Calling all mac experts! Snow Leopard help!

[artois7]

Hi all,

First off, I'm purely a Windows based technician, so this is all new to me.

The big bosses son at work has a ~2011 MBP, and he brought it in to the work shop with a faulty harddrive. It came with Lion originally, but he claims he was running Snow Leopard for software compatibility.

No DVDs were provided.

We purchased a SL install DVD from Apple but this is of course for 10.6.3 which won't boot on the MBP.

I've tried downloading a "golden version" of 10.6 but this won't boot with a kernal panic due to incorrect hardware.

I've seen talk of using firewire mode to install 10.6.3 and then run the 10.6.8 update to make it boot on the new MBP, but the only Mac I have access to is a Powerbook G4 which won't boot the SL install.

Now... Assuming the boss's son is correct and that he was indeed running SL (which I'm starting to doubt).. Is there any way I can either:

a) download a copy of OS x 10.6.7/10.6.8 which I can burn to USB and install?
b) merge a 10.6.8 update with the 10.6 .DMG installer I already have?

Any help would be fantastic, feel like I'm in over my head.

[Learn2Day]

Re: Calling all mac experts! Snow Leopard help!

I hope someone here can help, I can't, but somehow I feel you'd get faster and better replies in a mac OS forum..

Good luck.

[artois7]

Re: Calling all mac experts! Snow Leopard help!

Found a copy of 10.6.7 online and it's now installing.

After this, it will need to be updated to 10.6.8 and then it will be ready to return.

For anyone reading: To create a bootable Mac USB drive from Windows, download Transmac. Fantastic piece of software with a 15 day free trial. Right click on the USB drive and click "format with image file" and select either your .dmg or .iso file and it will create it for you. Takes a while but appears to work.

Will post back when/if the system is fully up and running.

[artois7]

Re: Calling all mac experts! Snow Leopard help!

Well, it's installed and booted up. I can't go past the set up process as it comes up and asks for the user's personal information etc to set up the apple accounts, so I'll have to just assume it's working now.

Job's a good'n!

[orientalsniper]

Re: Calling all mac experts! Snow Leopard help!

I usually set up a VM for a Mac, then create an USB install using restore with Disk Utility. You don't need an Apple account for setup process, just provide a local username and a password.