Click to expand...

You're talking about two different MacBook Pros...and it's very confusing trying to understand which is which...and what is what.

The more important point is...what color is this install disk you're using...and where did it come from?

Also...Which MBP do you have now...is it a brand new model?

- Nick

Before you go too crazy, have a look at this article:

Easily Prep Your Mac for Resale

There's really no reason to go through the hassle of reinstalling the OS just to sell the machine.

pigoo3 said:

You're talking about two different MacBook Pros...and it's very confusing trying to understand which is which...and what is what.

The more important point is...what color is this install disk you're using...and where did it some from?

Also...Which MBP do you have now...is it a brand new model?

- Nick

Click to expand...

Thank you for your time to reply. Yes, I agree that I provided too much detail.

Let's just speak of my macbook pro I purchased a year ago. It is an Intel 2.66ghz Core 2 Duo with 320 GB HDD and 4 GB ddr ram.

I have sold this machine and want to restore it to its' original condition. I have upgraded this machine to 10.7.2 when it was made available. earlier this year.

I inserted the riginal Mac OS X 10.6.3 disk that came in the box with this MBP. It is gray in color and says 13-inch MacBook Pro Mac OS X Install DVD.

I inserted this disk and shut the machine down. I e-started the MBP while holding down the "c" key. It then comes up and asks me what language and I choose English and then accept the terms.

This is when it tells me that "mac cannot start up fro this disk" meaning my HDD.

Hope this helps clarify.

I read the suggestion following this reply and the only thing I am unsure of is if it removes all programs such as Skype, MS Office, etc that I have installed and would prefer to be cleaned/removed from the MBP.

cwa107 said:

Before you go too crazy, have a look at this article:

Easily Prep Your Mac for Resale

There's really no reason to go through the hassle of reinstalling the OS just to sell the machine.

Click to expand...

Thank you fro your time to reply. This sounds like it will do most of what I want but doesn't say if it brings the system back to the original state. Meaning w/o the additioanl software I have installed such as Skype, MS Office, etc. Will this process remove all additional software that I have subsequently installed?

dfwsig said:

Let's just speak of my macbook pro I purchased a year ago. It is an Intel 2.66ghz Core 2 Duo with 320 GB HDD and 4 GB ddr ram.

I have sold this machine and want to restore it to its' original condition. I have upgraded this machine to 10.7.2 when it was made available. earlier this year.

Click to expand...

Firstly thanks for the additional info...that helped!

My first thought is...if it already has Lion on it...just leave it there. The link that "cwa107" mentioned explains what to do to "prep" your Mac for sale...without have to "wipe" the HD...and do an OS reinstall.

dfwsig said:

I inserted the riginal Mac OS X 10.6.3 disk that came in the box with this MBP. It is gray in color and says 13-inch MacBook Pro Mac OS X Install DVD.

I inserted this disk and shut the machine down. I e-started the MBP while holding down the "c" key. It then comes up and asks me what language and I choose English and then accept the terms.

This is when it tells me that "mac cannot start up fro this disk" meaning my HDD.

Click to expand...

First things first. If the gray/silver OS disk that came with the MacBook Pro DEFINITELY came with it...then great. But if this is not the original gray/silver disk...it will not work (they are model specific). And I want to emphasize...that if you bought this MBP new (and the gray disc came with it great)...but if you bought this MBP used and "some sort" of gray disc came with it...it could be the wrong disk (the seller could have just included a gray disk of some sort).

So...if the gray disc is the correct one...and you get a message that you cannot do an OS install...you might have to reformat the hard drive. The procedure:

- Boot the MBP with the gray disc
- Go up to where the down menus usually are (they will appear when you move the curser up there)
- Open "Disk Utility"
- Reformat the HD (Mac OS extended-journaled)
- Quit Disk Utility
- Proceed with the OS install

But again...I repeat...don't try any of this if the gray OS disk you have for the older MBP is not the original one for it.

I also want to mention that if you have the proper gray disk...and if reformatting the HD doesn't help...there always is the possibility that there could be a problem with the HD. You never mentioned if you ever had problems with the MBP your selling (or maybe some HD problems existed with it without you realizing it).

HTH,

- Nick

To add to what Nick suggested, I would use the Partition tab on Disk Utility and pick 1 partition but also under Options, be sure GUID is selected or the system will not boot after the install. I always do that just to be sure.

dtravis7 said:

To add to what Nick suggested, I would use the Partition tab on Disk Utility and pick 1 partition but also under Options, be sure GUID is selected or the system will not boot after the install. I always do that just to be sure.

Click to expand...

Got it done. Actually took it in to the Genius bar and got it done. They said that I could not "go backwards" and install 10.6.3 over 10.7.2.

Thanks all for your time. I do appreciate it.

Brian