Downgrading from El Capitan to Snow Leopard problems.

[rbreslin08]

I've a 15" 2011 MacBook Pro, currently running El Capitan.
I need to downgrade all the way down to Snow Leopard. The reason for this is that the sole reason I have the laptop is to run some video analysis software called Sportscode, and the version I have is only compatible with Snow Leopard.

I have the original Snow Leopard Install disk.
I've reformatted the Mac hard drive, so now it's not really running OS X.

When I turn on the Mac and hold down the 'C' key to start up from a CD, it just loads endlessly. I left it for over 40 minutes trying to boot, but nothing happened.

When I hold the 'option key' when booting, and open up OS X Utilities, there's the option of "Reinstall OS X", however I can only reinstall El Capitan.

I'm just looking to do a clean install. Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!

 

[BrianBaughn]

The original Snow Leopard disk that came with that MacBook Pro? If not, it has to be a generic one.

If it is a proper original, then it could be that the DVD drive is having trouble reading it. Could be the drive...could be the disk. Tried cleaning the disk?

I don't know how many times you've tried it but sometimes a problem disk will suddenly work. You should know if it's booting in five minutes or so. After that, try from the beginning again.

Did you check to see if the Mac would start up from the disk before you erased the HD?

If you have another Mac you could try to create a bootable USB installer from the DVD. Alternately if you have a spare external HD you could create a bootable version of the installer disk on that...which is what I'd try first as it's usually faster and sometimes Macs just don't want to boot from a USB even though they should.

If you don't have an SSD in that MBP then this might be a good time to get one. Then, with an external housing (or a connector) you would have an external HD (your old one) to create the installer...providing you have access to another Mac.