Possible to have both snow leopard and yosemite on the same machine?

[kiwimaccer]

HI All
My son has been given a Lego Mindstorm set (NXT 2.0) and wants to programme it on our macs. They are all running Yosemite, which is incompatible with the Lego Mindstorm software. However the Lego software is compatible with Snow Leopard.

Is it possible to run Snow Leopard on a separate partition? Or an external drive? And if so how would we go about this?

We are running a late 2012 iMac, 3.2 GH processor, Intel core i5 with 8GB memory. Yosemite version is 10.10.3. We have an external DVD drive.

 

[chas_m]

Thank you for the detailed machine info. Pat yourself on the back, you didn't waste anyone's time, including yours!

The answer is no. Macs can't run any system older than the one they shipped with, and yours shipped with Mountain Lion (10.8). It might be technically possible to run a purchased copy of retail Snow Leopard in a virtualization environment, but the specifics and legality of that are not clear to me at this point so the short answer is no.

Might be worth picking up a cheap used MacBook (like a 2009) or older Mac mini or something from no later than mid-2011 that can run Snow Leopard just to run the outdated software on it.

 

[harryb2448]

G'day and welcome to the forums.

Try to set it up on an external drive first, and if no joy on a partition. The problem is as a rule of thumb you cannot install an operting system older the what the 'puter came with. Sounds like this is old PowerPC software which cnnot on run on anything later than Snow Leopard as Rosetta was discontinued.

Keep us posted?

 

[kiwimaccer]

Thanks for your replies. I can't install snow leopard on the imac. I get this error message

You can't use the version of the application "Install Mac OSX" with this version of OSX. You have "Install Mac OSX 23.1.1."

We have an old Macbook 1.1 but it's very glitchy and the battery is dead so only works when plugged in. It won't read the DVD SuperDrive and has stopped accepting discs some time ago.

Looks like we'll have to look around for an old macbook.

Cheers

 

[Checco]

Don't want to try run the Windows version in a VM or even Crossover?

 

[bobtomay]

You might try Mavericks - if you download the latest version direct from Lego, it only says that it won't work in Yosemite - need to download in Firefox or Chrome instead of Safari.

I just tried it and it does download a version for OS X even though you're clicking a link that appears to be a Windows only file.

LEGO.com customerservice FAQ - Products - Themes - MINDSTORMS - MINDSTORMS NXT - How can I get a replacement for the LEGO® MINDSTORMS® NXT software for set 8547?

 

[jads]

nxt 2.0 with yosemite 10.10.3

kiwimaccer, Good day,
Hope this is of use to you, I was in a similar predicament and found that the s/w download at Lego:
LEGO.com customerservice FAQ - Products - Themes - MINDSTORMS - MINDSTORMS NXT - How can I get a replacement for the LEGO® MINDSTORMS® NXT software for set 8547?
Says:
<>
Before you start
The software for NXT 2.0 (set 8547) can't be installed on Macs running OS 10.10 Yosemite.
<>

I tried their newer ev3 s/w and was not successful getting it to talk to nxt 2 brick.
So then I choose to ignore their note and attempted to install the nxt 2.0 s/w. Here are my findings:
- h/w: MBP retina late 2013. external DVD drive
- s/w Yosemite 10.10.3 on Mac and nxt 2.0 media that came with original Mindstorms package.
- Install: successful
- Mindstorms app launch: successful
- Bluetooth connection to nxt 2.0 brick: Unsuccessful
- USB connection to nxt 2.0 brick: Successful
- transfer program from Mac to brick: successful
- Launch program on brick after disconnecting from mac: Successful.

So in short although Lego says it can't be installed. It not only installs, but works as well for crying out loud.

HTH.