Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Trying to Downgrade

N

Nitro1

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 16, 2009
303
0
I am currently running Mountain Lion 10.8.3 I want to go back to 10.6.3 to see if it helps some issues i am having with a online game.

SO i removed my drive and erased it.
I put it back in the Mac Pro Tower and put in the Snow Leopard Disc.

The Disc spins up and then errors out saying this.
Unable to Find Driver for this Platform.

It then ejects the disc and says you must restart the computer. But since i do not have a OS on the computer i can not do anything.

What is going on?

here are the specs

2X 2.8GHZ Quad Core Xeon
6GB Ram
INtel 64GB SSD

THanks
 
Nitro1 said:
I am currently running Mountain Lion 10.8.3 I want to go back to 10.6.3 to see if it helps some issues i am having with a online game.

SO i removed my drive and erased it.
I put it back in the Mac Pro Tower and put in the Snow Leopard Disc.

The Disc spins up and then errors out saying this.
Unable to Find Driver for this Platform.

It then ejects the disc and says you must restart the computer. But since i do not have a OS on the computer i can not do anything.

What is going on?

here are the specs

2X 2.8GHZ Quad Core Xeon
6GB Ram
INtel 64GB SSD

THanks
Click to expand...

You probably left the restore partition in the drive.
 
I thought that too. So when i had issues i pulled the drive from the Tower and took it to my Laptop and used disc utility and erased it there. So it is completely clean unless i have to spend 10 hours and zero it all out.
 
I suspect there are three likely possibilities:

1. You are trying to install a version of OSX from before your machine was made. Do you have the system disk shipped with your MP? Is that the 10.6.3 disk you are referring to?

2. You might have installed a piece of hardware that requires a newer version of OSX - A new video card perhaps?

3. And finally, you may have forgotten to hold down the required key(s) to give the option to boot to the CD/DVD. Would using a bluetooth keyboard be a problem with this? If so, see if you have a wired USB keyboard. Please forgive me for stating such a basic solution, but I know that I am one to try all sorts of complicated solutions while forgetting to try the the blinking obvious!

Hope you sort it out soon,

David
 
Nitro1 said:
I thought that too. So when i had issues i pulled the drive from the Tower and took it to my Laptop and used disc utility and erased it there. So it is completely clean unless i have to spend 10 hours and zero it all out.
Click to expand...

That doesn't get rid of the recovery partition..

you need to re-partiton the drive
 
Ok First

2008. I do have the originals but they do the same thing. I was using a disc from a retailer official Apple Snow Leopard.
THe computer was mad before Snow Leopard.

Nothing new has been added in the way of Hardware since SL. I used to have SL on it before and it worked amazingly.

I held Down Option while booting and it saw the disc but then errored out.

By repartition? So erase not do it?

I just tried to RePartition and i See blue on the screen but repartitioning does not get rid of it. Am i stuck?

Also i did try another HD in the tower with the Disc and it still did not work and gave me the error.
 
Nitro1 said:
Ok First

2008. I do have the originals but they do the same thing. I was using a disc from a retailer official Apple Snow Leopard.
THe computer was mad before Snow Leopard.

Nothing new has been added in the way of Hardware since SL. I used to have SL on it before and it worked amazingly.

I held Down Option while booting and it saw the disc but then errored out.

By repartition? So erase not do it?

I just tried to RePartition and i See blue on the screen but repartitioning does not get rid of it. Am i stuck?

Also i did try another HD in the tower with the Disc and it still did not work and gave me the error.
Click to expand...

OK, I fail. I'm so, so sorry. I've let you down, I've let myself down, I've let everyone down. This epic fail might take me some time to come to terms with...

Ok, I've gone through all twenty seven stages of grief and I'm over it. (Don't worry - I'm genuinely not having a go at you, just pleased that you haven't done the moronic things I might do and trying to get a cheap laugh out of it!)

Thinking about it though, I'm sceptical that the recovery partition is the problem, even though it is a much better idea than any of mine. Surely booting with the option key and selecting the DVD would bypass any automatic selection of the recovery partition.

I fear that, knowingly or not, a firmware upgrade has been applied and that might be a big problem. I myself don't know where I would go from there. Do you have a PPC app you need to run under rosetta? If it's just speed you want to get back, perhaps a bit more RAM would be a good idea, and not so costly. I know that these days it seems like just running the calculator app will take you to more than 4GB used. Pro apps, and the system will start crying...

David
 
I was trying to go back due to a online game not working. TO the point of not loading. I have since got ML to reinstall and we are back up and running but very irritating i must say.

Is it not possible to go back from ML to SL???

I am not sure what happened but we are back up and going redownloading the game now and we shall see what happens i will keep you posted
 
Nitro1 said:
I was trying to go back due to a online game not working. TO the point of not loading. I have since got ML to reinstall and we are back up and running but very irritating i must say.

Is it not possible to go back from ML to SL???

I am not sure what happened but we are back up and going redownloading the game now and we shall see what happens i will keep you posted
Click to expand...

There's no reason why one can't downgrade. I'd have to say it is starting to sound like maybe something went wrong during the erase.
 
Nitro1 said:
Is it not possible to go back from ML to SL???
Click to expand...

If you are truly booting from the SL disc, mountain lion has nothing to do with it. It seems that it cannot recognize the SSD for some reason.

The SSD is hooked into a normal onboard SATA port, right? Not an add-in card?
 
goMac said:
There's no reason why one can't downgrade. I'd have to say it is starting to sound like maybe something went wrong during the erase.
Click to expand...

I am beginning to wonder that myself. Maybe i did something wrong. Let me run this past you,
I will put my old HD back in after i am up and going fully. Put the SL disc back in and see what happens. DO we think it will work? If it does not work what will be my solution and what is my problem. Besides a general lack of knowing WTF
 
Yeah, that pesky mountain lion recovery partition can't just be erased.. it needs to be partitioned... I am trying to wonder to myself why Apple even created after Snow Leopard a recovery partition with the newer OS'es?

GermanyChris said:
That doesn't get rid of the recovery partition..

you need to re-partiton the drive
Click to expand...
 
Ok, I realize that.. but under Snow Leopard if we had to do a recovery we would just put the installer disc in and let it do its thing. Now since SL, the OS requires a recovery partition which is more harm than good.. It makes it difficult to downgrade.. but partitioning seems to be the only way to destroy the recovery partition + it takes away space from the drive..

Score one more for Snow Leopard! - at least it doesn't create a partition for recovery eating up disk space.. Just my 2 cents.

brand said:
Um, for recovery purposes. Pretty simple actually.
Click to expand...
 
You should partition your drive and use a dual boot of 10.8.3 and 10.6.8
This way you can start up to the OS needed. If 10.8.3 is the minimum requirement for usage then use it. If you have doubts about 10.8.3 then boot from 10.6.8
Do you have other utilities such as Techtool Pro or Drive Genius?

My MBP has a triple boot of 10.4.11, 10.6.8 and XP

Either way it goes it can be done and 10.6.8 on my MP has 0 issues!
 
Finally

hey all. I wanted to thank you for all the ideas and help. IN the end i am not sure what won besides ME.

The result was Snow Leopard on my Mac Pro. I am missing a few small things. but overall the performance of the machine and the game is much improved. I am still unable to get my mac to go into Bootcamp and load the windows disc i have so i am at a complete lose on that front.

But i had to make a SL USB and boot off that and that allowed my Mac to load it and work. I have no idea why i could not use the disc even with a blank drive it would not work.

Maybe the Disc all hate me.

Either way wanted to let you know i have it done and thanks again.
 
Glad you got it working. Keep Snow Leopard alive!! I still use it and believe its one of the better OS X offerings Apple has ever produced.

Just for the record.. 2012/2010 Mac Pros require at least 10.6.4 to boot off of while the later revisions of the 2009 Mac Pro require 10.6.2(You can also downgrade to Leopard on those only at 10.5.8).

I tested my Mac Pro 2010 10.6.4 installer disc in a 2012 and it worked just fine.

Nitro1 said:
hey all. I wanted to thank you for all the ideas and help. IN the end i am not sure what won besides ME.

The result was Snow Leopard on my Mac Pro. I am missing a few small things. but overall the performance of the machine and the game is much improved. I am still unable to get my mac to go into Bootcamp and load the windows disc i have so i am at a complete lose on that front.

But i had to make a SL USB and boot off that and that allowed my Mac to load it and work. I have no idea why i could not use the disc even with a blank drive it would not work.

Maybe the Disc all hate me.

Either way wanted to let you know i have it done and thanks again.
Click to expand...
 
PowerPCMacMan said:
Ok, I realize that.. but under Snow Leopard if we had to do a recovery we would just put the installer disc in and let it do its thing. Now since SL, the OS requires a recovery partition which is more harm than good.. It makes it difficult to downgrade.. but partitioning seems to be the only way to destroy the recovery partition + it takes away space from the drive..

Score one more for Snow Leopard! - at least it doesn't create a partition for recovery eating up disk space.. Just my 2 cents.
Click to expand...

Yeah. That 650 MB is totally eating up all of the disk space!

If you just format the entire drive, then you will get rid of the recovery partition too.
 
I know and this is one of the many reasons why I don't like OS X going forward from Snow Leopard.. the Recovery paritition just eats up useful disk space.. I really think we should go back to install media.. Its so much better, in my opinion..

Until the day comes when DVD's are not sold on disk medium and or software, then truly the superdrive or optical drive, if you so desire to call it that will DIE out.

I think its stupid to have to buy an external superdrive these days.. But, Apple is right and we are all wrong.

theSeb said:
Yeah. That 650 MB is totally eating up all of the disk space!

If you just format the entire drive, then you will get rid of the recovery partition too.
Click to expand...
 
Nitro1 said:
hey all.
But i had to make a SL USB and boot off that and that allowed my Mac to load it and work. I have no idea why i could not use the disc even with a blank drive it would not work.

Maybe the Disc all hate me.

Either way wanted to let you know i have it done and thanks again.
Click to expand...

Just a thought - is your Superdrive working ok?
 
PowerPCMacMan said:
Until the day comes when DVD's are not sold on disk medium and or software, then truly the superdrive or optical drive, if you so desire to call it that will DIE out.

I think its stupid to have to buy an external superdrive these days.. But, Apple is right and we are all wrong.
Click to expand...

DVDs are discs so there is no way for them to be sold not on a disc.
 
What graphics card is fitted? If it's a 5770 or 5870, then you need at least 10.6.4, so the retail Snow Leopard discs won't work. End of.
 
cal6n said:
What graphics card is fitted? If it's a 5770 or 5870, then you need at least 10.6.4, so the retail Snow Leopard discs won't work. End of.
Click to expand...

I am using a Radeon 2600. The computer originally came with Snow Leopard so i know it works.
THe card is fine.

I have two super drives and with the windows disc or the SL disc in either or it still does not work.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back