Mac OS X 10.6.x Snow Leopard, the latest release of Mac OS X family of operating systems, can only boot from GUID partition table disks installed on Intel-based Macintosh computers. So, if you try to use a former PowerPC hard drive as the startup disk for an Intel-based Macintosh computer with Snow Leopard, you fail in your attempts. To install Snow Leopard, you will need to repartition your hard disk using GUID partition scheme. Doing so results into complete data loss. So, to restore it, you need to either use your backup or scan the hard disk using a powerful Mac Recovery utility.
For instance, consider that you try to install Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) on your Intel-based Mac, but fail to do so. You come across the below error message:
“Can’t Install Snow Leopard Since Disk Does Not Use GUID Partition Scheme”
Or
“The disk cannot be used to start up your computer”
Cause
The prime reason for such errors to occur is the disk you are trying to install Mac OS X 10.6 is not using native partition scheme for your Intel processor. This might occur if you are using a former PPC hard drive.
Solution
To successfully install Snow Leopard on your Intel-based Mac computer, you need to change the existing partition scheme of your hard disk to GUID. To do so, follow the given steps:
Start your computer from Mac OS X installation disk and open ‘Disk Utility’ from ‘Utilities’ folder
Choose the target disk to be partitioned
In ‘Disk Utility’ window, you need to select ‘Partition’ tab
Specify the required number of partitions from ‘Volume Scheme’ pop-up menu and click ‘Options’
Choose ‘GUID Partition Scheme’ from ‘Partition Scheme’ pop-up menu and click OK
Click ‘Partition’ button. This will erase the entire disk and change the existing partition scheme
After the disk partitioning completes, install Snow Leopard and restore data from backup
On occasion, you cannot restore from the available backup as it is invalid to restore. To deal with such problems, you need to use Mac File Recovery utilities. Mac Recovery software are high-end applications empowered with advanced scanning algorithms that can locate and restore all missing or lost files and folders.
Stellar Phoenix Macintosh Data Recovery is a fully-competent data recovery utility designed for Mac OS X 10.6.x Snow Leopard, 10.5.x Leopard, 10.4.x Tiger and 10.3.9 Panther. It is a reliable Mac File Recovery product that can restore all files, folders and even the entire partitions. The application is compatible with HFS, HFSX, HFS+, HFS Wrapper and FAT file systems.