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Crohuir

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 28, 2012
4
0
My 2008 Leopard MacBook has become very slow after 4 years of college and until I can afford a new computer I want to clear all the crap off it and start afresh. However I seem to have misplaced the discs so I'm looking at what the best way is to get it back to functioning levels. I've seen a few people talking about creating a new account and making it admin and deleting the old account but I'm not sure how much that will do. I haven't had to install a system in 4 years so I really have no idea what I'm doing so I don't want to delete the OS and then not be able to do anything until I find the original disc, which could be anywhere!

Thanks in advance,
Conor
 

robvas

macrumors 68040
Mar 29, 2009
3,240
629
USA
Try this:

1. Press Command-S during startup to get into single user mode
2. Check the filesystem:
# /sbin/fsck -fy
3. Mount the root partition as writable:
# /sbin/mount -uw /
4. Remove the hidden .AppleSetupDone file:
# rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone
5. a) For Mac OS X 10.5 ‘Leopard’ and newer, do:
# launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.DirectoryServices.plist
Repeat for every user previously defined on the machine (replace {username} with the real user name):
# dscl . -delete /Users/{username}
# dscl . -delete /Groups/admin GroupMembership {username}
5. b) For older versions of Mac OS X, do:
# rm -rf /var/db/netinfo/local.nidb
6. Remove the home directories of users. For every user do (replace {username} with the real user name):
# rm -rf /Users/{username}
7. If applicable, remove already created files in root’s home directory, e.g.
# rm /root/.bash_history
8. Shutdown (or reboot to verify the procedure worked):
# shutdown -h now
-or-
# reboot
 
Nov 28, 2010
22,670
31
located
You could either contact Apple and ask for replacement Restore DVDs for your specific Mac (15 to 30 USD), buy the 29 USD Mac OS X Snow Leopard DVD via the Apple Online Store or Amazon, or if you already have 10.6.6 or higher, buy Lion or Mountain Lion and make a bootable installer via the help of a USB flash memory drive.
 
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