MacBook – Setting up an “Old” MacBook in an “Old” way

bootcampmacbook prosnow leopardwindows

What I want:

  • A MacBook or MacBook pro running Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.8 with Windows XP (or 7) in Bootcamp.

(Just like I used to have.. which was fine!!)

What I have:

  • A 13", Late 2009 MacBook (White) 2.26 GHz Core-2-duo/8GB DDR3 RAM/250GB HDD storage running macOS High Sierra 10.13.6.

I have a DMG of Mac OS X Snow Leopard and an ISO of Win XP.

Is it possible to get the desired setup on the MacBook I have?

Best Answer

The steps are fairly straight forward.

  1. Boot from the Snow Leopard DVD. If you have a soft copy of Snow Leopard, then burn this to a DVD.
  2. Use the Disk Utility to erase the entire internal drive.
  3. Install Snow Leopard
  4. In necessary, install the OS X 10.6.8 combo update. You may find this difficult to download using Snow Leopard. If you currently have High Sierra, you may want to download this update to a flash drive before erasing the internal drive.
  5. Use the Boot Camp Assistant application to install XP. If you have a soft copy of XP then burn this to a DVD. I assume XP is 32 bit and contains Service Pack 2 (SP2). Some users have posted that XP did not have to have SP2, but the Apple documentation says it does. If SP2 is required and your XP does not have this, then it is possible to add SP2 by slipstreaming, but this is probably more work than you want to tackle. The Boot Camp Assistant will probably require only Snow Leopard be installed before allowing Windows to be installed.
  6. After installing XP, insert the Snow Leopard DVD to install the Window Support Software. You may be able to substitute the software from the Install Windows 7 on your Mac using Boot Camp website.
  7. Install SP3 for XP. Apparently, SP3 is the first link on this page.

If any of these steps are not possible. Post a reason and maybe I will have an alternative.

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