High Sierra is Junk!

[BondAMR]

I'm trying to load up any older OSX (Snow Leopard and Mountain Lion) on an empty Mac OS Journaled partition on an MBA that has High Sierra on it.

But the High Sierra blocks me from doing it saying this older version of OSX can't be opened with this version. Yet I'm only trying to load it onto an empty partition.

Why the blocking? ...and why does Apple keep moving in the direction of giving less options and flexibility in all following OSX platforms?

 

[Raz0rEdge]

Get a copy of Snow Leopard on a USB stick. Boot from it and install it anywhere you want as long as the MBA is old enough to have supported Snow Leopard. You cannot install an older version of an OS from a newer version of the OS.

 

[ferrarr]

If the Recovery partition is from High Sierra, you need to erase the entire drive, not just the partition

 

[BondAMR]

Get a copy of Snow Leopard on a USB stick. Boot from it and install it anywhere you want as long as the MBA is old enough to have supported Snow Leopard. You cannot install an older version of an OS from a newer version of the OS.

...as a comparison, could I have installed an older version of OS on a newer version of OS if it was Tiger to Leopard or Leopard to Snow Leopard or Snow Leopard to Lion? Was this a capability with the older OS that was again withdrawn from all the following OS?

 

[chscag]

Same answer applies as you were given by our Moderator Raz0rEdge. You can not install an older version of macOS on to a partition or drive that already has a newer version installed.

 

[BondAMR]

Same answer applies as you were given by our Moderator Raz0rEdge. You can not install an older version of macOS on to a partition or drive that already has a newer version installed.

...well it's not actually the same partition as the newer OS, it's a new fresh and empty partition on the same internal hard drive where I'm trying to install an older OS onto, but the newer OS prevents me from doing that, why is this?

 

[harryb2448]

Because that is the way it is designed. No going backwards.

 

[ferrarr]

...well it's not actually the same partition as the newer OS, it's a new fresh and empty partition on the same internal hard drive where I'm trying to install an older OS onto, but the newer OS prevents me from doing that, why is this?

What is the model and year of the Mac you are attempting this on?

 

[chscag]

...well it's not actually the same partition as the newer OS, it's a new fresh and empty partition on the same internal hard drive where I'm trying to install an older OS onto, but the newer OS prevents me from doing that, why is this?

In that situation, you would have to create an installer with the older version of macOS, boot from it, and then install it on the empty partition. However, a lot depends on the year/model Mac. The Mac you're wanting to install the older version of macOS may not be capable of running it because of firmware and/or hardware restrictions.

So, in effect, you have two things to consider.

 

[BondAMR]

ferrarr...chscag... I'm trying to install any OSX on a 2011 MBA on a separate and empty partition. I've tried with Snow Leopard, Mountain Lion and Yosemite and each time when I try and load the installer onto this separate and empty partition the High Sierra tells me no you cannot do this, but theoretically you can, this should be possible. Is there something that I'm overlooking, I can't understand it?

 

[ferrarr]

Ok, the Mid 2011 MBA models shipped with Lion, so anything after that should install.

You can't load the installer, you have to boot from it? Is it on a USB? Are you holding option at startup? You can't run an upgrade to a non OS partition.

 

[Slydude]

Bob has asked a key question. What are you booting from when attempting the install. You can't boot from a newer OS and have the installer work. If you try you will get the kind of behavior you've been seeing. You have to have the installler for the OS you want on a USB and boot from that.

 

[MacInWin]

+1 fo what Sly said. You cannot boot from HS and install anything older than it. You have to boot to something older or the same as what you are installing.

 

[BondAMR]

Bob has asked a key question. What are you booting from when attempting the install. You can't boot from a newer OS and have the installer work. If you try you will get the kind of behavior you've been seeing. You have to have the installler for the OS you want on a USB and boot from that.

Yes this is what is happening, I'm in High Sierra and trying to start these SL/ML/YS installers to the empty partition from there. So let's say if I have a completely empty USB only partitioned for Mac OS Journaled, just drag and drop the installer to that and I can press the Option button to find that drive and it will go directly into the install sequence?

 

[MacInWin]

No, you have to be booted from something the same as or older than what you are trying to install. Post #2 has that same answer for you. Nothing has changed since then. The 2011 version of MBA shipped with Lion, which means you cannot install SL. See Post #11. And you can try an Internet install. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204904 I don't remember if Lion is installable that way or not, but it's worth a try at this point.

 

[ferrarr]

Get an 8GB or 16GB USB/Flash/Thumb drive and create a macOS bootable USB installer, https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372.

 

[BondAMR]

No, you have to be booted from something the same as or older than what you are trying to install. Post #2 has that same answer for you. Nothing has changed since then. The 2011 version of MBA shipped with Lion, which means you cannot install SL. See Post #11. And you can try an Internet install. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204904 I don't remember if Lion is installable that way or not, but it's worth a try at this point.

So let's say if I have a completely empty USB only partitioned for Mac OS Journaled, just drag and drop the installer to that and I can press the Option button to find that drive and it will go directly into the install sequence? ....so I can go to the ML or YS installer that is just sitting on the drive and install from that onto the same partition as the installer?

 

[ferrarr]

So let's say if I have a completely empty USB only partitioned for Mac OS Journaled, just drag and drop the installer to that and I can press the Option button to find that drive and it will go directly into the install sequence? ....so I can go to the ML or YS installer that is just sitting on the drive and install from that onto the same partition as the installer?

Nope.

 

[MacInWin]

No, pressing Option while booting will NOT find that drive because it is not bootable. You have to be BOOTED into an OS to be able to install. The Internet installation that I linked will download enough of the OS to boot, then download the rest and install it on an empty drive. You cannot just drop the installer on an otherwise empty drive and do anything with it. If you can get a USB installer made, as Bob said just above, then you could boot from there, but given that all you have is HS, an installer on a bootable HS drive will NOT install anything older. So about all you can do is the Internet install from the link to Apple I provided.

 

[BondAMR]

Ok this is what I'm going to try now and hopefully it works. I'm going to try and install to a new fresh partition on a USB by pressing the option key at start up and going directly to that empty MAC Journaled partition and clicking on the installer there and it should load. I will try the same with Snow Leopard which I desperately would rather like to use than the rest of them, but I don't think that will work despite late 2011 MBP's having that ability to work with an older SL OSX despite being shipped and preloaded with Lion.