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L T

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 24, 2013
428
103
UK
I have a friend who has just inherited his brother MacBook and would like to erase it and reinstall the OS but he can't find the disc.

How can he do this?

Thanks
 

Weaselboy

Moderator
Staff member
Jan 23, 2005
34,137
15,602
California
What year model is the Macbook? The newer models you can restore the default OS by doing a command-option-r boot to recovery, then erase the disk and reinstall. Of course any data on there will be erased.
 

L T

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 24, 2013
428
103
UK
What year model is the Macbook? The newer models you can restore the default OS by doing a command-option-r boot to recovery, then erase the disk and reinstall. Of course any data on there will be erased.

It's a plastic MacBook running Snow Leopard.

I know their is the whole adobe photoshop and that package on there. Is there anyway that can be transferred off and then back on?
 

Weaselboy

Moderator
Staff member
Jan 23, 2005
34,137
15,602
California
It's a plastic MacBook running Snow Leopard.

I know their is the whole adobe photoshop and that package on there. Is there anyway that can be transferred off and then back on?

Since this is all in the family, I think at this point the best thing to do (and this will preserve PChop) is just to login to the old account and make a new account. Then login to the newly created admin account and delete the brother's old account. OS keeps user data pretty well segmented within the user account folders and this will get your friend setup with a new, blank account like on a new computer while keeping any apps like PS in place.
 

L T

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 24, 2013
428
103
UK
Since this is all in the family, I think at this point the best thing to do (and this will preserve PChop) is just to login to the old account and make a new account. Then login to the newly created admin account and delete the brother's old account. OS keeps user data pretty well segmented within the user account folders and this will get your friend setup with a new, blank account like on a new computer while keeping any apps like PS in place.

Well, my friend doesn't want any off the apps. But I was thinking if there was a way to get them onto mine when I get he MacBook to do the work on it!
 

Weaselboy

Moderator
Staff member
Jan 23, 2005
34,137
15,602
California
Well, my friend doesn't want any off the apps. But I was thinking if there was a way to get them onto mine when I get he MacBook to do the work on it!

Ahhh I see... well some apps you can just drag from one machine to another. Unfortunately, PS is not one of those as there are other support files the installer places on the machine. Even if you could manage to find and move all those files over, PS will see that the app is on a new machine and it will require reentry of the registration info.
 
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