Downgrade from Yosemite on MBP Late 2008

[vinci]

I am trying to install Mountain Lion from a usb stick on MBP late 2008, but when I try to boot it simply says that an error occurred with the installation and that I should try again. The usb stick works fine on my 2012 MBA.

As you probably know, I don't have internet recovery on it and I don't have the original Mac OS CD either.

If I delete my whole hdd, I can only reinstall Yosemite again.

Is there any other way I can install a Mac OS older than Mavericks?

 

[dtravis7]

Where did you get the USB stick? Did you pay for Mountain Lion and make the stick yourself?

Just trying to figure out what is going on as with that machine Mountain Lion should install just fine. I do know you can not just downgrade without erasing the drive and starting fresh.

If you do that, do you have an external so you can do a Time Machine Backup so later you can migrate important files to your Mountain Lion install.

 

[vinci]

Where did you get the USB stick? Did you pay for Mountain Lion and make the stick yourself?

Just trying to figure out what is going on as with that machine Mountain Lion should install just fine. I do know you can not just downgrade without erasing the drive and starting fresh.

If you do that, do you have an external so you can do a Time Machine Backup so later you can migrate important files to your Mountain Lion install.

I've already done a TM backup, so I'm not worried about that.

I've got it from a friend who has mountain lion on appstore and who did it with disk utility using restore. I don't know any other details about it.

 

[pigoo3]

Is there any other way I can install a Mac OS older than Mavericks?

Sure. Late 2008 MBP's can run any OS from 10.5.5 onwards. So if an OS older than Mavericks is desired you can install:

- OS 10.5.x Leopard
- OS 10.6 Snow Leopard
- OS 10.7 Lion
- OS 10.8 Mountain Lion

OS 10.6 (Snow Leopard) was the last OS X version that came on disk. So you could purchase a Snow Leopard install disc…and go from there.

- You could also reinstall Yosemite.
- Then (if you haven't already)…purchase & download Mountain Lion.
- Then create a bootable installer USB stick (via any of the many procedures on the internet).
- Then install Mountain Lion (since the USB stick of Mountain Lion you currently have seems to be defective).

* Nick

 

[vinci]

Sure. Late 2008 MBP's can run any OS from 10.5.5 onwards. So if an OS older than Mavericks is desired you can install:

- OS 10.5.x Leopard
- OS 10.6 Snow Leopard
- OS 10.7 Lion
- OS 10.8 Mountain Lion

OS 10.6 (Snow Leopard) was the last OS X version that came on disk. So you could purchase a Snow Leopard install disc…and go from there.

You could also reinstall Yosemite. Then (if you haven't already)…purchase & download Mountain Lion. Then create bootable installer USB stick (via any of the many procedures on the internet)…then install Mountain Lion (since the USB stick of Mountain Lion you currently have seems to be defective).

- Nick

As I've already said, on a MBA (which I own), that usb stick works fine.
However, I did try it on the same MBA when I had yosemite installed on it, and it didn't work, so suspect it might have something to do with the fact that Yosemite is installed.

Maybe I could replace the recovery partition with a ML one, don't know.

 

[pigoo3]

Is there any other way I can install a Mac OS older than Mavericks?

You did ask this. Why not focus on this path/solution…which is what most of my earlier reply was focusing on.

- Nick

 

[pigoo3]

Maybe I could replace the recovery partition with a ML one, don't know.

I think that this is only possible during a successful ML install.

- Nick

 

[vinci]

You did ask this. Why not focus on this path/solution…which is what most of my earlier reply was focusing on.

- Nick

I am really not willing to buy any operating system from apple given that I am entitled to an earlier version (be that the one the laptop came with), so that's not a solution to me.

Any other suggestions?

 

[pigoo3]

I am really not willing to buy any operating system from apple given that I am entitled to an earlier version (be that the one the laptop came with), so that's not a solution to me.

If this is not an option…then why did you ask the question earlier..."Is there any other way I can install a Mac OS older than Mavericks?"

Any OS X version older than Mavericks needs to be paid for.

The OS version that the laptop originally came with (from Apple) was OS 10.5.5. Do you REALLY want to be running OS 10.5.5 in 2015??

Also. If you still had the original 2-disk set that shipped with the computer when it was new. This is the ONLY OS X version this computer is "entitled" to. And if those disks are lost or missing…then a whole $19.99 needs to be spent on an OS X version newer than 10.5…but older than Mavericks.

- Nick

 

[vinci]

If this is not an option…then why did you ask the question earlier..."Is there any other way I can install a Mac OS older than Mavericks?"

Any OS X version older than Mavericks needs to be paid for.

The OS version that the laptop originally came with (from Apple) was OS 10.5.5. Do you REALLY want to be running OS 10.5.5 in 2015??

Also. If you still had the original 2-disk set that shipped with the computer when it was new. This is the ONLY OS X version this computer is "entitled" to. And if those disks are lost or missing…then a whole $19.99 needs to be spent on an OS X version newer than 10.5…but older than Mavericks.

- Nick

No offence, but asking if I really want to be running OS 10.5.5 in 2015 is almost as if you were asking "Do you really still want to use a 2008 laptop in 2015?!"

But anyway, it's all right. It's clear now.

 

[pigoo3]

No offence, but asking if I really want to be running OS 10.5.5 in 2015 is almost as if you were asking "Do you really still want to use a 2008 laptop in 2015?!"

You missed my point. You said that you were "ENTITLED" to an earlier OS version. And I explained that the ONLY earlier OS version that a Late 2008 MBP is "entitled" to is the OS X version it shipped with. Which was OS 10.5.5.

And if you had the original 2-discs that shipped with the computer…then you could install 10.5.5. And then I also asked you…but do you really want to be running OS 10.5.5 in 2015?? Of course not!

So you are back to your earlier question which was:…"Is there any other way I can install a Mac OS older than Mavericks?" And I answered that. OS 10.6, 10.7, and or 10.8 will cost you $19.99.

- Nick

 

[vinci]

If anyone is interested (and I bet a lot of people have had to deal with this): what I did eventually was to downgrade to Mavericks. Then I inserted the same ML stick and it simply worked.

So Yosemite seems to be another coercive threshhold that Apple has imposed.

I hope this will help others who've suffered the same distress as well

 

[chscag]

I've got it from a friend who has mountain lion on appstore and who did it with disk utility using restore. I don't know any other details about it.

You need to read our guidelines about respecting copyright. Mountain Lion was NOT a free download nor does Apple in its EULA allow you to make a copy from a friend.