How do I completely erase my hard drive and reinstall ML?

Discussion in 'macOS' started by brig2221, May 26, 2013.

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  1. brig2221, May 26, 2013

    brig2221 macrumors 6502

    Joined:
    Jan 18, 2010
    #1
    I have a question for the Mac experts out here. Can you tell me how exactly to completely erase my hard drive and then re-install Mountain Lion?

    I'm essentially wanting to do do a seven pass deletion of my hard drive, and then reinstall Mountain Lion, but I don't know how to do this.

    Not sure if this changes anything, but I have a 13" Core MacBook Pro, standard model, that I upgraded them RAM on (16Gb), and also removed the mechanical hard drive and replaced it with a Samsung 840 Pro SSD. I used Carbon Copy Cloner to clone from my original mechanical hard drive to my current SSD.

    I would appreciate any help you can provide. Thanks!
     
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  2. justperry, May 26, 2013

    justperry macrumors G3

    justperry

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    #2
    Do not (secure) erase an SSD, not so good for it's lifespan.
    You could *switch on FileVault2 if you haven't done so, then erase the drive by formatting it, next install OS X again.

    *If you do it this way it is as good as an erase.

    Why is there a need to reinstall?
     
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  3. brig2221, May 26, 2013

    brig2221 thread starter macrumors 6502

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    #3
    I just had a bunch of crap installed all over the place, noticed that my drive speed was slowing down as well. I wanted to cleanly erase everything, and then start over without so much crap.
     
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  4. justperry, May 26, 2013

    justperry macrumors G3

    justperry

    Joined:
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    #4
    Fair enough.
    Just switch on filevault2 (If you haven't done so), then reinstall.
     
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  5. benwiggy, May 26, 2013

    benwiggy macrumors 68020

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    #5
    It's worth mentioning that while it seems quite common on Windows to reinstall the OS as a solution to "things slowing down" (or indeed any other problem), that's not remotely necessary on OS X.

    Reinstalling the OS is necessary if:
    • You've deleted or altered system files without a backup to restore from.
    • You've installed something Unixy or something which leaves files in lots of places but doesn't provide an uninstaller.
    • It's going to be quicker than deleting everything else, or you don't know what has been installed.

    Also if you're restoring things to the new installation, make sure you don't restore the problem!
     
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  6. caspertheghost3, May 26, 2013

    caspertheghost3 macrumors newbie

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    May 26, 2013
    #6
    Boot into recovery mode (command + r) then open disk utility and format your drive. Exit disk utility, and clean install. Probably worth mentioning that you should back up all of your crap first. Ya never know!
     
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