How to clean hard drive

how to clean hard drive

Backup clone. Boot off the other drive. Reformat. Do a clean install. Run Setup Assistant. And of yes, upgrade to a new drive or SSD.
Otherwise, just be sure you have 1/3 free space or more.

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Clean hard drive before selling; how do i get mountain lion on a disk for re-install?

Hope to resell old macbook pro and wish to clean hard drive. Need a CD of OSX to reinstall after cleaning. How do I get mountain lion on a CD?

Mountain Lion does not come on discs of any kind. But you don't need one. You'll find instructions for getting your machine ready for sale here:
How to prepare your Mac for sale

How to wipe hard drive bc selling computer and want all passwords/personal info gone? etc

how to wipe hard drive bc selling computer and want all passwords/personal info gone?

You need to boot the computer from another source, e.g. a CD or an external drive. Then run Disk Utility, select the drive you want cleaned up, and run Erase. Note the security options: "write zeroes" will erase the drive completely.

Booting off a clean hard drive.....

Hello, everyone....
I am running ZENworks 7 and I think it is fairly up to date.
I have a laptop with a clean hard drive. The drive was formatted and then it
was put into a Lenovo T500 laptop. As far as I know, it have never been
touched by anything ZENworks related.
Now, when I boot up the computer, a ZENworks pre-boot sequence starts.
How do I get this to stop? I would like it see the message that there is no
operating system.
Thanks.
Delon E. Weuve
Senior Network Engineer
Office of Auditor of State
State of Iowa
United States of America

Boot from the imaging iso cd
select Custom to boot up and get a linux prompt
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda count=64
sync
reboot
The above process is non reversible - all partitions will be lost. So be sure you are erasing the correct system. :-)
This blasts the MBR, image safe data, and makes the disk look factory fresh. Its easy to construct a bootab Linux DVD that does this in an unattended way in case you have a lot of workstations to process. Its also a good way of getting rid of MBR root kits which re-imaging will not get rid of.
-- Bob

How come my hard drive is not showing up on the desktop?

How come my hard drive is not showing up on the desktop?

Those are preferences you speify from INSIDE The Finder:
Finder > Preferences:

How do I find how large my Hard Drive is? Please help!

Recently been getting messages saying that my startup disk is full. And I'm thinking about getting a Time Capsule. But the thing is, I can't find out how big my hard drive is. I clicked the apple, then About this mac, and I could only find "Memory", which was only 1 GB. I know that can't be it, because my iTunes is over 90 GB. But I can't find the hard drive. Either I'm blind, or it's not there.
Please help
Thanks

Click more info in the about this mac pop up. Then under Serial-ATA. This will give you the size.
You can also click on your drive in finder and choose Get Info. This will also let you see the size.

I've ordered a new mac book pro 15" and i need to clean hard drive off my old PC...not really to move them to the mac, but just to save in case needed; mostly pics and office docs....any suggestions?

I've ordered a new mac book pro 15" and i need to clean hard drive off my old PC...not really to move them to the mac, but just to save in case needed; mostly pics and office docs....any suggestions?

Buy an external USB hard drive and copy your data to it. Either that or burn them all to single or double layer DVDs (depending on amount of data you have). Or if it's really a small amount, consider putting it all on a USB memory stick.

How to replace hard drive in macbook pro?

How to replace hard drive in macbook pro?

Hi S,
If you have the newer unibody style, it's very easy. If it's one of the earlier models, it's considerably more difficult. Go to Apple Menu > About This Mac > More Info > Hardware and find your Model Identifier. Then go to ifixit.com, or powerbookmedic.com or macsales.com or youtube or others and there are illustrated, detailed directions. Good luck to you and post back if you have further questions.

How to install hard drive into mac pro

how to install hard drive into mac pro

I recently bought a new 2TB internal sata drive for my Macpro.
The installation was easy, but I'm not sure what to do next.
For one, should I partition the drive?
My purpose for buying the drive was to use it as my go to drive for Parallels. I used to run my music studio on Windows based machines, and my older project files require a windows OS to recover. I installed Parallels so I can have my studio running Mac and Windows programs which will enable me to access my old project files and take them into my newer Protools system.
So now, I've installed my new hard drive, but I'm not sure if I should partition it....And!? I'm not sure how to designate that drive for my virtual pc on Parallels. I was able to allocate enough disk space to parallels in order to load my music software, but at this point, I'm not sure if I've just promised it disk space from my original partitioned drive (which only has about 350 GB left on it).
I would love to be able to make one internal drive available for Parallels, and the other available for the rest of my OSX. When I use Parallels, I still would like to save some extra information on the 2TB drive as well from my dekstop running OSX.
I hope this makes sense! Your help is much appreciated!

How to check hard drive health

My mac pro starts up and shuts down very slow. Anyone know how to check hard drive health?

Normally if you have a hard drive problem it manifests itself with delays, periodic locks-ups, I/O errors, etc.during notrmal use, not just start ups and slow downs.
Never the less, you asked how you check the health of a drive, so I'll answer.
You can check the SMART status of your drive with Disk Utility or a free tool like smartctl in the smartmontools package. Disk Utility will typically report the SMART status of your drive as "verified" or a message associated with a type of failure right in the Disk Utility window. SMART status will be reported on most internal drives and Thunderbolt drives. More elaborate SMART information can often be obtained with newer OS versions by clicking on the "info" button. SMART is a reporting technology and will only report on errors after they occur. Many in the industry are highly critical of SMART, with a recent study by Google on hard drive problems indicating that it did a poor job indicating impending problems.
Other tools such as Scannerz (http://scsc-online.com/Scannerz.html), TechTool Pro (http://www.micromat.com/products/techtool-pro) and Drive Genius (http://www.prosofteng.com/products/drive_genius.php) do, IMHO, a better job of testing because surface scans can detect errors not detected by SMART yet, and all three of them do those tests. Personally I like Scannerz myself because it's to the point, hardware testing oriented, and can expose other system problems like cable problems, whereas the others are more like swiss army knife tools with a lot of features that may or may not be of use to end users. Some of the people on this site will swear by these tools, whereas others will swear at them. All three of these also monitor SMART status in one way or another.
With software tools out of the way, I'd have to agree with all previous posts, because it doesn't sound like it's probably a hard drive problem. Yes, it possibly could be, it's just that slow start ups and shutdowns are usually caused by too many apps being saved in an "on" state. Any time the system starts, it has to re-load them and resume them as best as it can, and then any time it gets shut down it must save all that information and this all takes time. (I'm assuming Lion or newer operating system is in use). This is often the most likely cause in Lion, Mountain Lion, and Mavericks.
There are other possibilities, but you should probably ellaborate on the problem a bit more.

How to find hard drives connected to router on my mac

how to find hard drives connected to router on my mac

Hello Thatguy1233,
It sounds like you have a Time Machine back up of your computer that you would like to restore. You may be able to use the following article to restore that backup:
OS X Lion: Recover your entire system
http://support.apple.com/kb/ph4351
Make sure your Time Machine backup disk is connected and turned on. If your backup disk is on a network, make sure your computer is on the same network.
Choose Apple menu > Restart, and then hold down the Command (⌘) and R keys while the computer restarts.
Select “Restore from a Time Machine Backup,” and then click Continue.
Depending on your type of backup disk, do one of the following:
If you use an external disk, select it and click Continue.
If you use a Time Capsule, choose your AirPort network from the AirPort menu on the right side of the menu bar, and then select your Time Capsule and click “Connect to Remote Disk.”
If you use a network disk, select it and click “Connect to Remote Disk.”
If necessary, enter the name and password you use to connect to your backup disk, and then click Connect.
Select the date and time of the backup you want to restore, and then follow the onscreen instructions.
After you restore your system from a Time Machine backup, Time Machine may perform a full backup at the next scheduled backup time. This is normal. Time Machine resumes incremental backups after the full backup is completed.
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
Take care,
Sterling

About to sell my macbook, how to wipe hard drive clean

I'm about to sell my macbook (I've upgraded) , how would I wipe the hard drive, the whole computer for that matter, clean of all websites I've visited, passwords etc?
Anything else you can suggest? Like clear all bookmarks,and in Safari pull down menu, I guess 'reset safari' and 'empty cache' too, etc?
And in Accounts under System preferences can I change the name? I see I can change the password, sorry I'm not too computer proficient...I hate to miss something.
Thanks all

Here's what you need to do:
1. Re-install Mac OS (don't choose an option that keeps the old files, wipe it clean!)
2. After re-installing, open Disk Utility, and run the Erase Free Space utility on your newly formatted drive. This will ensure that your old files can't be recovered.
If you want your personal data off of your Macbook, simply doing step one will NOT be enough!!! Erasing and deleting are two different things. (Step one deletes, step 2 erases.)
Also, what chipperz posted should work.
Message was edited by: musicmannn

How to clear hard drive?

Hi there
Soon I am giving my powerbook 12" to a friend. How do I clear off my hard drive of all my personal data (i.e., restore back to original)
Thanks for any help you all can give me.

Actually, there are only three options available for a secure erase. (I wondered about that "17-pass" option since it doesn't exist). There is the "Zero Out" option, the "7-pass" option which zeroes out your data seven times, and then the "35-pass" erase that I mentioned which zeroes out, of course, thirty-five times.
Now for the most infamous answer of all to your new predicament. One that I always give out. Target Disk Mode.
You can do this by connecting your PowerBook to another Mac capable of running/installing the version of Mac OS X that's on your disc. Trouble is, this can only be done--because you have the original discs, not retail versions (or are they retail?)--on a similar model PowerBook. (Or if you have retail versions of the disc, since that runs on any machine).
Though I wonder if it would work if it detects a compatible system, your PowerBook, and goes through with the installation process.
Long story short, Target Disk Mode allows you to do many things, but in your specific case, now that I've gone into it, it might not work with original restore/install discs. (That's a first for me... giving a solution that won't work because of a rare stumbling block).
Target Disk Mode is usually for transferring files, but you can also do it to install software to other computers that may have a faulty optical drive. For instance, if you wanted to install, say, iLife '08 on your PowerBook, you connect it to another Mac with the disc running, and then under Target Disk Mode, select your PowerBook as the destination volume.
Message was edited by: Pismo 900
You know, you can do a simple method of deleting your files. Any files that you created yourself and know you did, simply put those in the trash. When you've found all your files, do a "Secure Empty Trash" from the file menu instead of the regular empty trash method. The only other thing I see that would need to be deleted are preference files (this is more risky because if you throw something out that the system needs, there could be conflicts... back in the days of Mac OS 9, it was easy to just pick and choose things to throw out. Not with Mac OS X) from things like Safari, iTunes, iPhoto, and any other place with personal info, like Address Book, iCal, etc.
The other big thing would be your user account itself. You'd have to rename it (the short name can't be changed without using third-party software), change the password to something else or just leave it blank so your friend can use it. The problem there is that even though the password is changed, I've found that the system will sometimes look for an original password for things like Keychain Access, etc. So your friend might want to install something new, or could be just working in Safari, and a pop up dialog box might come up asking for a keychain password or admin password (other than the new one).
So I guess the real thing to do is completely reformat your hard drive to pack it all up and make it clean and usable from the start. =(

How to prepare hard drive for installaton of PSE 13 upgrade

I would like to install PSE 13 upgrade on a notebook where I have PSE 5 installed. How should I prepare the hard drive for the installation? Should I uninstall PSE 5 before installling PSE 13? I have found that uninstall programs leave files behind does Adobe have a cleaning tool?
The notebook is a Dell, Latitude E6400, Intel Core 2 Duo CPU 2.27GHz 2 GB RAM
32-bit operating system, Windows 7 Ultimate Service Pack 1

KCav45 we do have the CC Cleaner Tool available at Use the CC Cleaner Tool to solve installation problems | CC, CS3-CS6. The most which it would remove from Photoshop Elements 5 would be the licensing files. Even for Photoshop Elements 13 the uninstaller must be run first and only the licensing files are affected.
I would recommend running the uninstaller available through the Programs and Features Control Panel to remove the Photoshop Elements 5 installation. Your photos should not be affected.
I did find Use Backup, Restore to move catalog | Organizer | Elements 6 or later although I am unsure if it is relevant for Photoshop Elements 5. If you have questions regarding transferring the photos, and any tags or organization you have done, to Photoshop Elements 13 I would recommend posting in the Photoshop Elements forum at Photoshop Elements. The community in that forum will be more familiar with the topic of moving your photos.

How to extend hard drive

I am just running out of room on my HDD so I was wondering what people think is the best way to extend storage on the iMac? And what hardware do they reccommed and even what type of configuration do they use? Is there a special system (do I need to use RAID)?
My thought is to create a new drive for itunes, photos and documents, but I have 2 other uses in the family with their own profile, and I want to know how it all effects them and Time Machine? Should I look into a SSHD for speed or is their an alternative?
Well any thoughts would be helpful.

I would definitely invest in two external hard drives.One for just data storage and for creating another bootable copy of OS X to run off on if something should happen to the internal hard drive.
And use the second drive for Time Machine backups only.
You can use twomof the same capacity storage drives, if you want or your can have the Time Machine backup drive larger if you prefer.
The easiest way to transfer everything from your internal hard drive to the new external drive is to first format the drive, using OS X Disk Utility. Formatting as an Mac OS X extended journaled format, using the GUID partition scheme.
Then use a data cloning app such as CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper to completely clone your iMac's internal hard drive to the new external drive. This will make a completely bootable external drive.
Once you are convinced that everything is on the external drive, you can go into iTunes and iPhoto and redirect their libraries via the last part of the instructions I have linked here.
Then, you can start deleting all of the large folders and files off of the internal drive and start cleaning it out.
Here is the link to just properly moving both your iTunes and iPhoto libraries to an external drive.
If you use the data cloning method, I describe earlier, then you only need to concern yourself with redirecting where both iTunes and iPhoto to the libraries on the new external drive.
http://mac.tutsplus.com/tutorials/media/how-to-move-your-itunes-iphoto-or-apertu re-library-to-an-external-drive/
As far as hard drives go, I prefer either FireWire 800 or Thunderbolt ext. hard drives. Especially a fast connect drive for a bootable drive. You do not mention what year, screen size, CPU speed of your iMac. So, it may not have Thunderbolt connections.
My preferences are for ext. hard drives from OWC (macsales.com). Their Mercury Pro line and Mini stack lines of ext. HDs are great! The Mini stack line leaves a smaller footprint on your tabletop.
I, also, use Lacie ext hard drives. These are built like a rock, too, and have real good longevity.
You could use one of these for your second hard drive just for Time Machine.
Good Luck!

How to clean hard drive

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