How To Wipe Hard Drive and Install Mavricks.

Hello,
So I want to erase my hard drive completely and install mavricks back on to it. From reading other articals some said that if your computer originaly came with Mountain Lion (mine did) that you DON'T need a install disk. So now im lost in the confusion. What I want to know is how to completely Erase The HD and istall Mountain Lion Again. The way Apple told me to do it was after I click erase on the HD (throught DU) a window would pop up and ask if I want to reinstall Mountain Lion. Is that true?
(One more questing aside from the topic is, can you install a OS from Flash Drive.)
Thanks

Apple explains how to do it in:
OS X Mavericks: Erase and reinstall OS X, the article is located at http://support.apple.com/kb/PH14243

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How to wipe hard drive and keep OS?

Hi everyone...
I have a Powerbook G4 12" that was loaned to me. I'd like to wipe the harddrive to "out of the box" condition and keep OS X. I do NOT have the original disks that came with the laptop.
Since I'm a noob to Mac, what's the best way to format and/or wipe the drive of all the previous users junk and start over without bricking the laptop (since I don't have the original cd's)??
Thanks in advance for any advice/suggestions!!
Jim

Jim:
Welcome to Apple Discussions.
Follow the procedure outlined in Niel's article Making the Setup Assistant Reappear.
cornelius

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.

Hello, My computer crashed, I removed the hard drive and installed it into a hard drive enclosure and now I am trying to get my Thunderbird data off of it

Hello,
Thank you for taking a look at my problem. My Windows computer crashed so I removed the hard drive and installed it into a hard drive enclosure and connected it to my new Windows computer with a USB cord. I installed Mozilla Thunderbird on my new computer and read the different tutorials on this website for extracting data from the external hard drive and installing it on my new computer however I cannot seem to be able to find the files that I need and quite frankly I do not know how to move them once I do find them. I even tried MozBackup but it could not find the files either. I searched for profiles.ini in the hard drive and the only hit I got was a profiles.ini file that was 111 bytes in size. I assumed that this was not what I was looking for but I did save a copy on my desktop. If someone has experience with moving files from a hard drive to a new computer I would be grateful for the help.
Thanks,
AN

lets get with the program. Mozbackup is useless in this situation because it looks for your profile in the location Thunderbird says it is.
You biggest hurdle is probably setting windows to show system and hidden files. The %appdata% folders are hidden by windows.

Hi, how I format the drive and install a fresh copy of Lion?

Hi, I have a Lion installed on a Mackbook Pro 2011, I had Leopard, then Snow Leopard and then Lion, but with so many instalations without formating the system is not working well, I am using an iMac at work with a clean install and is much more stable.
How can I format the hard drive and install a fresh copy of Lion???

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.

My iMovie 9 will not install after formatting hard drive and installing Mavericks what are my options?

I have not used my iMovie ever since I formatted my Hard Drive and installed Mavericks. I went to put the disk in from when ilife was originally shipped with the computer and it just spits the disk right back out of the superdrive. Is there anything I can do to not have it just spit a disk out without asking for user input. Any help would be greatly appreciated, I don't want to buy the new version.

Here are the original specs of your computer. The specs state that the original hard drive was 320GB. You have since replaced the factory drive with a 1TB (1000GB) hard drive. The HP recovery routine seems to have issues with hard drives that deviate from the original size. The partition issues you are experiencing may be a result of this. As for the rest of your issues, it sounds like the SP3 install went bad.
If I were you, I would consider reinstalling the OS using your recovery discs by doing a complete "destructive" reinstall/recovery. Afterward, I would post the size of both the c: and d: partitions... and go from there.
Frank
Frank
{------------ Please click the "White Kudos" Thumbs Up to say THANKS for helping.
Please click the "Accept As Solution" on my post, if my assistance has solved your issue. ------------V
This is a user supported forum. I am a volunteer and I don't work for HP.
HP 15t-j100 (on loan from HP)
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HP p6320y - Windows 7, 8GB RAM, NVIDIA GT 240
HP p7-1026 - Windows 7, 6GB RAM, AMD Radeon HD 6450
HP p6787c - Windows 7, 8GB RAM, NVIDIA GT 240

How can I wipe hard drive and do a clean install of Mavericks?

I have a 2012 MacBook Pro that is terrible sluggish, probably from upgrades and semi-deleted Symantec software. I want to wipe the hard drive and do a clean install of Mavericks. I have all files backed up, and can reinstall software.
I think there is a way to do this with Disc Utility? But don't know how. Advice welcome

If you have Yosemite installed and want to reinstall it, do a backup, preferable 2 separate ones on 2 drives. Boot to the Recovery Volume (command - R on a restart or hold down the option/alt key during a restart and select Recovery Volume). Run Disk Utility Verify/Repair and Repair Permissions until you get no errors. Reformat the drive using Disk Utility/Erase Mac OS Extended (Journaled), then click the Option button and select GUID. Then re-install the OS.
OS X Recovery
OS X Recovery (2)
When you reboot, use Setup Assistant to restore your data.

How do i wipe my hard drive and install Mountain lion

OK i wanted to install mavrick but i got my macbook pro in june of 2007 so it's to old. The command R does nothing when i reboot, and everything i find online about clearing my hard drive and getting ready to install mountain lion has that step in it. So how do i clear my hard drive so my computer is brand new like the day i bought it and also update my OS from snow leapard. Do i need to buy the disk for mountain lion or can i just download it? if someone has a link to something helpful i would love to have it.. Thanks

If you can't run Mavericks, you can't run Mountain Lion because they have the same hardware requirements.
Check that your computer is compatible with Mountain Lion/Mavericks.
To check the model number hold down the option/alt key, go to the Apple menu and select System Information.
MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer) model number 3,1 or higher
Your Mac needs:
OS X v10.6.8 or OS X Lion already installed
2 GB or more of memory (More is better - 4 GB minimum seems to be the consensus)
8 GB or more of available space
If your computer isn’t compatible, you might be able to upgrade to Lion.
Computer Compatibility - Lion                       Lion
Check to make sure your applications are compatible. PowerPC applications are no longer supported after 10.6.
Application Compatibility
Applications Compatibility (2)

Wipe Hard Drive clean install of Window Server

What is the best way to wipe Hard Drive? Save a partition for later use and use remaining partition to install Sever OS, save to external drive(to use later) and wipe completely(cleanest install, I believe), complete wipe completely not worrying about
saving anything, or suggestions?
NOTE; The machine has never been turned on, still in the box. Hardware goes above and beyond Min. Requirements for software.
Which is the best way to install Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials Evaluation download - ISO image? Azure?
How to install Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials from ISO image- Download and burn to DVD, Save to USB or to actual machine?
How to install Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials from Azure? (Don't have Azure account)
I need to have it completed ASAP so I can install Accounting/PM database software. Need it operational Monday if all possible. Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Woodrow

There are a lot of embedded questions here, I'll try to hit them all:
1) If you're reinstalling on the same partition, you do not need to be too crazy in how it gets formatted. There's no performance gain to using BCWipe or anything. When you format, you're just erasing the table of contents, then overwriting the
actual data later on anyway. Just keep it simple.
2) If you want to save the data, just copy it somewhere else before you delete anything. If you're not concerned about the data, don't worry about it, just go back to answer #1.
3) You can download the Evaluation OS from the MS website. You cannot turn an eval copy into a full install without reinstalling, so are you sure that is what you want? You'll end up test building, then when you like it, you'll have to do it
all over again.
4) ISO to DVD or USB: Doesn't matter how you end up installing it. Today's machines can usually support any install media. Some ways are faster, but you're only talking about saving minutes. What does it really matter?
- Chris Ream -
**Remember, if you find a post that is helpful, or is the answer, please mark it appropriately.**

I want to format my hard drive and install Lion, using Snow Leopard at the moment.

I'm running Snow Leopard at the moment, and would like to install Lion.
But I want to wipe my hard drive clean before doing so, is there a way of formating the hard drive as you install the downloaded lion?
Thanks for ur answers.

Not that I'm aware of. You can, however, grab the installer file and create a bootable USB thumb drive after downloading Lion and BEFORE you install it. Read here on how to do this.
After downloading, I would let it install. Then reboot with the USB thumb drive, use Disk Utilities to wipe the drive and then install Lion from the thumb drive. Do a backup first.

Remove windows Installation from Old WD hard drive and Install Fresh Copy on the New One.

Hi Community! I just bought a new WD Blue 1 TB hard drive, my old hard drive is WD Blue caviar 500 GB, running on Windows 7 ultimate 32 bit.
There are two things I wish to do: 1. Firstly, if it's possible, I would like to copy some videos, images, music etc. from my OLD Drive to the new one.
Please note that, I don't have an external disk to do it, I know that would've been less complicated, but that's not an option at this point. 2. Secondly, once that is done, if possible, I want to remove windows 7 installation from my old hard drive, re-partition it to make it just the storage drive, and finally install
fresh copy of windows 7- 64 bit to the new Hard drive.
Please note that, my old Hard drive is installed on windows 7- 32 bit and now I want to install a fresh copy of Windows 7-64bit instead of 32bit, because I am upgrading my
configuration with better ones.
I am adding 4 GB corsair vengeance ram to my 2 GB corsair ram, so that is 6 GB in total.
I am adding 1 TB hard disk to my 500 GB Hard disk, so that is 1500 GB.
Both my processor and mother board supports 64 bit.
Intel® Pentium® Processor G2020 (3M Cache, 2.90 GHz) And this Mother board - "Biostar H61MGV3"I know that you could clone the partition and migrate the installation from one hard drive to another using the Acronis True Image WD Edition Software, but I don't want that.
In simple words, say I have a dos computer, I installed my 1TB WD hard drive, installed a fresh copy of windows 7-64bit. So my computer is up and running. Now, I have another hard
drive which I wish to use, that is 500GB WD, but it has Windows 7-32 bit installed in it.
So what I want to do is, make this old hard drive a complete 500 gb storage device and remove the windows installation from it, without loosing music, videos, etc. and then lastly
copying the music and other media to the new hard drive, and formatting it completely.
I am perhaps making this very complicated, I know you would have better easier solution for this.
I am frustrated, your help would be appreciated, thanks a lot. Sincerely, Abe

Since you don't want to clone the drive (I agree with you), you can just swap drives and install Windows on the new drive. Windows won't complain that you are installing on a different drive because it only cares if you change more than one piece of hardware at a time. The problem will arise when you copy the files from the old drive because you cannot just connect it via SATA. That would confuse Windows, as both installations were run on that hardware. You need to mount it in an external dock via USB 2.0/3.0 which will isolate the details of the OS. After you copy all necessary files, you can use WDC Lifeguard to write zeros to the entire disk and then create a new partition. After that you can mount it via SATA because it will be a new drive. Do NOT be in a hurry to wipe the drive however, as you don't want to forget something.

How to replace hard drive and transfer everything over?

I've looked everywhere but am unable to find a definitive guide on how to do this.
Currently I have an early 2011 MBP that came with Snow Leopard and upgraded to Lion later. It has an HDD and I want to replace it with an SSD and transfer everything over to the SSD. Considering Lion created a Recovery partition (and there is also an EFI partition), I'm confused on how to do this the best way to basically copy my current hard drive to the new SSD.
The best I've figured out is to connect the SSD with a SATA-USB cable, use the Lion Recovery Disk Assistant ( http://support.apple.com/kb/dl1433 ) to create a Recovery partition on the new SSD, then, booting into Recovery, install Lion on the new SSD, and then use Migration Assistant to transfer all my files over.
Is there a simpler or better-explained way to basically copy my current hard drive over to a new SSD and then remove the HDD and use the SSD?

How to replace or upgrade a drive in a laptop
Step One: Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your OS X 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 Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger, Leopard or Snow Leopard.) 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.
Step Two: Remove the old drive and install the new drive. Place the old drive in an external USB enclosure. You can buy one at OWC who is also a good vendor for drives.
Step Three: Boot from the external drive. Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager appears. Select the icon for the external drive then click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Step Four: New Hard Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your new 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. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (for Intel Macs) or APM (for PPC Macs) then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
Step Five: Clone the old drive to the new drive
1. Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
4. Check the box labeled Erase destination.
5. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
6. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
7. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the new internal drive. Source means the old external drive.
Step Six: Open the Startup Disk preferences and select the new internal volume. Click on the Restart button. You should boot from the new drive. Eject the external drive and disconnect it from the computer.

Installing OS X on external hard drive, and installing from external HD

my ibook's optical drive does not work, and the hard drive in my computer is completely empty. can i use another mac to install OS X on my external hard drive, and then install the OS from the external hard drive back to my ibook?

There are a few fairly good clone utilities available; although I use a
donationware (runs uninhibited direct from download online) by Mike
Bombich named Carbon Copy Cloner, with a good amount of inform-
ation available at the home and download pages for reference; users
have had good use of Super Duper, CloneX, to do backups & clones.
Other utilities, such as the Disk Utility in your system install/boot disc
can be used to move a bootable archive of your system between disks.
Drive Genius (a retail software product) is said to be able to utilize
clones, but I have no experience in that product; although I do own it.
I like Carbon Copy Cloner, and test my clone's ability to run the Mac
before attempting to zero-reformat the machine's internal hard drive, etc.
A simple search of Mac sites (I use google.com/mac) can bring up
discussions specific to these third-party tools. The home page of
Mike Bombich's Carbon Copy Cloner is worth a detailed look into.
OS specific versions are available. http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html

Installing new RAM and hard drive and installing mac os x

Hello all.
I have a new hard drive and ram for my macbook that I plan on installing. Would it be okay to install both at the same time and then install Mac OS X from the install discs? Or, would I need to install the hard drive first, install Mac OS X, and then install the RAM?
What do I need to do?
Also, when installing MAC OS X from the discs with a new hard drive, will it allow me to do a fresh install as soon as I enter the disc? Or, do I have to restart the computer with the disc in and hold down the C key?
Please bless me with your wisdom.
Thanks.

Hip Hoppa:
Congratulations on installing the RAM and Hard Disk Drive. Now you need first to format the HDD, then install the OS, and restore from backup.
Formatting, Partitioning Erasing a Hard Disk Drive
• With computer shut down insert install disk in optical drive.
• Hit Power button and immediately after chime hold down the "C" key.
• Select language
• Go to the Utilities menu (Tiger and later) and launch Disk Utility.
• Select your HDD (manufacturer ID) in left side bar.
• Select Partition tab in main panel. (You are about to create a single partition volume.)
• Click on Options button
• Select GUID Partition Table (Intel Macs)
• Click OK
• Select number of partitions in pull-down menu above Volume diagram.
(Note 1: One partition is normally preferable for an internal HDD.)
• Type in name in Name field (usually Macintosh HD)
• Select Volume Format as Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
• Click Partition button at bottom of panel.
• Select Erase tab
• Select the sub-volume (indented) under Manufacturer ID (usually Macintosh HD).
• Check to be sure your Volume Name and Volume Format are correct.
• Click Erase button
• Quit Disk Utility.
Open installer and begin installation process.
Installation Process
• With computer shut down insert install disk in optical drive.
• Hit Power button and immediately after chime hold down the "C" key.
• Select language
• Open Installer and begin installation.
• Select installation option
• Choose to Customize and deselect Foreign Language Translations and Additional Printer drivers.
Optional: Check box to install X11 (Tiger and later).
• Proceed with installation.
• After installation computer will restart for setup.
• After setup, reboot computer.
• Go to Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility.
• Select your HDD (manufacturer ID) in left side bar.
• Select First Aid in main panel.
• Click Repair Disk Permissions.
• Connect to Internet.
• Download and install Mac OS X 10.5.6 Combo Update (Leopard) or
Mac OS X 10.4.11 Combo update (PPC) (Tiger)
Computer will restart.
• Repair Disk Permissions as previously.
• Go to Apple Menu > Software Update.
• Install all updates.
Computer may restart after updates.
• Go to Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility.
• Select your HDD (manufacturer ID) in left side bar.
• Select First Aid in main panel.
• Click Repair Disk Permissions.
If you have your old HDD in an external enclosure you can connect it to the computer and use Setup/Migration Assistant to move your stuff from the old drive when prompted.
cornelius

Wipe Hard Drive and complete reinstall

It looks like I have a nasty little virus on my computer and instead of trying to clean it off I feel much better blowing everything away, reformatting the hard drive, and reinstalling windows 7. Is there anything special I need to know before I embark on this quest? I looked through the box and I don't see any installation discs or anything to aid me through the process or the reinstallation of the drivers. There are a lot of Toshiba drivers that I never used so I probably don't need many of them.
My laptop is a Satellite C655D-5057.

Jerry,
thank you so much for the quick response. There are a lot of different options to choose from, but I'm curious if there is one that will be the best option for me system? I think restoring to factory out-of-box specs would be great, but I worry about the issue not being eliminated. However I'm also wondering if reformatting my hard drive is too aggressive. This is our main computer so if I error on a side I want it to be the most conservative in nature.
Regards,
Scott
Jerry_Lippey wrote:
Satellite C655D-S5057
Scott, all the information you need is tucked away in the section Recovering the Internal Storage Drive, which begins on p. 59 of the User's Guide.
Satellite C640/C650 Series User’s Guide

How To Wipe Hard Drive and Install Mavricks.

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