How to proper reformat iMac OS X Tiger?

I want to proper reformat my 2006 model iMac. Got the installation cds but have tried unsuccessufully to reformat it. Always comes an error during installation or during leopard upgrade. I want to reformat my mac restoring the factory settings.

Hello, it may be a bad Drive, or just a bad sector...
How to format your disks...
http://macs.about.com/od/usingyourmac/qt/partition-types.htm
http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/partitioning_tiger.html
(To Install OSX on an IntelMac the Drive it needs the GUID Partitioning scheme mentioned at the bottom.)
(PPC Macs require APM Partition scheme.)
Thanks to Pondini, Formatting, Partitioning, Verifying, and Repairing Disks...
http://Pondini.org/OSX/DU.html
And/or...
1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
   2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu at the top of the screen. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
      *Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.*
   3. Click the Erase tab.
   4. Click the disclosure triangle to the left of the hard drive icon to display the names of your hard disk volumes and partitions.
   5. Select your Mac OS X volume.
   6. Highlight the drive, select Partition Tab, then Format type... MacOS Extended Journalled, select the Security Options button, choose Zero Out Data, Erase, one pass... after completion hopefully you'll be able to get a good install.

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How do i reformat imac hard drive and restore time machine backup?

How do I reformat my iMac internal hard drive and restore from a Time Machine backup?
I have an iMac 20" Mid 2007 with a problematic hard drive.
IntelCore 2 Duo, Processor speed 2 Ghz
800 Mhz Bus speed
4 GB RAM
250 GB Western Digital Hard Drive
10.6.3
Was getting a question mark upon booting up, so I booted from a 10.6.3 Snow Leopard CD and ran disk utility. Repair disk was interrupted with an error message. 'Disk utility can't repair disk. Backup files, reformat disk and restore backed up files.'
1. Should I select Erase, Mac OS Extended Journaled, Erase?
2. If I do this, won't I lose my networkability, and therefore lose access to Time Machine backups?
3. If it were you, would you go ahead and replace the hard drive? Not sure I should trust this hard drive!
4. If I need to replace the hard drive, can you send instructions?
Thanks!

Clean Install of Snow Leopard
     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.
If you have your Time Machine backup drive connected, then you can use Setup Assistant to migrate your Home folder, application support files, and third-party applications and system preference files. I recommend doing this via the Setup Assistant when the option appears.

How can I backup my iMac with a Tiger operating system?

I have an iMac with a Tiger operating system (10.4.11). I am intending to upgrade to Snow Leopard. When I spoke to an Apple representative, he said I should back up my computer before I upgraded to Leopard and then Snow Leopard as I could lose everything during the upgrade. This version of operating system (Tiger) does not have Time Machine. Can anyone tell me how I can back up everything before I do the upgrade?

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
The best option is to use a third-party app. I recommend you to use Carbon Copy Cloner, but you can have a look for more applications.
You should keep all your files and applications after upgrading, but you should have a backup. Also, I think you should be able to upgrade to Snow Leopard directly without upgrading to Leopard

Gratuitous kernel panic on my iMac G3 running Tiger. How can I prevent this

Ok, I know I probably shouldn't have installed Tiger on my G3 iMac so you don't need to remind me. However, it runs pretty good and I hardly ever even see the beachball spinning when I ask it to do something. What I am shocked, shocked by is the ridiculous amount of frequency that I end up with a kernel panic that gives me the 'gray screen' telling me I have to restart my Mac. I have been able to keep this down to a minimum by pointedly only running programs and commands one at a time with a good sized pause in between but even with that I am diappointed with how often it happens. Call me a heretic, but I think it would have killed Apple to stick with their classic OS framework rather than go to UNIX. I would like some tips about things I could do to minimize this occurence above what I already do. It really ***** to have had to reinstall Tiger about 3 or 4 times since I upgraded and have to change up the screen position, dock, desktop, mouse, screen saver, and reinstall all my programs after my iMac has croaked and finally accepted another reload of Tiger.

I'll ignore the major portion of your post which comes across as a rant and try to stick with the title: "kernel panic on my iMac G3 running Tiger. How can I prevent this?"
Kernel panics are usually caused by bad or marginal RAM or RAM that isn't seated properly, or by buggy or damaged software or drivers. In the past, problems with marginal RAM for Macs has shown up when people upgraded to new versions of the OS -- which might fit your situation.
Although your CPU is slow, you have lots of RAM, so Tiger should run OK, if the RAM is not defective. You don't mention how much free space you have on your hard drive. Typically you're going to need at least 5 Gig free to give Tiger breathing room.
Running a system maintenance utility like Yasu would probably also be beneficial:
http://jimmitchell.org/projects/yasu/
What does the hardware test for your Mac say about your system? This might help us determine if there is a hardware cause for the kernel panics.

Reformat iMac 2007

I have a 2007 iMac that had the hard drive replaced, operating system reinstalled and worked great. However something happen and some stuff became missing on the system. I reinstalled the system using the orginal disk and Snow Leopad and upgraded back to the current OS. Since I have reinstalled the system, I have a lot of issues with closing Safari, Finder and others that are open. I have a box that pops up after a while and ask me to force close programs and to relaunch Finder. In the box it says something about not enough space on the disk, something to that effect. It's obvious I did not reinstall the system properly, what is the proper way of reinstalling the system? Started with Leopard, then Snow Leopard and downloaded Mountain Lion from the app store which worked great before I had some stuff come up missing.
I have a 1TB hard drive and 4G of memory.

Sounds like there are a couple of things wrong.
1. When you erased and formatted the Hard Drive yourself using your Install or Upgrade DVD, did you return the drive back to 1 Partition in the Partitioning step...?
2. Not all, but many of your older 06' or 08' iLife App's from Tiger or Leopard will not run in Lion and will need to be purchased from the App Store.
The "not enough disk space" is a real problem and I would backup to an External HD if you have not already done so and start over from the beginning.
First off, exactly which Install Disc's do you have, because originally that iMac came with Tiger 10.4.10 and an Additional Software Disc set. Which means that both Leopard and Snow Leopard can only be upgraded using a Retail Upgrade DVD.
Second, if you are going to Lion (which is pushing that iMac) it might be better to Erase, Partition and Format using your white Snow Leopard Upgrade DVD, then upgrade to Lion and purchase newer versions of the iLife App's that you use. Besides you can always go back to your original Additional Software disc and get the older iLife App's that will still run in Lion.
To reinstall OS X from your original Disc set or a Retail Leopard / Snow Leopard Upgrade DVD
1. Boot from your original install disc set or uprade DVD and open Disk Utility.
2. Highlight the new HD in the list of drives and select the Partition tab.
3. Under Volume Scheme select 1 Partition and click on the Options... button.
4. Select GUID Partition Table in the drop down window and click OK.
5. Set the Format to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and click the Apply button.
6. Then do a clean Install from your original Disc set or Upgrade DVD.

Selling old mac, how do you reformat and restore?

I bought a mac mini off a friend and now I'm getting a new one but first I have to sell the mini.
My first question is how do I reformat my hard drive, I want to get rid of ALL of my files just to make sure nothing is on it that would compromise my security.
Also my friend didn't give me the restore discs. So does anyone know the repercusions of using another freinds restore discs?
I have a Mac Mini 10.4.11 with the superdrive and my friend who has restore discs has a iMac 10.4.11.

It might work for just the Disk Utility, to zero the drive, but it won't install OSX. If it doesn't work, create a new administrator account, logout, login to the new account, delete all other accounts and their data, empty the trash, then use Disk Utility to Erase Free Space. A single pass of zeros is enough.

How to connect new iMac to tv with a hdmi cord on one end and a thunderbolt on the other end

how to connect new iMac to tv with a hdmi cord on one end and a thunderbolt on the other end

You need a > Moshi Mini DP to HDMI Adapter with Audio Support - Apple Store (U.S.) to plug into the ThunderBolt port and an HDMI cable.

How do I stop iMac from going to sleep automatically after 15minutes of inactivity

How do I stop imac from shutting down automatically after 15minutes of inactivity, trying to play music but the imac keeps going to sleep, tried changing power saving preferences to never shut down, never go to sleep, unticked put the hard disks to sleep, automatically reduce brightness, but still goes to sleep.

Try a PRAM/NVRAM reset.
Resetting NVRAM / PRAM
Shut down your Mac.
Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command (⌘), Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
Turn on the computer.
Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys before the gray screen appears.
Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
Release the keys.
After resetting NVRAM or PRAM, you may need to reconfigure your settings for speaker volume, screen resolution, startup disk selection, and time zone information. If issues persist, your Mac's logic board battery may need to be replaced. The logic board battery helps retain NVRAM/PRAM settings when your computer is shut down. You can take your Mac to a Mac Genius or Apple Authorized Service Provider to replace the battery on the logic board.

How can I reformat my old mac air, since I have the new one

How can I reformat my old mac_book_air, since I have the new one?

I believe that would be because the usernames on the two computers are different. You will have to change the ownership of everything you copy over from the old computer or change the username on the new computer so it's the same as the one on the old computer. Doing this is a bit complcated:
OS X: How to change user account name or home directory name
Changing file ownership is a bit easier. If you have copied all the files from the old computer into the Home folder of the new computer then do this:
To fix Home folder permissions
Open the Terminal application in the Utilities folder. At the command line prompt enter or paste the following command line:
sudo chown -R `id -un`:`id -gn` ~
Press RETURN. You will be prompted to enter your admin password which will not be echoed.

How Do I Reformat The Hard Drive?

Hello,
I just bought aToshiba Satellite P505-S8940 laptop. It did not come with a recovery disk. I had to use their Recovery Disc Creator to make copies of 2 system recovery disks and 2 application disks. I would like to know how do I reformat the hard drive? Thanks!

Satellite P505-S8940
See the section Recovering the Internal Storage Drive, which begins on p. 62 of the User's Guide.
Satellite P500 Series User's Guide
-Jerry

How do i reformat my hard drive on mac mini late 2011 with yosemite before selling my mac

how do i reformat my hard drive on mac mini late 2011 with yosemite before selling my mac

You can't legally sell or give away that computer with Yosemite installed.
Before you sell or give away your computer, in addition to the steps listed in this support article, take these steps:
1. Run Apple Diagnostics or the Apple Hardware Test. The buyer will do this (or he should), and you don't want to be surprised by the results.
2. Reset the PRAM and the SMC, which might contain personal information.
3. If you set a firmware password, remove it by running Firmware Password Utility in Recovery mode.
4. If you activated FileVault in OS X 10.7 or later, turn it off.
5. If you use Boot Camp, the partition must be deleted.
6. If you created any other data partitions on the internal drive, remove them in Disk Utility.
7. If the machine has an internal hard drive, erase the one remaining data partition with the option to zero out data. An SSD doesn't need to be zeroed.
You can't legally or practically transfer any software downloaded from the Mac App Store to the new owner of the machine, even if it was free. That includes OS X, so if you upgraded to OS X 10.7 or later, you must reinstall an older OS, either from the installation media, if applicable, or by starting up in Internet Recovery mode (option-command-R at the startup chime.) If you installed from physical media, deliver those to the new owner.
If you're selling the machine, or donating it in working order, and it originally shipped with OS X 10.4 or 10.5, then you have the option of installing either from the discs that came with it or from a retail Snow Leopard disc (which you must then transfer to the buyer.) The buyer should understand that if he doesn't get the original discs from you, he won't get the bundled iLife applications or the Apple Hardware Test. Replacements for the original discs can be ordered from Apple.
The new owner will have to redownload any software that came from the App Store, including OS X upgrades, under his or her Apple ID. If you ever updated the bundled iLife applications (Garage Band, iMovie, and iPhoto) through the App Store, you can't transfer those either. The buyer will have to purchase them.
Remove the machine from your list of registered products. If it's still covered by an AppleCare Protection Plan, transfer the coverage to the new owner by following the instructions in the AppleCare Terms and Conditions (under the heading "Transfer of Plan.")

How do I reformat hard drive without affecting recovery partition?

I would like to know how I can reformat my Toshiba hard drive without affecting the hidden recovery partition? I would like to get rid of the preinstalled Windows 7 OS and replace it with Windows XP, which is not as bloated. Also, does anyone know of a good 'free' disk scrubber program? I actually have the original 'disk scrubber' software, but the software disk just won't work any more. Finally, I tried to get the computer ready for the drive scrubbing, but I still can't change the disk order on my Toshiba laptop. I did get into the 'bios' screen by hitting the F8 key on startup, which did bring up the 'boot menu' screen. When I selected the cd/dvd drive and then hit the F10 key to save the change, nothing happened! I put in a data disk, but the laptop still booted into the Windows 7 OS. If I can't get the laptop to boot into the cd/dvd drive, I don't think that I can erase the hard drive and put Windows XP on since I wouldn't be able to boot up the laptop with the Windwos XP disk. Is that true? Anyway, without changing the boot order, I can't do anything. Please help! Thanks!

If you use the recovery that is on the hidden partition (hold down the zero key while starting up computer) then your OS reinstall will not affect that hidden partition, just overwrite the c: drive.
L305-S5955, T9300 Intel Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM, 60GB SSD, Win 7 Ultimate 64-bit

When insert my lexar USB flash drive I get the message that the disk was not readable by this computer. It has worked previous to this and I do not want to lose the data by reformatting the drive. How can I reformat this drive and not lose my data?

When insert my lexar USB flash drive I get the message that the disk was not readable by this computer. It has worked previous to this and I do not want to lose the data by reformatting the drive. How can I reformat this drive and not lose my data?

You can't reformat it and not wipe everything on it.
Have you tried a different USB port?
Only other option, back it up on a different computer.

How can i reformat my harddrive using the recovery disk stored in partition drive?

hi guys! i need help. i need to reformat my harddrive and i will do this for the first time. however, i was not ablt to make the recovery disk since i purchased the tx2 1275dx laptop last july 2009. what i have is a recovery disk stored in a partition harddrive. how can i reformat my cpmputer using the recovery disk in partition harddrive? my OS is windows vista. thank you...

Hi,
Shutdown the notebook. Tap away at f11 as you start to access Recovery Manager which you can then use to reinstall the Operating System.
Regards,
DP-K
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Microsoft MVP - Windows Experience

How do I reformat my External Hard Drive (Seagate Backup Plus).

Hello everyone. How do I reformat my External Hard Drive (Seagate Backup Plus Portable Device). I accidentally clicked to use it with Time Machine and my hard drive is of little use now. When I open my hard drive, it just shows 'backup', the same thing when I open it with Windows. Thinking of reformatting it back to be used to Mac and Windows. And not use it again with Time Machine. New to Apple, appreciate the help

Hello,
"Thinking of reformatting it back to be used to Mac and Windows. And not use it again with Time Machine"
If you want to format the External drive as universally compatible, your best bet is to format it as exFAT. Note that reformatting the drive erases all contents of the drive.
1) Open Disk Utility located in /Applications/Utilities/ (or simply type it in spotlight and the application will show up)
2) Select the external Hard drive
3) Click the 'erase' tab.
4) Under format: select exFAT
5) Click "Erase" in the lower right hand corner to reformat the drive.

How to proper reformat iMac OS X Tiger?

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