Reformatting a macbook

Hi all, i am trying to reformat my macbook seen a thew videos on how to do it. But does it erase the drivers for sound etc... and could some one
please post on how to do this in more detail... many thanks..

Yes. A reformat erases everything from the drive so backups are a good idea.
Insert install DVD and boot from it.
After selection of language, start Disk Utility from Menu.
Reformat drive.
Allan

Similar Messages

How to reformat a Macbook pro 2011 hard drive?

Hello,
How do you reformat a MacBook Pro (OS X 10.7.3) 2011s Hard drive? I already backed up all the files I wanted to save. But since I have the new Macbook pro 2011 (only a few months since I got it) it didn't come with an installation disc, but instead already came with all the applications. I'm wondering how to reformat the hard drive so it wipes out everything and I can start fresh and what would happen to all the applications?

Well Lion has a Lion Recovery Partition on the drive you can access by holding command r and booting, there you can erase the Lion OS X partition completely (all files and programs) and reinstall Lion or simply reinstall Lion if there is a issue with it (no programs or files are touched in this second procedure)
Lion is downloaded from apple's servers, you need AppleID and a fast reliable internet connection with no bandwidth caps limiting you.
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718
If you want to replace the drive, there is software called Carbon Copy Cloner than can clone both the Lion OS X Partition and the Lion Recovery Partition to a external drive intact (excpet what's in the Trash, no Filevualt, no bootcamp, use free Winclone for that)
Hold the option key and you can boot from the external drive and format and clone everything to the new internal drive. TimeMachine of 10.7.2 and later can be booted from it's Lion Recovery Parttion as well just to restore only, cloning is better process because it gives full access to everything like before on the internal drive.
http://www.bombich.com/index.html
Some newer Mac's have Lion Internet recovery built in where the firmware will install the Lion Recovery/OS back onto a completely blank/new hard drive.

How do I reformat a macbook air to original factory settings?

I am trying to reformat my macbook air to original factory settings. I don't need to use any of the files currently on the HD, so just a clean wipe is all I need. Can anyone help?

I think there is two ways of doing this. The first way would be using your disk that came with your MacBook Air and it would also be the best way since that will ensure that everything is back to normal factory settings, however if you don't have the disk you might just wanna try another method. The other method is creating a new user account named "Administator" (or whatever you prefer) and then logging into that account and deleting your account (the one that your trying to restore). This will delete all files and user-prefrences.
*Note: Method 2 won't delete any applications, to do this you would need to use an app called AppCleaner.

What is the best way to reformat my macbook and reinstall?

I run a Macbook on OS X Lion which I installed via the app store. How can I reformat my Macbook and reinstall OS X Lion without the disc? Secondly, How can I then upload my TimeMachine backup so it was the same as before?
Will this repair all disc permissions and ensure maximum performance from my computer?
Jonathan =]

You must create your Lion install disk, before. Read here how you can:
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20110831105634716

In the process of reformatting my macbook pro, I saved everything but my keyword list. The keywords are with the images, but the total list I use under "Keywords" is not present. Is there a way to re-create all my keywords I've used over the last 6 year

In the process of reformatting my macbook pro, I saved everything but my keyword list. The keywords are with the images, but the total list I use under "Keywords" is not present. Is there a way to re-create all my keywords I've used over the last 6 years.

I accomplished what I needed last night. I remembered I had picked my favorite images from each year and put them in a "favorite" folder by year. These folders included 500 to 1200 images per year. I pulled up the folder for each year and highlighted all images and clicked on "Keywords" and all keywords used for all images were listed. I made those keywords persistent. It took me a while to realize I had to click on each keyword to make it persistent. After doing this for all years, I assume 95% of all keywords I have used over the many years were back in my list. I'm sure there is probably a more "technical" way to accomplish what I needed, but this seems to have worked. I also exported my list into a word document and is saved on my hard drive.
If I had not made folders with my favorite images for each year, I could not have used this method, so if you figure out a better way, I like to hear it. Thanks for your comments and willingness to help.

What will happen if i reformat my macbook ?

I want to know what will happen if i reformat my macbook pro , is it complicating ? to do it

The lagging..freezing..and so on could be caused my a number of problems. Search these forums using keywords to find recommended fixes.
Reinstalling (reformatting) a Mac is almost never required. That approach is a Windows technique.
Barry

If i reformat my macbook pro, will i still install the apps i bought without paying again?

f i reformat my macbook pro, will i still install the apps i bought without paying again?

If you got them from the Mac App Store or have installation disks for them, yes.
(58857)

Reformatting my MacBook Pro Retina

I would like to know whether do I have to pay if I want to reformat my MacBook Pro Retina to it's original factory setting.

You should be able to do this yourself. Follow these guidelines:
http://www.thesafemac.com/how-to-prepare-your-mac-for-sale/
Ciao.

How to: Reformat my Macbook Pro 10.7.4

hey guys
i know this question has been asked alot but i cant seem to find an exact answer to my question. i have a macbook pro late 2008 with OS Lion install and im currently copying everything i want to save on an external harddrive, but cant seem to find find a way to reformat my MBP. i got lion of the app store and know that i cant just wipe de HD with Disk Utilities because i wont be able to reinstall OS Lion, on the net they keep talking about LION RECOVERY DISK ASSISTANCE but they say you need to have a recovery saved or somthing of the sort... isnt their just a simple CLICK TO REFORMAT BACK TO SCRATCH WITH OSX LION RE-INSTALLED?
thanks for your help.
Sean

You can format your Lion partition because you don't need it to download Lion again. Boot in recovery mode pressing Command and R keys, format the partition using Disk Utility (it's called Macintosh HD if you didn't modify it) and reinstall. Note that your computer will download Lion, so the process could be long. When you have installed it, you can restore a Time Machine backup (if you did one) or restore your files of your external drive manually if you didn't activate Time Machine

How to install OSX 10.7 on a reformatted HD Macbook Pro 13?

Is there any way of installing OSX 10.7 or 10.8 on a reformatted hard drive of a macbook pro 13 inch late 2009 that originally came with Leopard (OSX 10.5). I have just bought a macbook pro i5 and once all the data was transferred to the newer macbook I reformatted the hard drive of the old MBP in the xpectation that I could simply reinstall Lion. The recovery disc starts up ok, but curiously the installer points to mountain lion only and I keep getting a dialogue box informing me that my apple Id has not previously bought Lion (not Mountainlion, Lion). For starters that is untrue, I bought Lion on the app store to upgrade from Snowleopard to Lion on the original macbook and that shows up in the previous purchases screen in the App store application. Annoyingly this whole process does not allow me to re-purchase Lion on the old macbook pro and I am also now unable to restore the system from Timemachine as this now appears to be associated with the newer machine. And yes, you guessed it, I no longer have the original installation CDs, not realizing that I would still need these after upgrading the operating system (twice).
Attempts to start up from the only disc that I do have (snowleopard) results in hopeful crunching of the optical drive followed by a grey screen descending across the monitor followed by the message that I must restart the computer and then this process starts again, so getting nowhere and frustration mounting.
I am now left with a machine that is clinically dead with otherwise perfectly functioning hardware
I would be most grateful for any advice.
Thanks
Jan
(based in UK)

Purchase the white Snow Leopard 10.6.3 disks Apple sells on their online store.
Follow these directions, you need to zero erase the ENTIRE drive of the older Mac. (important!)
How to erase and install Snow Leopard 10.6
If you don't, the 10.8 RecoveryHD partition will remain and the 10.6 install disk can't repair the 10.8 drive later if there is a issue. There likely also will be a problem installing Lion, as the Recovery HD will be 10.8.
If you install Lion, it will create it's own Recovery HD for it.
Once your up, Software Update until 10.6.8, then you can log into AppStore and install Lion if you have already purchased it, or call Apple and special order it, because AppStore goes to 10.8 from 10.6.8 supposedly now.
You then can reinstall iLife from the 10.5 disks by running the installer or using Paficist from Charlessoft.
Just to let you know, you cannot sell the machine with 10.7 or 10.8 on it because the next owner needs your AppleID to reinstall or update the OS. 10.7 or 10.8.
So if your selling it, just install 10.6.3 and press the power button down, it will reboot to the Welcome Video for the next owner.

I would like to reformat my macbook

I feel like my Macbook needs to be reformatted because it has been running slow. I have everything backed up on an external hardrive using Time Machine, is this enough to keep everything safe when I reformat? I'm also on Mac OS X Version 10.5.8 and I want to update, but I want to clear everything out first. I learned everything on a PC so I have no idea how to go about reformating a Mac. Anyone know the best way to do this?

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
A Time Machine backup should be enough. To reinstall OS X, follow these steps:
1. Insert the Mac OS X DVD that came with the Mac, and hold the C key while your computer is starting.
2. Choose your language, and go to Utilities menu > Disk Utility.
3. Select the hard drive at the top of the sidebar, go to Erase tab and erase the disk.
4. Close Disk Utility and reinstall OS X

Hi I would like to totally reformat my Macbook Pro. What is the best way to go about it?

I have a Macbook Pro and would like to do a complete reformat. I installed Moutain Lion when it came out and do not wish to pay again since I've already paid. I have OS 10.6.4 discs with me which didnt come with my MB but with my previous one. What is the best way to go about it? I have bootcamp and wish to get rid of it (one of the many reasons of wanting to reformat)
Thanks

You can use the Boot Camp Assistant to remove the Bootcamp Partition - best way to do it.
If you use the Recovery Disk Assistant to create a recovery usb thumbdrive you can boot to that and repartition the MacHd and reinstall the OS directly.
When you purchase the OS you are free to reinstall without repurchasing as long as yo have access tot he Apple Id you used to make the purchase
DL1433 - & - HT4848

How to reformat '06 Macbook Pro - cannot reach desktop

I have a 2006 Macbook Pro. I try and boot it but I cannot reach the desktop. My plan is to try and reformat it with 10.6.7 Snow Lep or 10.7 Lion (does Lion work with '06 Macbook Pro's, how about Mountain Lion?)
But here is the issue. I cannot access the desktop and the DVD Drive is non-functioning. The obvious solution is to do a bootable USB drive (I have another newer Macbook Pro to do the setup) BUT... since I cannot access the desktop, how do I actually do the reformatting with the bootable USB?

Sorry, I'm a PC guy (don't kill me)
Oh, I didn't realize you weren't part of the club. I'm afraid I've said too much... now you must die!
Okay, on a more serious note, Lion may work okay, but memory requirements in Lion are significantly higher than in Snow Leopard, and that machine only has 2 GB of RAM (assuming it hasn't had more added). I wasn't able to run Lion well on a 2010 machine with 4 GB of RAM (it ran great after upgrading the RAM), after upgrading from Snow Leopard... but I may have been doing more memory-demanding tasks than your brother, so that may not be relevant. You could certainly try Lion and see what happens.

HT1338 what is the process to reformat my macBook Pro

How can I re formate my MacBook Pro?

Curious....is there a reason you need to reformat? What operating system, version of 10.7, are you running please?

Step by Step way to reformat by Macbook (Urgent!)

Hey Guys,
Last week when i tried to turn my Macbook on it froze at the loading screen. My windows side works fine and it is only the Mac side. I went to the store and they said i need to erase my disk and start again. I have never reformatted my Mac computer before and im stuck. Because i cant get on my Mac side, im using the install disk and holding down C. I choose disk utility and click my HD on the left. Under the Erase option, there is:
Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
Mac OS Extended
Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled)
Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive)
I just want my Mac back to how i bought it. Can someone please guide me through this process?
Thanks so much!

Choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled) as the format, and then use the install disk to restore Mac OS X and all of the bundled software.
(29130)

Reformatting a macbook

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