Help: Tried using disk install to erase and reinstall mac osx

Could someone please help me. I just bought a second hand macbook pro off someone and upon recieving it realised they hadn't erased everything and their user account was still set up and active as administrator. This means i'll have issues down the track doing updates etc.
I googled how to hard reset the computer to start from scratch and followed steps. Basically they were
1. Restart computer whilst holding down the command and r buttons (which I did)
2. When the wifi connection box comes up connect to reliable wifi (done)
3. Then it said go into the disk utility and erase the mac os extended disk (the problem here is 1. the steps didnt specify that it should be the macintosh HD disk erased and 2. It should be the mac os extended (journaled) version, i've just fogured this out after a lot more searching as to why the reinstall of mac OSX wouldn't then work)
now i'm freaking out that i've done irreperable damage given that the mac OSX base system (mac OS extended (non-journaled)) has been erased. Can anyone please tell me if this can be reinstalled? Or what I should do next?

Afoster88 wrote:
...Mac OS Extended' and 'name: mac OS X Base System' both greyed out along with the erase and security options (The option to erase is unavailable, so im assuming it means the mac os extended has been erased in this partition) (capacity: 1.39GB, available: 224.7 MB, used 1.17GB)
whereas in the macintosh HD partition nothing has been greyed out (so the option to erase is there, which im assuming means it hasn't been erased)
(capacity: 319.73GB, available: 319.3 GB, used 425MB).
Does this help explain the situation?
That does help. The reason why the Macintosh HD partition is the only one where nothing is greyed out is that that's where your new OS X installation should be targeted (note that it's the only partition with room for a full OS X installation as well as your own files and applications). The option to erase is available in case you want to, for some reason, erase it again. Remember, you're booting from the Recovery HD and that's a partition on your HD too. You aren't allowed to erase the partition you booted from (hence, it's greyed out), and, since it's normally hidden, as are others, such as the EFI, it shouldn't be messed with anyway.

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    Well, take into account I'm at a distance here & just guessing it's the HD, but yes, if it is that & you get it replaced, you should be able to install OSX just fine... and likely be much faster with a new HD in it.
    Here's some hard drives...
    http://tinyurl.com/aa4ae4
    http://www.powerbookmedic.com/Powerbook-iBook-Macbook-Hard-Drive-Upgrades-Pro-Po werbook--iBook-Hard-Drives-p-1-c-517.html
    Ultimately - should I be purchasing a new HD and putting it into this G4 - or look in to buying a new one altogether? ...I'd really rather not right now.
    Depends what you do with it & such, but if it meets your needs it may pay to have it fixed, but checkout the prices at the Apple Store on refurb MacBooks & MacBook Pros to better gauge for yourself.

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