Home

How to install Leopard from a CPU Drop-in DVD without Tiger

Thu, 2008.02.21 - 10:19 — müzso
Apple shipped a few Macs in the month(s) before the release of Leopard with a so called "CPU Drop-in DVD". This is an upgrade version and checks for the existence of Tiger on the target drive. This is of course very annoying eg. if you buy a new hard drive and want to install Leopard from scratch. However there's a pretty simple workaround for it. Check this forum topic or read on ...
  1. Boot from the Mac OS X Leopard Upgrade DVD (hold 'C' while booting or hold the 'Alt/Option' key while booting and select the DVD). Notice that the check for existence of Tiger will fail (and "Continue" button is grayed out).
  2. Choose the option of restoring from a (Time Machine) backup and go as far as you can (note: if you do actually have a Time Machine backup, pretend that you don't - making sure you've already removed any backup drives you may have plugged in). The "Searching for a backup" process will never finish (or at least I've not waited for it), so if you read this on the screen, you can proceed to the next step.
  3. Now go back to the screen where the "Continue" button was greyed out and prevented you from proceeding with the installation. Notice that this button is now active and clickable!
  4. Press "Continue" and install Leopard as you would with a full (unrestricted) install DVD.

Comments

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.
Thu, 2008.02.21 - 10:21 — müzso

How to convert a CPU Drop-in DVD to a full install DVD

Check out this blog post if you want to create a full install DVD from a CPU Drop-in version. But honestly: who cares if the workaround is as easy as described above. Smile

Sat, 2008.06.14 - 11:00 — TheDashboard (not verified)

Bypass the 'model check' !

Just bought for £25 from eBay: 10.5.2 MacBook installer Disc 1+2 - for my MacBook 1.83 Gig/2 GigRam/120 HD !

Great - The Problem: When i insert the 10.5 disc, it tells me after the re-start: “Can’t install 10.5 on this machine- click re-start” !!!! What ???

OK - I learned that the ‘model check’ stooped this to doing so, now, can i bypass the modelcheck ???

Can i mount the image with hdiutil in Terminal:

hdiutil attach path/to/Volumes/Volumes/Mac OS X Install Disc 1-owners on -readwrite

Or is there any other way ?

The Discs: MacBook Mac OS X 10.5.2 9C2028 Install Discs 1+2 AHT version 3A143

...maybe i should bought some bottles of beer instead waisted £25 from eBay for this 10.5.2 MacBook installer Disc !!!! Aua aua aua….

Many thanxs in advance

Sat, 2008.06.14 - 13:48 — müzso

Re: Bypass the 'model check' !

Check out this: Guide: Install Leopard on unsupported Macs
It describes in detail how to go around the Leopard Installer's machine check.
You might check this too: some tips regarding the hardware check.

Sat, 2011.04.30 - 07:39 — Tresa Titman (not verified)

I just upgraded from to

I just upgraded from to Leopard using CPU Drop-in DVD (product # 22691-6040-A) a few minutes ago and I was just thinking about how I would have preferred to do a clean wipe-and-install.

Next time I’ll try this, thanks!

Sun, 2008.08.03 - 23:44 — Anonymous (not verified)

Wipe Clean?

Will this upgrade or only wipe clean? I have a system running 10.3.9 and want to use this method to upgrade but don't want to lose my files and apps, will this work or not?

Mon, 2008.08.04 - 08:24 — müzso

Re: Wipe Clean

I don't know for sure, but I think it can be used for upgrades too. However I'm most certain that you cannot upgrade from Panther directly to Leopard. Probably you've to upgrade to Tiger first and only after that to Leopard. Anyway ... I'm for clean install in case of major OS change. It's better not to rely on a clean upgrade path between various OS versions. There's always the chance that you'll have small, but very annoying problems that are very difficult to track down.

Thu, 2008.10.23 - 03:49 — Morgan (not verified)

Wow.

That was the easiest workaround I have ever seen. I tried doing fancy stuff with Terminal, even using a different installer disk, etc. and this is by far the best way to go.

Silly Apple.

Mon, 2008.11.03 - 15:38 — David (not verified)

Thanks for the info

Thanks for the info

Sun, 2009.01.11 - 04:47 — damanky (not verified)

Great Catch!

I agree with the above-one of the most simple and expedient wordarounds i have ever come across! thanks a lot! now my eeepc is running great with my leopard disc from my mac-mini!

Mon, 2009.01.12 - 00:34 — müzso

Re: Great Catch!

Thanks, but the "catch" is not mine. As noted: I got it from a macosxhints.com forum topic. I just saved it here so I can easily find it again if needed. Smile

Sun, 2009.01.11 - 06:15 — Big Pappi Fantastico (not verified)

Install clean version of Leopard with CPU Drop In DVD

This was so easy.... I can't follow instructions very well, but you only have 2 buttons at every option its kind of hard to mess things up...
Simplified Instructions.
Restore from Time Machine - Go Back, then Go Back (AGAIN), then when you are at the first screen that has Apple OS X Installer with the little left arrow <- then you hit continue.

VIOLA!

Thu, 2009.09.03 - 15:02 — emil (not verified)

thanx for instruction : i

thanx for instruction :
i get exact upgrade DVD from Croatian MAC distribution for free - good one
then i was stack / and was phoning teh suport * bad one

but You save my time Smile

regards from Croatia

emil

Tue, 2009.05.26 - 10:41 — Anonymous (not verified)

i like this one

wow i love this! it rocks!

Thu, 2009.07.09 - 23:27 — Bob (not verified)

Awesome

I googled "leopard drop in DVD clean install" and I was brought here.

This hint saved my bacon today. Thanks for posting it.

Wed, 2009.12.30 - 11:04 — Anonymous (not verified)

Thank you!

Thank you so much, I was looking everywhere for a solution to my problem. I completely erased my HD and couldn't install! It is installing now, thanks to you.

Fri, 2010.06.11 - 02:20 — rodd (not verified)

none

I would have been glad to see this when I was installing Leopard. Had few problems the first time but its all good now. Thanks for the post.

Wed, 2011.02.16 - 12:41 — ahsanul (not verified)

How to install Leopard from a CPU Drop-in DVD without Tiger

its work on my iMac g5....and great ...thank you.....i love you

Mon, 2011.07.11 - 14:18 — Anonymous (not verified)

Loading CPU Drop DVD

HI Guys

Can some1 please assist me. When i hold down he C key to boot from the CPU Drop DVD my macbook pro does not boot up. I then plug in my External hard Drive which i had made bootable with Snow leopard 10.6.6. held the option key down and it booted fine. Then i run the install of the External Hard Drive and it says, Snow leopard has installed successfully but when my macbook restarts it does not boot up.

Please can someone assist me as i am breaking my head over this issue.

Thanks!

Mon, 2011.07.11 - 14:49 — müzso

Re: Loading CPU Drop DVD

I cannot comment on the problem of installing Mac OS X from an external drive (I guess there can be a million+1 problems that prevent your MacBook from booting up). But the booting from DVD issue sounds familiar.
Two ideas:
  • Can you read DVDs properly? Is it possible that your DVD drive is at fault? If yes, you might just have to clean the lens of the drive.
  • I had similiar troubles with a couple of CDs/DVDs. Pressing "C" would not boot the CD/DVD, instead the already installed OS was loaded. In this case it might help to press the Option key during boot and select the optical drive in the boot manager. One would think that the two should be equivalent, but for some reason they are not. Using the Option key method I can always boot my Snow Leopard DVD, but pressing "C" rarely does the job.
Fri, 2011.11.25 - 13:25 — Steve (not verified)

Thanks

Tried updating a friends G4 iBook with my drop-in copy of Leopard and hit this problem. Fantastic work-around. Thanks for posting.

Thu, 2016.01.07 - 19:05 — Anonymous (not verified)

Thank you!!!!!!!

Worked like a charm!!!! Lost my original discs for Early 2008 iMac, which came with Mac OS X 10.5.2 (build 9C2028). Had on hand the Upgrade disc for Leopard from my other computer which I tried before but it didn't work. I was looking for Tiger.
With these directions I was able to download it!!!!!! Saved my a$$ Smile