Unusual scenario: Can I install (not roll back) Lion over El Capitan?

[moonbase]

Hi,

I recently bought a refurbished Mid-2012 Macbook Pro from Apple.

I expected it would come with Lion installed (which is what it initially shipped with that year) so that I could run my Adobe CS5 programs with no compatibility issues.

However, it came with El Capitan installed, which doesn't work properly with CS5.

Are any of the below solutions viable?

1. Can I just buy a digital copy of Lion from Apple for $20 and install it over El Capitan? Or won't it let me do that?

2. I could also wipe the HD, but then I'm not sure how to install Lion from Disk Utilities, as there are no Lion discs. Is it possible to put the digital copy on a flash drive and install that from Disk Utilities?

3. Or create a partition and have El Capitan running on one and install Lion on the other? (less ideal)

Thank you for any help!!

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello and welcome.

-Is CS5 already installed?
-Are you having issues launching the CS5 apps?
-Do you have a current Time Machine or other backup of your drive/data?

Normally, the only way to revert to an older version of OS X from El Capitan is to restore from a Time Machine backup. The alternative is to erase the hard drive and perform a clean install of Lion. Depending on the exact model of MacBook Pro, it would have come with Lion, which should be able to be reinstalled via the Recovery Partition.

C

 

[moonbase]

Thanks for the response.

CS5 is not installed; it has known issues with El Capitan (eyedropper doesn't work, random crashes, etc) and is no longer supported by Adobe. I don't have any backups yet because I've barely used the computer.

The idea was to get an older MacBook with an older OSX, and I know Lion works with CS5. Apple's site said their refurbished MacBooks normally come with the OSX that they originally did, however this 2012 model came with El Capitan.

As far as I can tell, it's a new HD with a clean install of El Capitan. It did not come with Lion. There is no Lion to revert back to (unless I'm missing something).

It looks like solution #1 won't work.

Is #2 still possible, installing a copy of Lion from the Apple store on wiped HD?

Or #3, can I do a partition and just install Lion on that?

Thanks if you can confirm any of these are possible.

 

[honestone]

I would think you'd be able to do a fresh installation of Lion after you Erase and Format (and if necessary, Partition) your internal drive. However, to insure it will work, you would want to do this from an external drive.

Assuming you have an external drive, here is what you can do:

1. If necessary, Erase, Format, and Partition the external drive. If you do partition the drive, make one of the partitions is at least about 10 to 15% larger than the amount of space being used on your internal drive. So, for example, if your internal drive is 500 gig, but you using "only" 250 gig of it, make that partition on the external drive about 280 gig in size. This is important, as that partition will be used for a bootable backup (explained in the next step). If you will have only 1 partition on both drives, that's fine, as long as the external partition is, again, about 10 to 15% larger than the space you are using on your internal drive.

2. Download and install the excellent backup software SuperDuper!, or the other excellent one, Carbon Copy Cloner. You can use "trial" versions for either product, and can get them from here:

SuperDuper! http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html

Carbon Copy Cloner: https://bombich.com/

Either of them will make a bootable backup on the external partition you created above.

3. After the bootable backup completes, boot your machine from that bootable backup. Just go to System Preferences, and select Start Up Disk. You will most likely need to click on the Lock icon at the bottom of the screen, enter your admin password, and then select the external drive/partition you want to restart from.

4. Once the machine restarts from that backup, you should be able to go to the App Store and download Lion. (Actually, from my understanding, Adobe CS5 works with Mountain Lion and Mavericks). Make another copy of that file in another location on your external drive.

5. Next, launch Disk Utility to Erase and Format your internal drive.

6. Then, launch "Install OS X Lion" file located in the Applications Folder, and proceed with its installation onto your internal drive. (That file will disappear after the installation completes. That is why I mentioned above that you should make a copy of that file somewhere else).

7. Reboot your machine. If the version of Lion that you downloaded from the App Store is anything less than V 10.7.5, you can get the OS 10.7.5 Combo Updater from here:

https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1582?locale=en_US

If necessary, download that, and install it on your internal drive.

8. Finally, use Migration Assistant to "migrate"/copy all the non-system stuff from the (bootable) backup you created above.

All of that would the "cleanest", and just about sure fire, way of accomplishing what you want to get done.

 

[moonbase]

Thank you honestone, your detailed steps are extremely helpful!

Do you know of any catches with the trial versions of those programs or issues I'd have later on? Looks like SuperDuper doesn't have 'advanced features' and CCC is 30 days.

I will post again if I have issues or (hopefully) have success!

 

[honestone]

Thank you honestone, your detailed steps are extremely helpful!

Do you know of any catches with the trial versions of those programs or issues I'd have later on? Looks like SuperDuper doesn't have 'advanced features' and CCC is 30 days.

I will post again if I have issues or (hopefully) have success!

Not that I know of. I actually used SuperDuper! in "free" mode for quite a while. When I finally paid for it, about the only difference (for me) that I saw is that it runs faster. It has other features that I do not need.

 

[moonbase]

Just responding to confirm that the above steps worked, thanks again!

The only issue I ran into was the step to install the downloaded OSX onto the internal HD. When opening the installer, it only gives a message that you're already on a newer OSX and then closes.

Unfortunately it has no built-in way to browse for another disk and install to that. I followed some instructions elsewhere to create a bootable partition (as I didn't have a flash drive large enough) and then it worked fine.

I also had to install an older version of Java from Apple's site in order to get CS5 working on Mountain Lion.