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Erase and install question?

M

madmartigan

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 5, 2008
69
0
I just erased and installed osx on my mbp, and Im wondering if that will do a complete clean installation. I just inserted the dvd, clicked install, then selected my hd then selected erase and install.

I was hearing from somebody on this forum that you have to partition the whole drive to do a complete clean install.

I just wanted to know because I like to have my osx as clean and fast as possible.


also afterwards I was checking my speed on my apps opening and quickly tried to open alot of ilife programs. I opened mail, calendar, imovie, itunes and my itunes locked up. I had to restart the whole computer to get itunes working again. It only did that once but do you think there could be a problem with my osx.


Doing and erase and install will put all my ilife programs back on and will look like how it did when I first got the computer, Correct?
 
Absolutely yes .. :)

I do an Erase & Install every year (sometimes twice a year). Yes I know I don't need to, but it sure gets rid of all the crap.
 
But does it fix problems or potentially cause new ones? The OP had a problem with iTunes right off the bat, after an erase and install.
 
If you want to confirm a complete format of your hard drive has taken place and make sure everything is completely wiped clean for a new install then follow these steps:

1. Insert Leopard DVD
2. Restart the computer to start the install process
3. When it asks you where you want to install the OS go to the top of the screen and click the utilities drop down menu then click "disk utlity"
4. After disk utility opens click on your hard drive on the left side of the utlity screen. It should say something like 111.8 GB.... or 74.5 GB... depending on the size of your hard drive
5. With your hard drive highlighted, select "partition" on the right side towards the top.
6. With the partition screen open, click on the partition scheme and select 1 partition.
7. To the right, name the partition whatever you want it to be called. This will be the name of your hard drive and can't be changed. Mine is just called Leopard.
8. After that, click apply and it will give you a warning saying all the information will be erased. Click continue or OK (not sure which one it says) and it will erase all your data and partition your hard drive for Leopard.
9. Close the disk utility and then select the partition you just created and click install to begin your installation.

Hope that helps
 
IJ Reilly said:
But does it fix problems or potentially cause new ones? The OP had a problem with iTunes right off the bat, after an erase and install.
Click to expand...
I'm only a comparatively new Mac user (I switched about 3 1/2 years ago) Between my wife and I we have 4 Mac's in the house. I must have done about 20 Erase and Installs and thankfully everything has gone without a problem. Am I just lucky or do many MR members have problems when doing an Erase & Install? ... :confused:
 
Doing the typical erase and install is basically the same thing as erasing your hard drive through the disk utility and doing a fresh install. It is just automated where as the disk utility is erasing it manually. Really the only times your are going to run into problems when trying to erase a hard drive and install is if you upgrade to a brand new hard drive or take a hard drive out of another machine and install it.

Hard drives coming from Windows computers are usually partitioned into a NTFS file system which is not compatible with Macs. Macs can read files from NTFS but can't write to it making it impossible to install OSX. You would have to re-partition using HFS (Mac file system) and using a GUID partition table in order to install it into a Mac.

If you are just trying to do a fresh install once a year using the same hard drive you used before in your Mac then doing the automated erase and install should work fine. The steps above only tell you how to do the same thing, just manually instead of automated.

Hope that helps:D
 
Father Jack said:
I'm only a comparatively new Mac user (I switched about 3 1/2 years ago) Between my wife and I we have 4 Mac's in the house. I must have done about 20 Erase and Installs and thankfully everything has gone without a problem. Am I just lucky or do many MR members have problems when doing an Erase & Install? ... :confused:
Click to expand...

Why in the world are you doing this? I've been a Mac user for 24 years and I've never done a reinstall of OSX. Not one! The Mac I use daily is seven years old, started with OS9 and has been upgraded to to every version of OSX up to 10.4.11 without even having to be archive and reinstalled, let alone, erased and installed. I don't know if you're lucky or not, but you are sure wasting a lot of time.
 
A reinstall every once in a while isn't a bad idea actually. Your hard drive can develop bad sectors and can have data scattered all over it from repeatedly opening and resaving things and installing new applications. This actually will make your hard drive slower and lower your performance over a period of time because it is having to search in multiple parts of the hard drive in order to open a file. Doing a fresh install and erasing everything then restoring it brings everything together and increasing your performance like it is a new drive. I format and reinstall my computer probably more than once a year, just whenever I feel like it. it doesnt hurt the hard drive and can do nothing but help the performance.
 
I have seen absolutely no objective evidence that this is true. Problems with a hard drive don't call for a reformat, they can be easily repaired without going through this pain and risk. OSX defragments the drive automatically.
 
MacDaddy08 said:
If you want to confirm a complete format of your hard drive has taken place and make sure everything is completely wiped clean for a new install then follow these steps:

1. Insert Leopard DVD
2. Restart the computer to start the install process
3. When it asks you where you want to install the OS go to the top of the screen and click the utilities drop down menu then click "disk utlity"
4. After disk utility opens click on your hard drive on the left side of the utlity screen. It should say something like 111.8 GB.... or 74.5 GB... depending on the size of your hard drive
5. With your hard drive highlighted, select "partition" on the right side towards the top.
6. With the partition screen open, click on the partition scheme and select 1 partition.
7. To the right, name the partition whatever you want it to be called. This will be the name of your hard drive and can't be changed. Mine is just called Leopard.
8. After that, click apply and it will give you a warning saying all the information will be erased. Click continue or OK (not sure which one it says) and it will erase all your data and partition your hard drive for Leopard.
9. Close the disk utility and then select the partition you just created and click install to begin your installation.

Hope that helps
Click to expand...

If it's already partition you do not need to repartition it. Also the name can be changed at any time.
 
its true erase and installs arent really necessary unless something software is damaged, or if you want to wipe the drive clean. In most cases an archive and install would work as well...

i had to re install OS X Tiger once because Rosetta was somehow shot. I couldnt even start Word, Microsoft Auto Update, or anything else that required PowerPC architecture on my MBP. an A/I fixed it. :)
 
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