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Mac OS Issue

R

rabsparks

macrumors member
Original poster
May 30, 2010
35
0
Maryland
I had Mac OS 10.6.8 on my internal hard drive, but I needed to upgrade my OS to something newer and faster than my ancient (mid-2011) iMac (and because of the need for an OS that would work with some of my newer apps).

I found that El Capitan (10.11.5) was the recommended Mac OS so I bought an external SDD drive, connected it through the Firewire port and downloaded 10.11.5. I figured that I could switch back and forth between the internal HDD and the external SDD (with restarting the computer) as needed.

All worked fine. I "turned off" my HDD and booted from the external SDD. My iMac is running a lot faster and it loads faster.

My problems were resolved, but… the only disk that was visible using “Startup Disk” was my older HDD equipped with 10.6.8. It took me a whole day to get back to where I was, but that involved loading 10.11 on to my HDD and losing access to the apps, et al that I needed 10.6.8 for.

1. What did I do wrong?

2. Is there a workaround for my iMac and if so, what do I need to change?

Any advice would be great.

Rick Bajackson
 
BrianBaughn

BrianBaughn

macrumors G3
Feb 13, 2011
9,637
2,407
Baltimore, Maryland
Sounds like "get back to where I was" didn't really happen and what you did wrong was not troubleshooting the problem enough before nuking your internal HD and putting El Capitan on it.

To get to a dual-boot situation again you'll have to back up what's necessary, wipe the internal and re-install Snow Leopard from the disk that came with your iMac. Then you'll have to troubleshoot the "startup disk" issue again.

Having said that...post your iMac model info in case there are specifics with it that someone will recognize.
 
R

rabsparks

macrumors member
Original poster
May 30, 2010
35
0
Maryland
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