Switching from Mountain Lion to Snow Leopard

[SantaClause]

Hi all,
I just purchased a new mac mini with Mountain Lion on it. I use my computer almost exclusively for audio production with Pro Tools and my version of Pro Tools doesn't support ML. My current computer uses Snow Leopard and is very stable and I would like to continue to use that until ML support is added for my version of Pro Tools.

My question is, will I be able to go back to ML from SL even though the mac mini didn't come with any physical version of the OS? Do I have a license in the app store or something where I could download ML for free or do I need to do some kind of time machine back up before I install SL?

 

[Eithanius]

Which version of Pro Tools are you using...?

I'm afraid the new Mac Minis can no longer run Snow Leopard. The OS simply does not have the necessary drivers to support the latest hardware. Your only option is to upgrade PT to version 10.

I understand your dilemma, I have PT 7 myself, runs fine on Snow Leopard but not Mountain Lion. I'm glad I still have my old SL compatible MacBook Pro so I keep a partition for SL just in case I need to run PT.

 

[SantaClause]

Oh man...that's pretty much the one thing I didn't consider when picking out my computer...I am running Pro Tools 9 and think maybe I read somewhere that 9 works with ML even though it's not officially supported. I just don't want to deal with any issues related to stuff like that.

I was going to try to skip PT 10 altogether and upgrade when 11 came along...I guess I have to rethink that.

It's really a shame because PT9 and SL worked perfectly together but my computer didn't have the necessary power...

 

[Eithanius]

Your best bet is to try out 9.0.5 if you have not already done so...

 

[old-wiz]

New Macs will almost never boot with versions of the OS earlier than they shipped with. I would think the Ivy Bridge and HD4000 GPU are not supported in Snow Leopard.

 

[SantaClause]

Your best bet is to try out 9.0.5 if you have not already done so...

I tried this and it seems ok so far. Still going through the process of installing and updating everything and hope to get some tests done by the weekend.

Thanks everyone for the responses.