Lion reformat hard drive

I want to reformat the hard drive on my MacBook Pro. How do I load Lion?

Sorry, but your question isn't very clear.
You must install Snow Leopard 10.6.6 or later in order to purchase and download Lion.
Drive Preparation
1. 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 Utilities menu.
If you are preparing an external or a non-startup drive, then open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. 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 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.
Steps 4-6 are optional but should be used on a drive that has never been formatted before, if the format type is not Mac OS Extended, if the partition scheme has been changed, or if a different operating system (not OS X) has been installed on the drive.

Similar Messages

Can I recover data from a reformatted hard drive? I did not do a back up prior to talking to Apple Support and the guy having me delete the hard drive and start anew. My bad but is all lost??

Can I recover data from a reformatted hard drive? I did not complete a back up prior to talking to Apple Support and the guy having me delete the hard drive (10.5.8) and start anew (10.6.3). My bad but is all lost?? Years of very important information....

You will need to purchase reovery sofware such as such as FileSalvage
http://subrosasoft.com/software/filesalvage
You can download a demo copy that will tell you what it can recover
If you want to recover that you must pay for the software then
When you do the recovery, you will need another disk drive to receive the recovered files
Having install a new operating system on the disk after the retformat is going to gradually reduce the amount of data that this software will be able to recover for you
Allan

Getting S.M.A.R.T. when trying to install Mountain lion. Hard drive works pretty well. I understand that many users have been facing the same issue. Has apple patched it yet?

I'm getting S.M.A.R.T. error when trying to install Mountain lion. Hard drive works pretty well despite the Failing status. I understand that many users have been facing the same issue. My hard drive was/is working perfectly. Has Apple patched it yet?
Has someone found a solution which is not replacing the hard drive which works just fine? Or Is anyone aware of a procedure that can force the installation despite the S.M.A.R.T error? Below details of my hard drive
Thanks
ST31******ASQ:
Capacity:          1 TB (1,000,204,886,016 bytes)
Model:          ST31000528ASQ
Revision:          AP24
Serial Number:                      6V***5JR
Native Command Queuing:          Yes
Queue Depth:          32
Removable Media:          No
Detachable Drive:          No
BSD Name:          disk0
Rotational Rate:          7200
Medium Type:          Rotational
Partition Map Type:          GPT (GUID Partition Table)
S.M.A.R.T. status:          Failing
<Edited By Host>

If you haven't done so, run Disk Utility /Applications/Utilities
to run a live verification.
The drive may be ok at the moment, but that's not to say the drive may fail at anytime.
Hopefully you have all your important data backed up just in case.

Need help with how to reset bios and admin password to reformat hard drive in 8440p elitebook.......

need help with how to reset bios and admin password to reformat hard drive in 8440p elitebook? removal of cmos, resetting laptop, using cccleaner, windows password recovery and hiren's was noneffective, any help is appreciated. thanks

Hi,
As your notebook is a business class machine, security is more stringent - the password is stored in non-volatile memory and there are no 'backdoor' passwords. Your best option would be to contact HP regarding this.
Regards,
DP-K
****Click the White thumb to say thanks****
****Please mark Accept As Solution if it solves your problem****
****I don't work for HP****
Microsoft MVP - Windows Experience

Mac Pro with Lion had hard drive replaced, left me with 10.5

My late 2007 Mac Pro with Lion had hard drive replaced by Genius Bar at Short Pump, VA, Apple Store. They left me with 10.5, I have gotten back to 10.6.8 but how can I get back to Lion? Any tips? On-line advice to hold OPTION key down while clicking "purchases" doesn't work. The 2007 Mac Pro can't take Mountain Lion. Am I stuck with Snow Leopard?

Don't know what OS I was at when I saw the purchase, but there was no install button and the layout of the app store was weird. I had over 100 apps there for my ipad, and it let me download them all, but not Lion. Now that I am finally up to 10.6.8, I only see 4 apps, not Lion. One (iphoto) ironically says "requires OS X v10.7". Where is Lion now? It is not there in my purchased list, whether I hold "option" while pressing "purchases" or not.

I've gotten a kernel panic 4 times in a row while trying to reinstall lion osx from a flash drive to a reformatted hard drive. How is this possible when there's "nothing" on my computer?

My SSD failed and I was instructed to reformat my hard drive and restore my files. I erase my hard drive using Disk Utility and reinstalled Lion from a flash drive. While Lion is installing, I get a kernel panic. That's happened now four times in a row and I'm befuddled because I don't have anything on my computer to conflict right? Please help.

eubiedoo wrote:
Do you think it's ram related?
No way to tell unless you test it. Like I said kernel panics are usually hardware related. Since your Macbook Pro is from the "2009" era, run the Hardware Test disc which you should already have - Intel-based Macs: Using Apple Hardware Test
Apple Store diagnostic testings are FREE. It's the repairs you are responsible for if out of warranty.

How do I reformat hard drive when I can't erase the disk?

Machine: imac, OS 10.6.8
Initial Problem: Finder kept crashing for all users immediately after start up. As a result I was unable to try trashing finder preferences as recommended in this forum and elsewhere.
Attempted solutions:
1. Initially seemed unable to boot from Snow Leopard Installation Disk
2. Connected to another imac using firewire and booting problem computer into target mode
3. Ran Techtool pro from master machine. Hard drive and hardware fine but reported need to format disk on target machine.
4. Tried to install new os onto target drive using disk drive on master machine. Error message reported being unable to find target drive, even though it was showing on desktop of master machine
5. Tried to erase disk using disk utility on master machine, but error message stating unable to unmount target drive
6. Successfully rebooted using snow leopard installation disk, but unable to instal. Error message stated that the computer was not available. i.e. it had the yellow triangle with exclamation masrk
7. Tried to erase hard drive using disk utility from installation disk, but was unable to do so. The process commenced to unmount the disk, started to erase but stopped before task completed. Tried a second time with same result.
Obviously the machine needs complete reformatting. I made a backup before starting this series of unsuccessful attempts. I suspect that I need to use terminal from the installation disk, but I am not sure which terminal command to use.
Can anyone tell me? Or have I overlooked some simpler solution?

Install or Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion from Scratch
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.
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:
1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
2. After DU loads select your startup volume (usually Macintosh HD) from the
      left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
3. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Optionally, click on
        the Security button and set the Zero Data option to one-pass. Click on
      the Erase button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Install button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible
            because it is three times faster than wireless.

Time to reformat hard drive on iMac?

Hi,
I have the following iMac:
Model Name:          iMac
Model Identifier:          iMac7,1
Processor Name:          Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed:          2.8 GHz
Number Of Processors:          1
Total Number Of Cores:          2
L2 Cache:          4 MB
Memory:          4 GB
Bus Speed:          800 MHz
Boot ROM Version:          IM71.007A.B03
SMC Version (system):          1.21f4
Am running Snow Leopard.
Have had a lot of issues with rotating beach ball, slow machine performance.
When I run Verify Disk, I get the following type of errors on more or less a weekly basis:
Checking volume information.
Invalid file count
(It should be X instead of Y)
Invalid volume directory count
(It should be A instead of B)
The volume Macintosh HD was found corrupt and needs to be repaired
Error: This disk needs to be repaired...then use Disk Utility to repair this disk.
I am able to repair the disk and acheive no errors, but the cycle repeats itself in a few days.
Should I backup and reformat my hard drive?
If so, can you point me to the proper procedure please?
Thank you very much...

OK....very strange commentary. Not sure what set you off, but let me add in a few additional facts that may calm you down:
This is my first Mac...purchased in 2007. I have no Power PC programs to contend with.
I went in telling the genius guy that I probably needed a hardware fix like a new hard drive; of course I was well out of warranty.
The upgrade to OSX was NOT offered as a solution. The Apple guy looked at my error messages, and said that based on his experience (and this is all he does all day), the problem mentioned in my initial posting above would likely be solved with an application of Disk Warrior.
He said that it was possible that this would NOT solve the problem and it could be the sign of a disk that was starting to go bad, but he said that often Disk Warrior would give a message if this were the case.
He then implemented this step.
I thanked him and then pressed him if there was anything else I could do to enhance the performance of my computer. He then offered the prospect of upgrading to the latest operating system.
I told him that I had been reluctant to do this because I had read mixed reviews with computers my vintage.
He said that he had installed Mountain Lion on his Macbook Pro also built in 2007 but with a smaller processor thatn what I had and he liked the outcome. We determined that my machine was already at max memory.
He started to offer me advice on how I could do the upgrade at home, said a fresh install was best. As I started to ask him more questions, he offered to do the installation for me right then and there for FREE (no software or installation cost) but double checked that I had everything backed up properly on an external hard drive.
Yes, I did have everything backed up on Time Machine back home. He doubled checked that I wanted to proceed, so I said "Go".
He gave me instruction on how I could uninstall Mountain Lion and revert back to Snow Leopard, if I weren't happy with the results.
So far, I am DELIGHTED with the new operating system. I am not sure if it is the software or the fact that my disk problem appears corrected, but my machine is much, much faster. I had been hanging on by my fingertips awaiting a new iMac, but now I feel I can perhaps get another year's worth of service out of my machine (don't you dare mention this to my wife).
It is indeed possible that my problem is not corrected...he warned me that there was the possibility that my hard drive might be ready to give up the ghost, but almost a week later, and no futher problems.
You must have had a very bad experience sometime in your history, or perhaps I was not clear in describing what happened, but from my perspective, what's not to like? The guy was very helpful, did not charge me a cent and appears to have solved the problem.

Reformat hard drive on a macbook pro - for a beginner

I recently purchased my first mac for my college major. Until now, I had only used a mac once a week during the last semester, so I know almost nothing. I bought it used, and the person I got it from didn't bother to remove their files. Its a 320 gb hard drive, of which I only have 42 gb at my disposal. He also installed a partition with snow leopard on it; because OS X didn't like his old adobe software, its got 100 gb of free space, the whole thing is empty. I want to remove the snow leopard partition and replace it with a recovery partition and reformat the hard drive to get rid of his stuff (it won't let me put it in the trash), also there are some settings it won't let me change. So since I don't know much about it, please help! I also have a few specific questions.
Even though I'm not the original owner, can I call apple care for an install disc? It doesn't seem likely.
Barring that option, can I use a 32gb flash drive, or a set of back up discs, and save the OS (and the programs and files I do want) somehow? I need instructions if I can. I've looked on here at the previous questions and answers, and there was a lot of technical jargon that was over my head. I feel foolish saying that, but I really need assistance and I don't want anyone to think I haven't been looking. I have a decent understanding of computers, but I have only ever had access to pc.
Please help, as I am about to start using this for my class and I know it'll just be messier after that. Any and all advice welcome, please be courteous.

You must purchase Snow Leopard through the Apple Store: Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard - Apple Store (U.S.). The price is $19.99 plus tax. You will be sent physical media by mail after placing your order.
After you install Snow Leopard you will have to download and install the Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1 to update Snow Leopard to 10.6.8 and give you access to the App Store. Access to the App Store enables you to download Mountain Lion if your computer meets the requirements.
Lion and Mountain Lion do not come on a disc. They are only available for download from the Mac App Store. You must have 10.6.6 or later to access the App Store and you must have an Apple ID, which you have since you are on these forums. Since the Lion system on the computer belongs to someone else, you will have to purchase your own personal license then download from the App Store. Lion is no longer available unless your particular model is unable to support Mountain Lion.
OS X Mountain Lion - System Requirements
       Macs that can be upgraded to OS X Mountain Lion
         1. iMac (Mid 2007 or newer) - Model Identifier 7,1 or later
         2. MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer) - Model Identifier 5,1 or later
         3. MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later
         4. MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer) - Model Identifier 2,1 or later
         5. Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later
         6. Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later
         7. Xserve (Early 2009) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later
My recommendation is that you get your copy of Snow Leopard from a local Apple store. Boot the computer from it then repartition the drive to a single partition. Then install Snow Leopard, upgrade it to 10.6.8, then go to the App Store to purchase and download Mountain Lion.

Restore lion after hard drive failure

My Hard drive has become corrupted and is going to need reformat. I have managed to mount the iMac as a firewire drive on my Macbook and pulled off quite a bit of data. The repair utility wont fix the drive so I have no choice other than to reformat.
How do I get Lion back on?

Hi Steve...
You need to use Lion Recovery to repair the startup disk if necessary and reinstall the Mac OS X.

Can't install 10.7 from Apple USB thumb drive on a freshly reformatted hard drive.

My previous install of Snow Leopard was acting up and ended up biting the dust. I am currently on deployment overseas and don't have regular or fast access to the internet so buying Lion from the App Store was out of the question. I recently recieved the 10.7 USB in the mail and was excited to begin the installation process... but then I got the "Recovery System can't be created." error. Which from what I've been reading is commonly associated with Boot Camp.
While I did have Boot Camp previously installed, this is a newly and completely reformatted drive, and I also verified and repaired the disk through disk utility. The other option I tried was creating a recovery partition. First 2 GB, then 5 GB, then 10 GB. Nothing, same error was previous. I was given no option for the install to continue, just a restart button. When I restarted to let it go through again in an attempt to install without the recovery option I recieved the same error. Tried resetting PRAM (On the off chance) no luck, tried formatting the hard drive with empty space, no luck.
I'm growing increasingly frustrated with this process the ridiculous error it is producing. I am desperate for your help on this matter. If you guys can assist me on this it would be greatly appreciated.

Is the system able to boot into the recovery/installer from the Mac OS X 10.7 USB Drive? Is this error occurring after you've started the install process from the USB?
You may have to completely repartition the hard disk drive with 1 partition and a GUID partition table. I had a similar issue when I moved a hard disk from a Windows machine and forgot to change the partition type.
Note: Creating a new partition table will make all data currently on the disk inaccessible, effectively erasing the data.
Here's the steps to repartition using the Disk Utility application available after booting the mac from the USB Installer.
1) Highlight/select the Mac's internal Hard Disk Drive (not the volume) in Disk Utility. The disk will be named something like "240 GB OCZ-VERTEX3", depending on your specific size, make and model. Basically the format is "Size GB Make/Model".
2) Click the "Partition" tab on the right side.
3) From the "Partition Layout" pick box select "1 Partition"
4) Click the "Options" button below the drive space diagram. Select the option "GUID Partition Table". Click OK.
5) Click the Apply button and allow Disk Utility to complete the task.
6) Quit Disk Utility and begin the install process to the Mac's Internal Hard Disk Drive.
The above resolved this issue for me and it makes good sense why it worked since the partition scheme/table on my drive was MBR and I changed it to GUID.
Good Luck,
-Josh
Message was edited by: Joshua Kapellen

Trying to reformat hard drive for my Wife - Cannot download OS to install because of Apple ID problem.

I booted into the recovery partition. Erased hard drive, and I'm trying to reinstall the OS (Lion) with a brand new Apple ID. When I attempt to install, the installer states "this apple ID has not yet been used with the app store".
I created a new Apple ID using my Mac Pro. I had to verify her email addresses and everything, the account is valid as far as I know.
What do I do to get this to work? This laptop will be for my Wife, and she is a brand new account.

Okay...
I had to create a second user on my account on my Mac Pro using her ID. I logged in as her. Then I logged into the App Store (while logged in as her) and attempted to download a free app. I was hoping that this would "validate" her Aple ID so that I could then install Lion.
Then I went back over to the laptop and attempted to install Lion as her, using her Apple ID. It would not let me because Lion was never purchased using her Apple ID. This is dumb considering that I need to reinstall Lion before I can upgrade to Mavericks, which is free.
So I am currently reinstalling Lion under MY apple ID so that I may later on upgrade it to Mavericks.
Jesus ******* Christ.

Reformat Hard Drive - reset network?

Hey ya'll!
I was wondering if reformatting my hard drive (the one connected to the router) will reset my network. If so, is there any way to avoid this?
Thanks!

buddyboy101 wrote:
Hey ya'll!
I was wondering if reformatting my hard drive (the one connected to the router) will reset my network. If so, is there any way to avoid this?
Thanks!
If what you are asking is....
if you reformat your computer, that happens to have an ethernet cable attached to your router, will it reset or modify your network or your router settings....
then the answer is
no this will not modify your network or your router.
if your router provides dhcp, then you should have no issues at all
if your computer is using static addressing, then you will have configure your NIC.

After reformatting hard drive, iPod syncs very slowly with iTunes

A couple of months ago I had to reformat my computer's hard drive. I keep all my music files on an external hard drive. After reformatting, the man who did this for me reloaded iTunes for me and imported all my music back into my iTunes library.
It seems that since that time, when I sync my iPod to the iTunes library, it takes many times longer than it used to. Maybe something else happened to my iPod or iTunes and the reformat is just a conincidence, but it really does seem to take three or four times longer to sync.
I have iTunes 7.4.1.2 and my iPod is an older one, a 40G with dock connector
Also, I recently bought some audiobooks to put on my iPod. I only had about 600megs available so the iPod would not sync. I then removed several Gigs from my iTunes library. When I click on the "music" icon under "library" it shows that I have only a little over 29G used which should leave well over 5 plus Gigs available for the new music. But when I try to sync the iPod, it gives me the message that I have only approx. 600 megs available. What's up. I never have had this problem before and I have had the iPod for several years.
Any ideas or suggestions?
Thanks,
Dennis

I actually learned yesterday that Apple didn't put USB 2.0 in their Macs until G5... something I was VERY irritated to find out. Turns out they were betting that Fire Wire would take off instead of USB 2.0, so they only equipped their machines with USB 1.1. So as a result, my iPod is unacceptably slow. Other nagging problems like this are convincing me that I'll have to get a new Mac Pro in the coming year, but for the meantime I think I'll be buying a USB 2.0 PCI card.
Thanks for your response.

Macbook Pro Reformat Hard drive issues

Hard drive crashed a few months back in my MBP. My optical drive doesn't work and I have Snow Leopard install disks. I went to Best Buy, bought a 1TB Seagate SATA SSD+HDD hybrid drive to replace the 250 GB one I had. I'm trying to get the stupid thing to format buy I'm not having any luck. Here's what I've tried:
1. Was able to boot up through disk utility and tried to install OS Mavericks wirelessly but when I login to my apple account to verify, and click install I get a quick message stating there was a problem and to try again. It never works
2. Bought a external optical drive and tried to install Snow Lepoard but when I turn it on that way it tries to load and then goes to a gray screen tell me that my computer needs to restart. I restart it and it does the same thing.
3. Went to the Mac Store to ask some questions. . .told them I had an iMac and bought a firewire cable. I've tried to install Snow Lepoard via firewire cable but the instructions that I find just plain don't work. I run Lion on my iMac and I can get my computer to recognize my MBP but choosing that and formatting it with the drive on my iMac isn't working either.
I'm about to use the stupid MBP as a frisbee out my back patio. Please help!

My Macbook Pro is a mid-2010 model.

Lion reformat hard drive

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