09-14-2011, 06:56 AM
> Is there a way to take the 10.6.8 from another Mac, or
> somehow apply an updater to my 10.6.3 retail disc?
Roughly...
Install OS 10.6 on an external hard drive using an older Mac. Boot from that drive. (Hold down the Option key after the startup chime in order to select the external drive as your boot drive.) Perform the OS updates on that drive.
Connect the external drive to your new iMac. Boot from that drive.
Erase the original boot volume on the new iMac. (I strongly urge you to first make a Lion install disc or a clone of the hard drive with Lion. Just ask if you need help doing that.) Then use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the operating system from the external drive onto the iMac.
...
This should work for the new iMacs and MacBook Pros, but apparently the MacBook Airs require a special build of Lion to boot from.
> somehow apply an updater to my 10.6.3 retail disc?
Roughly...
Install OS 10.6 on an external hard drive using an older Mac. Boot from that drive. (Hold down the Option key after the startup chime in order to select the external drive as your boot drive.) Perform the OS updates on that drive.
Connect the external drive to your new iMac. Boot from that drive.
Erase the original boot volume on the new iMac. (I strongly urge you to first make a Lion install disc or a clone of the hard drive with Lion. Just ask if you need help doing that.) Then use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the operating system from the external drive onto the iMac.
...
This should work for the new iMacs and MacBook Pros, but apparently the MacBook Airs require a special build of Lion to boot from.