How can I do a clean reinstall of Lion?

I bought a new MacBook Pro in August with Lion pre-installed and I want to restore it completely to factory settings, how do I do this? Also how do I get iLife back after the reinstall?
Will this work?
Hold down command + R in restart
Open Disk Utility
Wipe the hard drive
Re-install Lion from the Recovery screen

Install or Reinstall Lion from Scratch
If possible backup your files to an external drive or second internal 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:
Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
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 Erase tab in the DU main window.
Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Erase button and wait until the process has completed.
Quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion: Select Reinstall Lion and click on the Install button.
Note: You can also re-download the Lion installer by opening the App Store application. Hold down the OPTION key and click on the Purchases icon in the toolbar. You should now see an active Install button to the right of your Lion purchase entry. There are situations in which this will not work. For example, if you are already booted into the Lion you originally purchased with your Apple ID or if an instance of the Lion installer is located anywhere on your computer.
You will need to have an active internet connection. Ethernet is preferable and faster, but wireless will also work.
You three iLife apps should be pre-registered at the App Store where you can re-download them.

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How can I do a "clean" install of Lion

I have installed Lion over several successively upgraded versions of OS X and I'm now finding my system very wonky, with more and more small glitches and the occasional freeze. I'd like to simply start over and install it clean but, having bought the App Store rather than thumb drive version, how can I do this?
Edward

You can do this very easily. You can reboot in recovery mode by holding down command-R at startup, where you can erase the hard drive and reinstall the system from scratch. However, you'll have to re-download it that way. A better alternative is to re-download the installer from the App Store and then use it to make a bootable Lion install disk. (I put it on an 8 GB flash drive, myself.)
However, note that there are probably some easier solutions. Take a look at some of the suggestions in the second half of Understanding upgrade nightmares*.
* Disclaimer: links to my pages may give me compensation, and should not be taken as endorsement of my services by Apple.

How can I do a clean install of Mountain Lion?

I have an older MacBook Pro that I'm selling. I upgraded to Mounbtain Lion, but there was not an option to do a clean install (wiping everything clean and starting fresh). I want to do this to make sure all of my data is removed before I sell it. How can I do a clean install of Mountain Lion in order to accomplish this? In the past, from DVDs, it was easy. Thanks!

Budrew wrote:
Sure, but I would imagine that it will be common for people to sell their Macs with upgraded OSs.
That was only OK when you bought the Upgrade DVD and included both the original system discs and the disc you used to upgrade the OS.
Since Apple has now gone to the Download only model of OS X you now always need to install the Original OS or an Upgraded version that you have the DVD disc for.
If a Mac came with Leopard and you upgraded to Snow Leopard and then to Lion or Mt Lion you must remove Lion or Mt Lion and reinstall either Leopard or Snow Leopard and include all the discs for that system, Originals and the Upgrde Snow Leopard DVD.
If your system came Snow Leopard and you installed Lion or Mt Lion thenn again you remoeve Lion or Mt Lion and reinstall Snow Leopard and include the original discs that came with the system
If your system came with Lion and you upgraded to Mt Lion then you remove Mt Lion and reinstall Lion.
The reason for all of that is because with the Download only OS all upgrades are TIED to YOUR Apple ID, not to the computer. So the new owner can not reinstall Lion or Mt Lion, whichever you upgraded to, without using your Apple ID.

How can I do a clean install after doing an update using a volume purchase license?

My question is this: We purchased 20 licenses of Lion through the Volume Purchase program. 2 of the users installed it first doing an upgrade - now they have decided they want to do a clean install. How can they do a clean install - I can't give them the installer cd we created because I have been informed by Apple Sales that it will use another license from our quantity of 20 - but they offered no other solution.
We would rather not waste another license just to do a clean install.
Thanks!

Install or Reinstall Lion from Scratch
If possible backup your files to an external drive or second internal 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:
Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
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 Erase tab in the DU main window.
Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Erase button and wait until the process has completed.
Quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion: Select Reinstall Lion and click on the Install button.
Note: You can also re-download the Lion installer by opening the App Store application. Hold down the OPTION key and click on the Purchases icon in the toolbar. You should now see an active Install button to the right of your Lion purchase entry. There are situations in which this will not work. For example, if you are already booted into the Lion you originally purchased with your Apple ID or if an instance of the Lion installer is located anywhere on your computer.
This method relies on the Internet Recovery system. This is the standard procedure when you don't have an installer or Lion came pre-installed.

How can I clear CC to reinstall PS?

I uninstalled photoshop but CC says I still have it. How can I clear CC to reinstall PS again?
MacBook Pro
[email protected]

Use the CC Cleaner tool to remove residual PS files.
http://helpx.adobe.com/creative-suite/kb/cs5-cleaner-tool-installation-problems.html
Nancy O.

How can I uninstall yosemite and reinstall Loin with out losing all my in formation and programs

How can I uninstall Yosemite and reinstall Loin with out losing all my in formation and programsThis had been the worst os system apple has come out, too many errors
too many to list.
a few
Losing all mail. and watching them disappear in front of my eyes and could nothing about it
also when accessing cloud the screen just rolls in when accessing mail, like loading and loading and loading for 1 to 2 minuets.
I did not up grade my Mac Book Pro, and is working fine,
Just my iMac, its act kile avid card and it only happens access iCloud mail.
so I want to and need to go back to Loin

You can't unless you have a current backup of your old Lion system because the first thing you must do is erase the drive. It 's possible to use Target Disk Mode between your iMac and the MBP in order to clone the MBP to the iMac. However, that will still erase everything on the iMac's drive.
Or you could see about getting Yosemite to work correctly. If you have IMAP mail, then your mail should be intact.
Try these in order testing your system after each to see if it's back to normal:
1. a. Resetting your Mac's PRAM and NVRAM
    b. Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)
2. Restart the computer in Safe Mode, then restart again, normally. If this doesn't help, then:
Boot to the Recovery HD: Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the Utilities 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.
3. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the Utilities 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. Select Restart from the Apple menu.
4. Reinstall Yosemite: Reboot from the Recovery HD. Select Reinstall OS X from the Utilities menu, and click on the Continue button.
Download and install the 10.10.1 update.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible
            because it is three times faster than wireless.
5. Reinstall Yosemite from Scratch:
Download and install the 10.10.1 update.
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.
How to Clean Install OS X Yosemite
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible
            because it is three times faster than wireless.

How can I do a clean uninstall of packages built from source?

I want to remove older versions of Ruby (but not the one packaged with Snow Leopard) from my development machine. I have a couple versions that were built from source that are unused now. How can I do a clean uninstall of those types of packages? I don't think there is any "make" command that will uninstall, so other than just deleting the folders that I think contains the older versions, I'm not sure how else to do it. Any ideas?

mickey13, if its Makefile doesn’t have a target for uninstalling, then the next best thing would be to run *make -n install 2>&1 > /tmp/install* to get a list of what it does at installation time, and then edit the /tmp/install file to remove the files that it copied over on installation (or to undo the edits that it made to previously existing files).

Can I do a clean install of Lion, onto my Mac Book Pro4,1, that is currently running 10.5.8? I have seen U-tube videos on how to do a clean install to Snow Leopard, and another from SL to Lion, but can zero out my HD, and do a clean install to Lion?

Can I do a clean install of Lion, onto my Mac Book Pro4,1, that is currently running 10.5.8? I have seen U-tube videos on how to do a clean install to Snow Leopard, and another from SL to Lion, but can zero out my HD, and do a clean install to Lion?

See this article.

No matter how many times I start itunes on my pc I have to agree to the terms of service gain and when it does open my settings have all been changed. why is it doing this and how can I satop it? reinstalling does not fix it.

No matter how many times I start itunes on my pc I have to agree to the terms of service again and when it does open my settings have all been changed. Why is it doing this and how can I stop it? Reinstalling/repairing does not fix it.

McAfee AntiVirus by any chance? See the thread Why does iTunes delete my itunesprefs.xml?
Or it could be an issue with the SC Info folder. See TS1277 - iTunes: Missing folder or incorrect permissions may prevent authorization for details.
Or a repair install of iTunes from the Programs and Features control panel might fix the problem.
tt2

Laptop running too slow how can i run a clean up application or system check.

My Laptop is running too slow and is constantly buffeting, how can i run some clean up software or a system check.

If your Mac runs slowly:
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH19031?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
Start up in Safe Mode. http://support.apple.com/kb/PH18760
Reset SMC. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
Choose the method for:
"Resetting SMC on portables with a battery you should not remove on your own".
Repair Disk
Steps 1 through 7
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH5836
Run EtreCheck for a system report.
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6173
FileVault encryption may make the Mac run slowly after installing new version of OS X.

How can I uninstall Maverick and reinstall snow leopard? My mac hasn't been the same since I upgrading to maverick. Runs slow, crashes, can't cope with normal functions.... Help, please help

How can I uninstall Maverick and reinstall snow leopard?
My mac hasn't been the same since I upgrading to maverick. Runs slow, crashes, can't cope with normal functions....
I need to go back to leopard or buy a new MacBook Pro!
Help, please help

Revert to a Previous OS X
Revert to former OS from Mavericks
Revert to Snow Leopard

How do I do a clean install from Lion download

how do I do a clean install from Lion download ?
My old tower will only stretch to Lion which I have had to download and installed it following the instructions.
My local Applestore genius has told me to do a clean install but I don't have or can't find a copy of the Lion osX to use.
Applegadge

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
If you are already using OS X Lion, use OS X Recovery to reinstall OS X and erase the disk. See > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718
Follow these steps:
1. Make a backup of the data you don't want to lose after erasing the hard disk.
2. Start your computer holding Command and R keys to start in OS X Recovery, and open Disk Utility.
3. Choose "Macintosh HD" or the OS X partition in the sidebar, go to the Erase tab and erase the disk.
4. Close Disk Utility and reinstall OS X

How do I perform a clean install of Lion Server?

There seem to be many sites documenting how to pull out the ESD image and burn a bootable copy of Lion.
What I'd like to know is how do I perform a clean installation of Lion Server?
Is it possible to just install Lion and then open the App Store and install from Purchase without being charged again?

Okay....so Apple does have a guide related to Mass deployment which includes a rough way to do a clean OS X Server clean install. You need to use a NetBoot Lion Server as a boot, but it works.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4746
Use these steps to create a NetRestore image of an un-configured Lion Server:
Install OS X Lion, and then Lion Server. This server will be used to create the NetRestore image.
On the server, install the app named "Install Mac OS X Lion" from the Mac App Store (a network connection is required for this process).
Install the Server Admin Tools from http://support.apple.com/downloads/ on the server.
Open the "Install Mac OS X Lion" application, and install to an empty volume. This volume can be a spare partition or external hard drive. Be sure to click the Customize button and to select the Lion Server software.
Once installation is complete, the server will restart from the newly installed volume. Instead of completing the setup assistant, press Command-Q to quit the assistant.
Select the option to shut the server down.
Restart the server and hold the Option key.
When the Startup Manager appears, select the volume which you've already configured Lion Server on.
Open System Image Utility and create a NetRestore image from the newly installed (and still un-configured) volume. If you'd prefer to image the volume after it has already been configured, you can proceed with the setup assistant before booting back to the original installation created in step 1.

MacBook pro does not start. How can I back to Mac OS X Lion?

I have a MacBook Pro. On my MacBook i made three partition, then I installed window 8. After that I started windos and try to delete third partition by Administrator tool from windows operating system. After that my MacBook does not start. How can I back to Mac OS X Lion?
After that I again install windows 8 from a DVD. Windows start well, but I can not start Mac OS system, may be it was 10.6. Sever times I tried to install OS X Lion 10.7 thought DVD, I could not. On MacBook I have a lot of important data.
What can I do. I want to a complete suggestion. Please help me to solve the problem.
My MacBook Pro model no. A1286.

You installed Windows improperly the result of which was to wipe out the bootloader for OS X. You can give this a try:
Boot Using OPTION key:
1. Restart the computer.
2. Immediately after the chime press and hold down the
"OPTION" key.
3. Release the key when the boot manager appears.
4. Select the OS X disk icon from which you want to boot.
5. Click on the arrow button below the icon.
If you are still unable to boot from the OS X volume then you will need to reinstall OS X:
Reinstall OS X without erasing the drive
1. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
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. 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 installer.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
2. Reinstall Snow Leopard
If the drive is OK then quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed with reinstalling OS X. Note that the Snow Leopard installer will not erase your drive or disturb your files. After installing a fresh copy of OS X the installer will move your Home folder, third-party applications, support items, and network preferences into the newly installed system.
Download and install Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1.
This will destroy the Windows bootloader so you cannot boot into Windows. The solution is to remove all the partitions on the drive except the OS X partition, then expand the OS X partition to take up the entire drive.
Use Boot Camp Assistant in the Utilities folder to create a Windows partition on which you can install Windows. You cannot have any other partitions on the drive besides these two.
Now given all the above you may be able to install a third-party bootloader that would work with the setup you now have: Boot Runner 1.4.

How can I reload my copy of Mac lion aftre ereasing the hard disk.

How can I redownload my copy of mac lion again?? I downloaded the the copy via
OS X Lion Up to Date Program then and due to some issues in the copy I tried to reinstall mac lion through rcovery tools upon booting but I received this message " a server with the specified host couldnt be found". then I used the original dvd to boot the system and install leopard via erasing the hard disk.

You can go to the Apple online store and purcahse a copy of Mountain Lion. This will give you a redemption code, which you can use to download Mountain Lion from the App Store. Unfortuantely, I'm not aware of any other way to legally purchase it. I have never seen Apple release Muontain Lion on DVD.
In terms of Apple Service, they just need the serial number of the machine to check the purcahse date. It is usually correct, to within a few weeks. A quick Google search should give you the correct number to dial.
I hope this helps.

How can I do a clean reinstall of Lion?

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