Snow Leopard upgrade path...

Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
I bought my iMac in October 07, just days before Leopard arrived. My restore discs are Tiger, but I got a Leopard "Up-to-date" disc.



Unfortunately, that UTD disc requires me to have Tiger installed on my iMac before Leopard will install.



So, now my quandry is with the $49 dollar family pack.. is SL going to have a check for Leopard in it?



If so, if I ever have a hard drive failure or want to completely wipe my system out am I going to have to load my Tiger restore discs, then upgrade to Leopard and then another upgrade to Snow Leopard? That'll take half a day to do (not to mention that's not very "Apple" like).



I know discussing it without SL being out is pure conjecture.. but I'm sure there are other folks that'll be in the same situation as me and wanted to get some opinions/ideas.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 17
    This is a great question. I am in the same boat with my late 2007 Santa Rosa MacBook pro. I had just assumed the leopard install disc that it came with(even though it was preloaded with tiger) would suffice...



    Furthermore, once snow leopard is installed, are we then allowed to install leopard(not snow leopard) on another system? It is no longer installed technically since SL is now the os...
  • Reply 2 of 17
    Anyone?
  • Reply 3 of 17
    lennylenny Posts: 85member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Mindflux View Post


    If so, if I ever have a hard drive failure or want to completely wipe my system out am I going to have to load my Tiger restore discs, then upgrade to Leopard and then another upgrade to Snow Leopard? That'll take half a day to do (not to mention that's not very "Apple" like).



    I know discussing it without SL being out is pure conjecture.. but I'm sure there are other folks that'll be in the same situation as me and wanted to get some opinions/ideas.



    You'll have to insert the SL install DVD, then boot from it, using Disk Utility format the HD and make clean install of SL. Well, this is how the clean install of SL can be achieved with the build 10A432. If 10A432 is indeed the Gold Master, I guess the same can be done when the SL is officially released.
  • Reply 4 of 17
    So it doesn't check for Leopard? I thought that the whole point of requiring Leopard for Snow Leopard was that it checked your system for Leopard first? Hence the question that the late 2007 Santa Rosa MBP came with Tiger but included a Leopard Up to Date Disc as a pack in.
  • Reply 5 of 17
    lennylenny Posts: 85member
    Miykael

    If you don't have Leopard installed on your machine your system cannot be updated to SL. Only clean install.

    PS This is how it looks with the build 10A432. No one knows if this build is GM or not.
  • Reply 6 of 17
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by lenny View Post


    Miykael

    If you don't have Leopard installed on your machine your system cannot be updated to SL. Only clean install.

    PS This is how it looks with the build 10A432. No one knows if this build is GM or not.



    Ok, I'm sorry if it feels like I am running you in circles here, but perhaps I am just missing something obvious.



    I have leopard now, great, so I get install SL no prob, however...



    If for some reason, I have a hard drive failure or whatever, would I have to install Tiger FIRST, then run the Leopard "Up to Date" disk that came with the Late 2007 Santa Rosa MBP and THEN update to SL?



    I have time machine backups all over which is great, just making sure I understand, I don't see how you can just do a clean install (unless this is the part that I am misunderstanding) without leopard being installed first, which means first Tiger, then the Up to Date Disk(Leopard)... Then Snow Leopard.



    Thank's for your patience, just want to make sure I completely understand. I know some of this is unknown without a retail box.
  • Reply 7 of 17
    lennylenny Posts: 85member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Miykael View Post


    If for some reason, I have a hard drive failure or whatever, would I have to install Tiger FIRST, then run the Leopard "Up to Date" disk that came with the Late 2007 Santa Rosa MBP and THEN update to SL?



    No, you just do a clean install of SL. Boot from the SL Install DVD, using Disk Utility format the HD and install SL.

    Quote:

    I don't see how you can just do a clean install (unless this is the part that I am misunderstanding) without leopard being installed first, which means first Tiger, then the Up to Date Disk(Leopard)



    I see what you mean. Look, unless Apple will introduce some changes when the SL is officially released, there will still be an option to clean install. OR Apple can release different versions of SL: like "Update" version and "Full" version. Just my guess..

    By the way, why do you have to install Tiger first in order to install Leopard? Can't you just boot from Leopard install DVD and do a clean install of Leopard?
  • Reply 8 of 17
    I haven't done it but once, and Tiger was already on my MBP, but I believe that the "Up To Date" Disc checks for Tiger before allowing the leopard install. This could be the source of my confusion if that is not correct.
  • Reply 9 of 17
    pmzpmz Posts: 3,433member
    Truthfully, I see NO reason why it should not work or Apple just handicapped everyone by forcing us to retain two different install discs and perform two installations whenever doing this.



    My best guess is this:



    If you purchase a retail copy of snow leopard, just like if you were to and buy a Mac next week once SL is shipping, you get ONE disc. New Macs are not going to come with Boot Discs for leopard, and a copy of the SL upgrade or "expansion pack" as we've come to think of it.



    New Macs will come with one disc. 10.6 Despite being billed as requiring Leopard, this is likely ONLY in the case of an upgrade, like what I did. Meaning, if you DO NOT format your harddrive because you want your hundreds of gigs left alone, and simply pop in the SL disc and say "do it", you will be upgraded from Leopard > Snow Leopard in a flash (of about 20+ minutes).



    If you have Tiger as your base, you probably cannot just pop it in and upgrade. This is what the whole kerfuffle is about. You COULD, without any doubt, pop the DVD in, Restart and Boot from it, Format and then Install....I see no reason why this wouldn't work. There is no way pre-existing Leopard can be required. Its not physically possible to FORMAT a drive, and Keep Leopard installed to be recognized...



    See where I'm going here?
  • Reply 10 of 17
    mpwmpw Posts: 156member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Miykael View Post


    I haven't done it but once, and Tiger was already on my MBP, but I believe that the "Up To Date" Disc checks for Tiger before allowing the leopard install. This could be the source of my confusion if that is not correct.



    Does the disc check for Tiger, or just check what hardware you're running? If your hardware serial number is with a certain range then Apple will know it shipped during the Tiger release and allow the UTD disc load Tiger; if your model serial number was during the previous OS version release you'd need to upgrade via 'retail discs'.



    Therefore SL will know whether your system was sold with Leopard, whether installed or with drop-in UTD discs, won't it?
  • Reply 11 of 17
    Hmm... Is there a way I could check this now? When I bought the SR MBP, it came with Tiger Pre-installed and I rec'd 2 OS discs. One was a Tiger OS disc, and the other was a Leopard "Up to date" disc.



    I was fairly certain that the disc checks for tiger, but then again, maybe that is my old Windows experiences making me think this. I suppose I wouldn't know since I have never had to re-install Leopard and it shipped with Tiger already installed on the HDD.



    I will have to check, I am sure there had to have been some threads about this back when the SR MBPs shipped with these discs.
  • Reply 12 of 17
    I have a feeling the 29 dollar version of SL is an upgrade version, hence the need for Leopard. The version that comes with the box set would be a full version and thus does not require Leopard... if one could use the 29 dollar SL disc and do a full install, then why on Earth would anybody buy the box set?
  • Reply 13 of 17
    mpwmpw Posts: 156member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by webpoet73 View Post


    I have a feeling the 29 dollar version of SL is an upgrade version, hence the need for Leopard. The version that comes with the box set would be a full version and thus does not require Leopard... if one could use the 29 dollar SL disc and do a full install, then why on Earth would anybody buy the box set?



    To avoid breaking the EULA? and to get the iLife stuff etc.?
  • Reply 14 of 17
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mpw View Post


    To avoid breaking the EULA? and to get the iLife stuff etc.?



    EULA? Who even reads those these days?
  • Reply 15 of 17
    a_greera_greer Posts: 4,594member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Mindflux View Post


    I bought my iMac in October 07, just days before Leopard arrived. My restore discs are Tiger, but I got a Leopard "Up-to-date" disc.



    Unfortunately, that UTD disc requires me to have Tiger installed on my iMac before Leopard will install.



    So, now my quandry is with the $49 dollar family pack.. is SL going to have a check for Leopard in it?



    If so, if I ever have a hard drive failure or want to completely wipe my system out am I going to have to load my Tiger restore discs, then upgrade to Leopard and then another upgrade to Snow Leopard? That'll take half a day to do (not to mention that's not very "Apple" like).



    I know discussing it without SL being out is pure conjecture.. but I'm sure there are other folks that'll be in the same situation as me and wanted to get some opinions/ideas.



    An aquintence of mine wanted to upgrade his 2006 macbook to leopard and had the same situation with a 2007 imac...heres what he did: (disclaimer, I do not endorse piracy, this is only because the scenario you give would make this legal)





    take one Mac that is running snow leoppard already and boot the snow leopard DVD on that with the mac that needs it installed connected in Target Disk Mode...it works like a champ
  • Reply 16 of 17
    a_greera_greer Posts: 4,594member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by webpoet73 View Post


    I have a feeling the 29 dollar version of SL is an upgrade version, hence the need for Leopard. The version that comes with the box set would be a full version and thus does not require Leopard... if one could use the 29 dollar SL disc and do a full install, then why on Earth would anybody buy the box set?



    Doubt that seriously. I would expect that the SL 29$ disks will install to a clean disk, but perhaps not to one that identifys as 10.4, although Apple has a pretty loose track record on copy protection on software...so I would expect the media in both packages to be identical. Apple just wants the ones with older OSes to pay the price for Leopard itsself, they are just using ilife as the carrot to the stick that is the price.
  • Reply 17 of 17
    I think I found the answer... if this is true.



    http://www.9to5mac.com/snow_leopard_nugget
Sign In or Register to comment.