Can I Re-install 10.6 on iMac hard drive without erasing drive?

My OSX based spell check for mail, text edit, and other programs that use the system spell check no longer have any spell or grammer check functions. I have isolated it to know it's the OS spell checking function, so now want to re-install my system. I have found the original system disks, and want to know if I have to wipe my entire hard drive in order erase and then install just the system? I have a Synchronize generated bootable backup of my entire hard drive, but then it will install the current system probably including whatever problems the system software has now. I suppose I can make another back up that is not the bootable kind, but I would really like to not lose all my settings on everything.
Any suggestions?

Installing an OS will not erase user data. With that said a backup is always wise to have. Use your original disks and then update to 10.6.8.
Ciao.

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I work for a university and we have a legal apple vendor.Can we re-install macosx for a replacement hard drive for a old macbook?Just one example.

I work for a university and we have a legal apple vendor who we get to buy all our Apple products from.Can we (university) re-install macosx for a replacement hard drive once the hard drive gets replaced? How can we as the university IT department legally re-install macosx on a imac,macbook, macbookair etc. We would like to load customized macosx imaging software onto the mac machines(imac, macbook, etc ). The university has its own IT workshop and we would like our users to get their laptops back in the shortest turnaround time.

We're not "Apple Inc." here, just users like you.
So whatever we say is not an official statement, nor does it in any way, shape, or form represent the official or unofficial policies or opinions of Apple, Inc.
But I'll offer my quick opinion, having worked in information-systems and technology support in a wide variety of environments over many years.
Question #1. "NO!"
No tech support nor repair facility, even if "Apple-authorized", is automatically empowered to install or upgrade OS X on a replacement hard drive just because it is more convenient or time-efficient. When the repair is complete, the student should be expected to (re)install the operating system themself*!
Nurturing students (and occasionally dragging them, screaming and kicking!) as budding computer-, tablet-, smartphone-users to become digitally self-sufficient is a worthy goal that any institution of higher education must pursue.
Making students totally dependent upon "Mother Support" for every little thing about their personal digital devices is a grave disservice to both the students and the people who provide the support. Support-mothered students do become life-long digital dependents, instead of taking the required time to learn enough about the care and feeding of their digital "pets" to sustain them. Entreprenurial students may choose to become 'experts' and actually help each other with their devices, and even make money doing it. Some students may even be inspired/coerced to pursue a career in tech support!!!
*By all means, if the student requests additional help (re-installing the OS), then the University should charge the student a fair price for the service, provided that the user provides the OS on original or upgrade media, or in the case of the 'digital download' upgrades (for OS X 10.7 and 10.8) provides proof of purchase for the OS upgrade, or the original purchase receipt or other recognized documentation for the purchase of the computer showing the version of OS installed when purchased. Students need to learn about personal responsibility, economics ("What is MY time really worth"?), and proper record-keeping too!
Question #2. Regarding the customized imaging software, provide it on media or a link for students to download and install it. Make it their responsibility!
Message was edited by: kostby

Can't locate restored files on new iMac Hard Drive

My hard drive failed on my iMac (Intel), Apple Store replaced the hard drive, brought it home, hooked up the Time Machine, selected a backup date, restore... it showed the content loading for 4 hours... once complete, the iMac still looks nothing like the old. Open the Macintosh HD and Info shows that the 230 GB transferred, but I can't find the folders anywhere. When actually opening the Macintosh HD, its only new folders and the new setup. Where do I find the restored content?

Hello, on the Desktop open Macitosh HD,look for the Ysers folder, is another User there?
Can you log into that othe user?

HT3910 can i just install snow leopard over 10.5.8 without erasing my hard drive?

can I?

Yes.
But make a very good backup first in case things do go bad (they can, even if it is rare).

Why can't I install safari on my IMac running Windows 7 under Bootcamp

Why can't I install safari on my IMac running Windows 7 under Bootcamp?

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1531?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
Is this the download you're trying?

Can I un-install Yosemite from my iMac and re-install Mountain Lion?

Can I un-install Yosemite from my iMac and re-install Mountain Lion?

Sorry to barge in like this but is it because you found it to have it's own way of doing stuff without your control? As i was thinking of doing the same thing because i found Mountain Lion much more user friendly.I know you came for an answer just was searching and came accross your question.
Hope you find the answer. good luck.

Why is not compatible with 10.7.4 version? can´t be installed in my computer iMac 24" 2,16 GHZ CORE DUO???

why is not compatible with 10.7.4 version? can´t be installed in my computer iMac 24" 2,16 GHZ CORE DUO???

Apple - OS X Mountain Lion - Read the technical specifications.
Macs that can be upgraded to OS X Mountain Lion
iMac (Mid 2007 or newer)
MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer)
MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer)
MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer)
Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer)
Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer)
Xserve (Early 2009)

Can i use a external thunderbolt harddrive to copy my imac hard drive.

how fast would a thunderbolt external hard drive be, if i were to copy my Imac hard drive as a backup or image. At the moment its taking 4 hours to copy 95gig using my USB external hard drive......Seems like forever!!!!!

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1948?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
Visit that link. It seems you should be able to but you would have to format the drive and install the operating system to it.
On the iMac, start it up and immeditely hold down Command + R. From there you can open disk utility and format it.

IMAC 24" screen went dead. Can I buy a mac compatible monitor and still use the IMAC hard drive?

IMAC 24" screen went dead. Can I buy a mac compatible monitor and still use the IMAC hard drive - which is still working? I took it to the Apple store and they quoted $500+to replace the monitor. No help as usual. Can I buy a MAC compatible monitor ($189) and use it as a primary monitor? Can I set it up if the screen on the IMAC is dead? Any other solutions?

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.

I have a new hard drive on my imac I want to sync my ipad(which has the files I lost when my old hard drive died), which holds the files I lost when my old hard drive died. How can I sync my ipad with my new hard drive?

My hard drive on my IMac died, so I have a new hard drive. I want to sync my Ipad(which has the files I lost when my old hard drive died) back with my IMac. How can I sync my Ipad with my new IMac hard drive without erasing my legacy files on the Ipad at the same time?

Copy everything from your backup copy of your cpomputer to your new hard drive.

Ello, I changed my Imac hard drive which no longer worked. I installed a hard drive Western Digital 500 GB 7200 rpm SATA3 WD5002AALX 32M Black. Sometimes I see the hard disk in the utility on the Starter CD, but access seems very slow. By cons when I want

Hello, I changed my Imac hard drive which no longer worked. I installed a hard drive
Western Digital 500 GB 7200 rpm SATA3 WD5002AALX 32M Black. Sometimes I see the hard disk in the utility on the Starter CD, but access seems very slow. By cons when I want
install OS X 10.4.2 on the hard drive, I do not see the disk. What is the problem?

Thanks for the help
I started on the installation CD OS X 10.4.2, I used Disk Utility
to partition the disk according to the document that you have proposed. unfortunately
I have not succeeded. When I partition the disk, even if I called it Macintosh HD, it
does not keep the name and it shows disk0s3 instead. I did an erase on disk.
When I mount the disk it tells me that I must repair. When I tried to repair, I got
the following message:
Volume check failed
The underflying task reported failure on exit
1 HFS volume checked
1 volume could not be repaired because of an error.
I also had a message:
Invalid b-tree node size.
Note: The disc is new, but it has already been formatted on a computer Imac 27 inch 2011 OS X Lion.
I used a USB 2.0 to SATA cable to adjust the formatting.
What to do to fix it?

My iMac can no longer find one of the external hard drive

My iMac can no longer find one of the external hard drive. It was finding it once in awhile and during one of those times I ran Disk Utility and all was OK. Any ideas?

Well duh. I restarted the router and then it was able to find the printer. There you go. Thanks.

I have two hard drives on my mac 10.5.8 power pc and hear the clickking sounds of the first hard drive and think that it may be dying, can I install everything on the other hard drive also and wait for the first drvie to die before i use the other drives

I have two hard drives on my mac 10.5.8 power pc and hear the clickking sounds of the first hard drive and think that it may be dying, can I install everything on the other hard drive also and wait for the first drive to die before i use the other drives? Or, what is the best way to handle this?

I do not know what you are waiting for.
I'd make a backup of your important stuff before cloning the entire disk.
Carbon Copy Cloner will copy your startup drive to an external firewire drive. You can boot from the external drive to verify that you have a good clone. When you upgrade your existing startup drive, you can at any time boot from your external drive and go back to your existing system.
http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html
SuperDuper is the wildly acclaimed program that makes recovery painless, because it makes creating a fully bootable backup painless. Its incredibly clear, friendly interface is understandable, easy to use, and SuperDuper's built-in scheduler makes it trivial to back up automatically. And it runs beautifully on both Intel and Power PC Macs!

I recently had the genius bar change my imac hard drive because it crashed. For some reason Time Machine didn't back up some of my important files. Can I get my damaged hard drive back from the genius bar to see if I can access that info?

I recently had the genius bar change my imac hard drive because it crashed. For some reason Time Machine didn't back up some of my important files. Can I get my damaged hard drive back from the genius bar to see if I can access that info?

Unfortunately, that drive is long gone, probably back to the mfr. Drives are not returned when they are exchanged. You can go by and ask them, but the chances are slim to none.

Can i install itunes on a portable hard drive

Can i install itunes to a portable hard drive? Also can I have more than one itunes library?
I have a very large cd collections and dont want to put all the files on my mac hard drive, would like to install or keepmthe cd on a portable drive

That was timely. I had the same question (new MBP with two drives) and you solved my question. Thank you. It works the same way you change Aperture Libraries, so it makes sense and is easy to remember.

Can I Re-install 10.6 on iMac hard drive without erasing drive?

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