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Time ago I installed an illegal copy of Snow Leopard (10.6) on my iMac 20" (early 2009), which previously had Leopard (10.5.8).

I was not aware that it would keep asking me for an Upgrade, but once I checked, the system blocked me for any future update.

I know that this is my fault, in fact I'm willing to buy the upgrade at $29, but what I would like to know is: Can I install it without having to format the drive and reinstall all the software?

more ---

i never installed iAtkos, i Deneb or stuff like that, and i used to know too that there is no licensing control, but last year whet 10.6 was out i downloaded a version of it and i installed it, since than it tells me that my mac have 10.6 installed (10.6 , no more) and if i check for updates after a while it tells me that there are no updates available to me, so i thought that it was a licensing issue.

hope it's clearer now

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Did you originally install a modified version of OSX? (Such as iATKos - osx86, or something)? – Doc Jul 13 '11 at 21:06
Question is unclear... How could he install IATKos on iMac? O_O – Pitto Jul 14 '11 at 8:30
@Pitto: I've never tried, but I bet you can do it.. Since all non-iOS Apple machines are architecturally PCs now anyway. – Doc Jul 14 '11 at 16:21
Just download and install the combo updater from Apple's site. Changes are the folks providing the image broke the auto updater in a paranoid attempt to hide the installations from Apple or something like that. – Daniel Beck Jul 15 '11 at 7:49
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up vote 4 down vote

Firstly, how? OSX has no controls over installation, so you can use the same 10.6 DVD on as many systems as you want without repercussions beyond ethical self-doubt. With that belief, your situation is not quite possible.

But if it IS possible, I would do this: use Time Machine to back up to an external HD, reinit the system and then restore just your user and applications.

If you can give me a screen capture of your prompt I would google its content to look for solutions… but I’m a prolific OSX user and haven’t heard of it.

Useful reference: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/15638.html

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Indeed, at least 10.3+ has had no real licensing controls. I bet no versions of OSX have had such controls as yet. Hence my comment question asking if he's talking about OSX86. Anyway, the Time Machine suggestion seems decent to me, so +1. – Doc Jul 13 '11 at 21:57
Reciprocated since your thought was certainly valid. I would expect a user to put it out there if it's a hackintosh, but who's to say. – mjb Jul 14 '11 at 3:29
edited, check back – Matteo Toto Jul 15 '11 at 6:57
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