Can i install an operating system on a mac with a wiped hard drive?

I recently got a used mac tower from a supplier, and it has a wiped hard drive, the supplier did not reinstall the mac operating system, so I need to know if I may need to pay to have it installed for me or get a CD and license key like windows?

Start with Snow Leopard.
Snow Leopard Purchase
Check that your computer is compatible with Mountain Lion/Mavericks/Yosemite.
To check the model number hold down the option/alt key, go to the Apple menu and select System Information.
iMac (Mid 2007 or newer) model number 7,1 or higher
MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer) model number 5,1 or higher
MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer) model number 3,1 or higher
MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer) model number 2,1 or higher
Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer) model number 3,1 or higher
Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer) model number 3,1 or higher
Xserve (Early 2009) model number 3,1 or higher
Your Mac needs:
OS X v10.6.8 or OS X Lion already installed
2 GB or more of memory (More is better - 4 GB minimum seems to be the consensus)
8 GB or more of available space

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I want to know can i install 3 Operating systems (Windows 7, Linux or OSX) on Macbook ?

I want to know can i install 3 Operating systems (Windows 7, Linux or OSX) on Macbook ?

Impossible to use a diferent processor than what the motherboard and socket supports, whether notebook (yours) or workstation (this forum).
http://www.apple.com/support/macbookpro

Why can't I use the 16GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm) with 24GB flash Hard Drive Acceleration Cache?

I tried to customize the Envy 15t but I can't proceed on upgrading the following.
Error
24GB SSD Acceleration Cache requires purchase only up to 8GB System Memory.
Why can't I use the 16GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm) with 24GB flash Hard Drive Acceleration Cache?
Can HP explain this to me? or any one? please

Hi,
The 24Gb cache drive will store manything and normally it will need at least twice the size (capacity) of RAM. Double 16Gb is 32Gb therefore 24Gb is not big enough.
Regards.
BH
**Click the KUDOS thumb up on the left to say 'Thanks'**
Make it easier for other people to find solutions by marking a Reply 'Accept as Solution' if it solves your problem.

Hello, I have a MacBook Pro from 2011 and I accidentally while playing around with it deleted everything off my hard drive and I need to know how I can re install an operating system. Would I have to download it.

Someone please help me
I'm not sure what I should do to re install an operating system would it be possible to install mavericks
I don't have the operating system backed up

That's not good. OS X Recovery requires a high speed broadband connection as noted here > About OS X Recovery
Check your download speed here > Speedtest.net - The Global Broadband Speed Test
Message was edited by: CS

Can I move my operating system to a different partition on the same drive?

I thought I knew what I was doing when I partitioned my hard drive and installed the operating system and everything else. The other partitions are for documents, photos, etc. It worked well for quite a while but now I find there is not enough free space on my start-up partition (24GB) to be able to do new installations. I have cleared a 50 GB partition on the same drive to be the new home of my operating system. I tried copying all the files in the System partition to the new drive but "Startup Disk" doesn't recognize the copied version. How can I make this work without having to install everything all over again?

Too true. I have been partitioning my drives since the 80's when it was "illegal" and voided warranties as was opening the case on a Mac. Now the cases open right up and you drop and slide in new drives and memory. And it has saved my butt many many many times. You put your operating system on one partition, from what I have read it is best on the first partition of the first hard drive in the chain, Master, if you have more than one drive. I have four drives with now down to 8 partitions with the last two 10.4.x OS's that worked well and my last 10.5 for emergency use, all on one drive in separate partitions and boot to them all the time with no problems. I always keep my last install just in case intact and bootable. It's no different than what is done with BootCamp and running Windows. Then put all your data, files, non-Apple applications on another partition(s). That way when the OS hammers, and it will, all you have to recover is the OS and your data is safe. Thenall you really have to worry about is certain preferences and databases that have to be on the start up partition that won't work when aliased. I have found them, and they are few, and use Backup from the iDisk software library to back these files up to my iDisk nightly. And having the OS all by itself makes back ups so much easier and smaller. But you have to leave Apple applications on the OS partition in the Applications or Utilities folder or the Apple Updater will not see them.
Before iTunes and iPhoto would allow you to link to databases that are not on the start up partition, I was aliasing those files from other partitions. Then early 10.5 it didn't work as well, now when you hold the option key prior to starting up in iTunes and iPhoto you'll get a window to go find or create any of many databases to run off of. I have done this for years with Apple, Microsoft, Macromedia, Adobe and many other applications.
So far my largest OS has been 14.6GB after I installed GarageBand and it loaded a ton of instruments on to the OS partition. I have been through this before and found them and moved them off to another partition and aliased them back and GB works great. Otherwise, even in 10.5.x you can have relatively smaller partitions. And yes you want room to grow, if even just scratch disc space that some applications will not let you choose or go off the OS partition. So I hover around 25-30GB partitions and have never gotten close to getting more that 60% full, fulfilling the 10-15% free space axiom that seems to get larger with every update. I have read here that several people that had taken their machines to an Apple where they replaced drives saying that the techs partitioned the drives and said that the minimum for 10.5.x was 12GB. As the updates flow, that will vary probably up. Plus Apple has some bloated applications and a ton of things that you'll never need or use that take up room that are a pain to find, like unnecessary fonts. A little extra space is always good.
I use CarbonCopyCloner to make compressed back ups and bootable clones. The older versions would not copy files that would be easily rebuilt when you booted that OS, thus cleaning up the clone/back up by cleaning/omitting files that normally get damaged. Not sure if that is part of the latest versions. I think they copy everything. Another great thing is that Apple installers and Disk Utility and can use them to restore or migrate from. Because of CCC, I now have it down to 10-15 to restore a crashed or failing OS from parts. I have yet to loose anything, except time in having to deal with an OS that sometimes has a mind of its own.
As you play around as I did when I was waiting for an Apple Tech Rep, and reran the Combo Updater back over a wonky install, to find out if you could do that, it was done and worked great just as he returned and said no one there knew. I told him that I did and it worked great. We kept in touch for a couple of months to see if anything weird happened, which it didn't, and now it is suggested and common practice. Just as the Tech's and I whispered under our breath in the 90's about partitioning. Now they suggest it and Apple will talk to those that have partitioned. As you see needs and experiment you'll learn (trial by fire) and all this will become second nature. So don't think this is too much and go for it. Just make sure before you are completely comfortable, have another drive, I use 25GB Rewritable Blu-ray Discs, to do regular normal, CCC, back ups until you get the hang of it. This method yields 6-8GB compressed archives. Then you'll have a place for your stored back ups and whatnot. I was keeping up to 5 iterations, i.e.: 10.5.1a, b, c, d and e. Once my paranoia subsided I pared it down to two since I could easily recover the small amount that I have to now from small back ups that are mostly aliases relinking files that are safe on other partitions.
So yes you can put/clone the OS to another partition. Just make sure you cover your bases, use an application made for cloning/backing up (CCC) and label your installs as not to have the same name on two OS's or you'll have a bit of a problem off the top remembering which is which. I'm on 10.5.5C2.
Good Luck and Happy Partitioning.

HT5639 Are there inherent security risks for installing windows operating systems on a mac?

Just wondering if I use "bootcamp" and install Windows operating system and find out one of the main reasons I switched to a Mac is because of security issues. I also need to know if I can operate the Mac version of "Microsoft Office" without installing the Windows Operating System.
Thanks tech savvy people!
-Navigate100

Windows concerns are in Windows, OS X in OS X. They do not co-exist because only one system is operational at a time.
Office 2011 is the OS X version of the suite. Look for it here.

Can you install snow leopard on Intel based mac with less than one GB of ra

As the subject relay I have an Intel mac mini with 750GB of ram? will th einstaller let me install Snow Leopard?

No, the installer will not let you install Snow Leopard on an Intel Mac with less than 1 GB of RAM. Even if it did, performance would be unacceptable & the OS would probably be unstable.
If you want to run Snow Leopard you will need to upgrade to at least 1 GB of installed RAM. If you want it to run efficiently, you should install more. Typically, 2 GB will get you most of the benefits of a larger memory space but if your Mac supports more & you want the best possible performance, install the maximum the Mac can handle.

Can I install new operating system without wiping out all of my programs- some of which were free

Can I upgrade my OS without clearing out all programs such as Adobe Creative Suite, Office, etc as well as all files that I do not want to lose because many of the programs were free and do not have portable storage drive?

brandon43 wrote:
Can I upgrade my OS without clearing out all programs such as Adobe Creative Suite, Office, etc as well as all files that I do not want to lose because many of the programs were free and do not have portable storage drive?
You can upgrade the OS without clearing out your programs or files, however that's no guaranty that those programs will continue to work in the new OS.
And if you plan to jump over operating systems, like going from 10.4 to 10.6 or 10.5 to 10.7 that that will require wiping the drive of all programs and installing the new OS fresh.
So perhaps you better start by telling us some details about your present hardware specifications, your computer model (like MacBook Pro 3,1) your OS X version, your RAM amount, your hard drive size, software you absolutely need, others that you can perhaps do without, and what and where you want to go etc. Also if you want to spend money and how much.
You can find out about your machine by Apple Menu>About this Mac>More information.
Your question is rather lacking on details, and people don't update their signatures so we can't go by that.

B540 can't install any operating system ?

Hi ALL, it’s great to know there is a place to get help…. I hope
I’ve just bought a B540 from a friend. I’ve checked on this site as he said it’s still under warranty, and the serial confirms it. I don’t quite know if it applies to my problem and a way to somehow get it up and running again, so maybe/hopefully someone could help me ?
So as said, I’ve just got my B540 and believe it or not, the hard disk has screwed up, while up-grading to windows 8. It basically tries to recover the windows operating system over and over again. I’ve opened a Dos windows and tried to look at the Hard drive but can’t see anything on it, all I can see is Drive X which looks like a temp directory windows makes to install.
Every time I try to recover windows 7 or 8 it simply starts, then says there’s a problem so windows has to recover ! Then goes into recovery mode and loops over and over again ?
Can someone advise on what I’ve done and find a way to bring her back to life…. PLEASE

Well Windows 8 was a Crash Bang Wallop !!! It just wouldn't install it, either the New Install, or the up-grade route !
Windows 7 has worked as it should on the B540 and everything was going very well, until I installed an up-grade from Microsoft and after a re-boot ... No Operating system found ?
So I'm back to square one...
I'm hoping the warranty is transferable ?

I need help "Uninstalling" CS6 suite so I can re-install my operating system

How to you unregister the entire suite, so that you can re-install back onto the same computer? thanks.

Run Help --> Deacactivate.
Mylenium

Can one put four operating systems on a Mac?

At the local Senior Center the Windows computers they have been using for computer instructions are dying. I want to suggest replacing them with Mac Minis. Among the people who go there there is a growing interest in learning Mac OSX that the Center has not been able to serve. But in addition, the need for teaching courses centered on Windows XP will continue as will the interest in its replacement, Windows 7. Some are also asking for classes in Linux. So my question is: Can a Mac have all four operating systems on it, say using Boot Camp, that are each separately bootable? Thanks.

Well, I got W7 on my N.4 drive but not the way I planed.
Bootcamp did not want to do it so I went trough the XP drive insted haha.
Boot from XP / from there I formated drive 4 / inserted W7 instal disk / chose drive 4 for the instal and voilà it works fine.
From the start option in the preference window in SL I see this...Sweet
http://web.ncf.ca/ev317/images/forum/boot.jpg
But when I do a cold start with the ALT presset down I get only 3 choices : Leopard or SL or Windows(Witch bring me to my last boot of windows XP or W7)I suppose - not confirmed. When I did choose the windows drive it opened in W7 witch was my last Windows boot.
Now all I need is another drive an Linux to do the same thing - go trough XP for the install and see what happen's.
BTW, W7 as recognised the keeboard and mouse from the start.. Everything works fine so far. Touche wood. :^)
Edit : You don't have to upgrade the driver on the Nvidia 7300 card like they say in the bootcamp documentation... Mine is not and W7 see's it fine.

Can I update the operating system on my Mac OSX 10.5.8

How can I update my Mac OSX 10.5.8 to a newer operating system?

Choose About this Mac from the Apple menu and check the processor.
If it's a PowerPC Mac, it's already running the newest OS it can.
If it's a Core Duo Mac, click here, install the DVD, and run Software Update.
If it's a Core 2 Duo or better Mac, follow the Core Duo instructions, and if desired, open the Mac App Store, and try downloading 10.9. If you get told it's incompatible, go to the online Apple Store and order a download code for Lion 10.7.
Mac OS X 10.7 and newer don't support PowerPC software such as Microsoft Office 2004. If you upgrade the OS, back up the computer first.
(104029)

Can I install a new SSD on my MBP without the old hard drive?

Here's the scenario. I'm currently in the Philippines leaving for California for college next week. There, I will buy a new SSD (Samsung 830 to be specific). I want to leave my current HDD (the one in my laptop that I'm using right now) here in the Philippines though as my brother here wants to use it. Is there a way for me to install the new SSD without having my old hard drive with me? My macbook pro is an early 2011 15inch MBP running on Mac OS X version 10.7.3 (Lion). I actually don't want to clone my hard drive or anything because I want to start fresh and new with my new SSD. Most of the tutorials I've read online involve some kind of cloning or having the old hard drive still plugged in and having the SSD connected externally, but these methods won't work for me because I won't have the old hard drive. Thanks so much

The only negative to not having the original drive will be the work needed to reinstall all the apps and reconfigure to your liking. You will also have to decide whether to stay on Lion (which you should update to 10.7.4, BTW) or bite the bullet and take a leap of faith on Mountain Lion.
In either case, to simplify matters you would do well to concoct a Lion or ML bootable installer on a USB stick. In either case, you need to get the corresponding installer downloaded onto the hard drive and, instead of running it to execute the install, extract the coveted InstallESD.dmg image from which you construct the bootable installer. See here for details: https://discussions.apple.com/message/17782820#17782820 The procedure applies the same to both of the latest cat flavors.

How do i install snow leopard on a internal hard drive that was formatted for windows 7 in a i mac with out taking hard drive out im stuck on apple screen with start up disk in drive

Clean Install of Snow Leopard
Be sure to make a backup first because the following procedure will erase
the drive and everything on it.
     1. Boot the computer using the Snow Leopard Installer Disc or the Disc 1 that came
         with your computer. Insert the disc into the optical drive and restart the computer.
         After the chime press and hold down the "C" key. Release the key when you see
         a small spinning gear appear below the dark gray Apple logo.
     2. 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.
         After DU loads select the hard drive entry from the left side list (mfgr.'s ID and drive
         size.) Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window. Set the number of
         partitions to one (1) from the Partitions drop down menu, click on Options button
         and select GUID, click on OK, then set the format type to MacOS Extended
         (Journaled, if supported), then click on the Apply button.
     3. When the formatting has completed quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed
         with the OS X installation and follow the directions included with the installer.
     4. When the installation has completed your computer will Restart into the Setup
         Assistant. Be sure you configure your initial admin account with the exact same
         username and password that you used on your old drive. After you finish Setup
         Assistant will complete the installation after which you will be running a fresh
         install of OS X. You can now begin the update process by opening Software
         Update and installing all recommended updates to bring your installation current.
Download and install Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1.
Booting From An OS X Installer Disc
1. Insert OS X Installer Disc into the optical drive.
2. Restart the computer.
3. Immediately after the chime press and hold down the "C" key.
4. Release the key when the spinning gear below the dark gray Apple
      logo appears.
5. Wait for installer to finish loading.

Can I dual boot windows 7 and mountain lion with an external hard drive.

I have Mac OSX mountain lion installed and running on my 2TB external hard drive. Boot camp says that I have to use the default flash storage that came with my computer.. Is there a way to put it on my external hard drive if I partition it? I also am having a problem when I tried to use the default storage the setup would not let me format it to NTFS

By default, Boot Camp formats the drive with FAT32. That's because Windows XP could be installed with FAT32 so, in order to write on that partition on Mac OS X, Boot Camp used it instead of NTFS.
If you want to install Windows 7 (it's the only version that your Mac supports), you will have to format the Boot Camp partition in NTFS manually. To do it, just start the Windows installation as usual but, on partitioning screen, choose "BOOTCAMP" volume, press "Drive options" and then, Format, so the partition will be formatted in NTFS and you will be able to install Windows

Can i install an operating system on a mac with a wiped hard drive?

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