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Best way to format and start over...

I

iBunny

macrumors 65816
Original poster
I recently got my Intel iMac, however I would like to format and start over completly erasing everything. I dont neccessarly need to securly delete everything, just erase the OS and stuff and start over completly. The Main reason is just becasue there are apps taking up space, fonts, and printer drivers I will never use. I never ever will use garage band, but it takes up gigabytes of space... I would like to streamline what I have installed.

I know when I put my Tiger DVD in the Drive and boot from the disk, I can go into disk utilities and erase my Hard drive. I planned on writing zero's to the Hard drive once, I figure that will be good?

Also, Should I partition the drive afterwards? What file system should I use? I know I should use Journaled, but should I use the "Case Sensitive" Option? I am just looking for what will be the fastest and best.

I have backed up everything I want to keep, which isnt much on my external USB 2 drive. So I deffinatly want to do this...

Any thoughts/opinions/options?

Thanks
 
iBunny said:
I recently got my Intel iMac, however I would like to format and start over completly erasing everything. I dont neccessarly need to securly delete everything, just erase the OS and stuff and start over completly. The Main reason is just becasue there are apps taking up space, fonts, and printer drivers I will never use. I never ever will use garage band, but it takes up gigabytes of space... I would like to streamline what I have installed.

I know when I put my Tiger DVD in the Drive and boot from the disk, I can go into disk utilities and erase my Hard drive. I planned on writing zero's to the Hard drive once, I figure that will be good?

Also, Should I partition the drive afterwards? What file system should I use? I know I should use Journaled, but should I use the "Case Sensitive" Option? I am just looking for what will be the fastest and best.

I have backed up everything I want to keep, which isnt much on my external USB 2 drive. So I deffinatly want to do this...

Any thoughts/opinions/options?

Thanks
Click to expand...

Semper Fi you Devil Dog!

I hear ya on the streamline - I just did it with my PB.

Writing over once is fine for home stuff. The DoD has a much higher standard, which is - I think - 7 times. But it sounds like you don't have anything sensitive there any way.

Are talking about making more than one partition for each OS on the HD?
 
techound1 said:
Semper Fi you Devil Dog!

I hear ya on the streamline - I just did it with my PB.

Writing over once is fine for home stuff. The DoD has a much higher standard, which is - I think - 7 times. But it sounds like you don't have anything sensitive there any way.

Are talking about making more than one partition for each OS on the HD?
Click to expand...

Well, On my windows machines I have always had my hard drive partitioned to where the OS and Apps were on one partition, and my Music, Movies, Pictures, and Documents were on a seperate partition. This way, If the OS gets corrupt / want to reformat the OS I dont lose all my media... plus its easier to orginize...

However I know apple boot camp, you cant have more than 1 partition with it? so i am at a catch 22.
 
When you install Tiger I wouldn't bother doing an zero drive option since your not selling the machine secure erase is not needed. Just format as one partition (Mac OS Extended Journaled) don't do case sensitive as it may cause headaches in the future.

When choosing your installation options choose a custom install. Then you can uncheck all unnecessary drivers. Some programs you can choose not to install, such as X11, but most get installed whether you like them or not. As for printer drivers do not install any, rather go to the manufacturers web site to download the latest ones.
 
It's much easier and safer to toss out the things you don't need than to reformat the drive. Drag Garageband to the trash if having it on your hard drive really bothers you. You can also remove localization files. But personally I would advise against both, as storage these days is cheap, cheap, cheap -- and it's difficult to fully anticipate today what you will need or want tomorrow.
 
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