A few questions before proceeding to uninstall/reinstall Mountain Lion

Question

Since I'm new to this forum I inadvertently closed the discussion that I initiated myself without it being resolved, so I'll copy what I had asked in the previous discussion over to a new thread:
23-Oct-2012 16:08 (in response to ds store)
Since yesterday I've done this:
Safe boot
smc reset
pram reset
hardware test looped 5 times off of original discs: no trouble
check battery: good condition
reinstalled flash with click for flash in Safari, updated Firefox to 16
Startup Manager: Volumes are Mac hd and recovery 10.8.1: did repair disk and permissions repair
Onyx: did everything and rebooted. There was trouble with epson permissions that was fixed and still recurred, went to users and deleted printers and then went to epson and downloaded uninstall from July 2012 and removed with that anything that was there
Still crashes though, so I thought I would do this, I'm nervous about it though:
command r boot off Recovery HD partition and Disk Utility Erase with Security Option: Zero the OS X drive/partition. Check under Partition: Options: GUID and Format: OS X Extended Journaled and apply if not already set.
Quit and install 10.6 or 107+ from Apple's servers.
Reboot, use the same user name as before (different password advised)
quit and install 10.6 or 107, what is 107? does this mean 10.8? I'm confused by that
so I must write down the user name, not the owner name, both of which I changed
I also before had created a new user and deleted my friends user accounts, so that was done already but didn't help.
when you say different password advised, you mean change that later in users?
When adobe asks for id are they asking for my id that I created to get to this forum or my user name and computer password or the computer name and password?
I'm ready to do this once I get things ironed out.....I'm afraid something awful will happen....but I guess I've done what I can for the most part otherwise.
Thank you for your help, it's been great!
23-Oct-2012 16:28 (in response to ds store)
I also did try to command r and reinstall mountain lion but when I entered my adobe id they said that it has not been used in the app store.....
so I'm not sure where that leads, whether entering my friends id and password might have lead to a free reinstall or even how to get any reinstall,
however I'm happier with the idea of a fresh restart...but worried I won''t be allowed to or run into a message like that ....or it will cost a huge amount
but you say I believe that it is quite simple and free?
23-Oct-2012 16:31 (in response to ds store)
"quit and install from apple servers"
is this something that happens within the program without rebooting? Is the "install from apple servers"given as a prompt after you select the "quit" button?
23-Oct-2012 16:42 (in response to ds store)
Do I need to download and install this?
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1492
I have noticed that somethings have improved with all these changes, I continue to delete programs that seem outdated and unneccesary, however there still seems to be lots of crashes, and a clean install deleting everything and starting again with mountain lion is what I'd like to do once I get these final things sorted out.
Thank you

Answer 1

No, please don't do that. Here's how you do one or the other:
Downgrade Lion/Mountain Lion to Snow Leopard
  1. Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer Disc. After the installer
      loads select your language and click on the Continue
      button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the
      Utilities menu.
  2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the
      mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status
      of the drive in DU's status area.  If it does not say "Verified" then
      the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing.  SMART
      info will not be reported  on external drives. Otherwise, click on
      the Partition tab in the DU main window.
  3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions
      from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS
      Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the
      partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on
      the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
  4. Quit DU and return to the installer. Install Snow Leopard.
This will erase the whole drive so be sure to backup your files if you don't have a backup already. If you have performed a TM backup using Lion be aware that you cannot restore from that backup in Snow Leopard (see below.) I suggest you make a separate backup using Carbon Copy Cloner.
If you have Snow Leopard Time Machine backups, do a full system restore per #14 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.  If you have subsequent backups from Lion, you can restore newer items selectively, via the "Star Wars" display, per #15 there, but be careful; some Snow Leopard apps may not work with the Lion files.
Reinstalling Lion/Mountain Lion Without Erasing the Drive
Boot to the Recovery HD: Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the main menu. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list.  In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive.  If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Continue button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.
Install or Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion from Scratch
Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Erase the hard drive:
  1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
  2. After DU loads select your startup volume (usually Macintosh HD) from the left side list. Click on
      the Erase tab in the DU main window.
  3. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Optionally, click on the Security button and set the Zero
        Data option to one-pass. Click on the Erase button and wait until the process has completed.
  4. Quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Install button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.