[geezfools]

Okay, so a year or two ago my mom was looking to get a new computer, her 10 year old dell desktop died and she was digging my mac, so I talked her into a mini 10v. She loved it, even though she only uses it for email, itunes and some web surfing. Anyways, year or more goes by and while spending some time at my sisters house, they decide to follow the prompts when the update window comes up. So, she updates her 10.5 system and obviously doesn't run NBI or anything.
I've done some searching, but I've been out of the "scene" for so long that most of it doesn't make sense anymore. What are my options at this point. Ideally I'd like to save all her photos and music that are still on the mini, but she did say as long as it's working again, she'd be happy. Are there any ways to upgrade to 10.6 without losing everything. Or do I put a 10.5 install on a USB stick, attempt to boot from that in safe mode and run NBI? As of this point, apple logo pops up and then throws a KP. If I hold shift, it will let me type stuff in, but no matter what I've tried, throws the KP.

In the meantime, I'll get my USB stick loaded with 10.5 since that seems like the logical step

Okay, loaded 10.5 on the USB stick, was able to boot form that, only to find out she was on snow leopard, no idea why I thought she was on 10.5. Okay, so I can boot from the USB, now what. Is there anyway to boot from that to get access to the 10v HD and run NBI? I just found my 10.6 disc and will be making a USB stick of that right now as well, which is okay since I was planning on redoing my 10v as well...

[crabhunter]

make a 10.6 usb stick and then use it to install SL on the same partition as it is already on. It takes a lot longer but all your apps and files will still be there.
When you have it installed run the 10.6.7 combo (10.6.8 is more involved) after the update but before you reboot run NBI..351 then reboot.
HTH
Mike

[geezfools]

she updated to 10.6.8
I'll start on the install now and figure out the 10.6.8 part of it as it's working. If anything, I'll just reinstall everything and stop her at 10.6.7 and then find a way to stop the update prompt to pop up when it does.

thanks

[JnC]

Originally Posted by geezfools

...stop her at 10.6.7 and then find a way to stop the update prompt to pop up when it does...

In system prefs, go to software updates and just uncheck the box for check for updates (weekly, monthly...). It'll not prompt her to do anything further because no popup will pop up.

I've stopped at 10.6.3 not wanting to screw up the works, but am thinking to go to 10.6.7 at some later date.

Hope this is what you are looking for,

J

[geezfools]

Okay, so my mom had updated to 10.6.8. I ran the NBI from the install screen and restarted, same issue. So I took the above posted advice and just hit install using the USB stick made from a retail disc and NBM. Let it run for awhile and up popped my moms desktop with all her goodies and the dell at 10.6.3. I ran the combo updater to 10.6.7, ran the NBI and restarted. Everything works perfectly as far as I can tell. Sounds works for sure!
So yeah, thanks for the simple advice and I hope my follow up post can help someone in the future.