How to Format

[SalokinX]

Hi everyone. Hope you can help me.

Since I am new to the Mac and used to Windows, I'm having lots of trouble with it and I am in need of your help.

First of all, we didn't bought the computer, a friend give it to us. The computer was a office computer (I mean, used for work), so everything is messed up because it was suppose to have 1 central Hard Drive in the office for all computers, so nothing works here.

Anyways, I need to "format" my computer so I can have full use of it and free my Hard Drive. But we do not want to format it completely (taking out the Mac OS X 10.1.5), just to put it back to how it comes when you buy it (no programs intalled).

So if you guys can post here a guide or a link to a guide, it would really help me solve this.

Computer Information:
- Computer: Power Mac G4
- Operation System: Mac OS X 10.1.5
- Ram Memory: 1.25Mbs
- Processor: 2 x 450(or 400)Ghz

 

[Daveway]

Insert Disc 1 into drive.
Reboot computer holding down "C"
Installation wizard appears.
Go to: Utilities>Disk Utility
Select drive to format>Erase>Erase.
Quit Disk Utility
Continue on with the installation wizard.

 

[richard4339]

If you format the drive, you're going to lose the OS. Fortunately, it will be reinstalled automatically. Simply insert the install disks that came with the computer and restart. The disks should give you the option to set it back to factory defaults.

Edit: I got beaten to it =/

 

[SmurfBoxMasta]

Hi everyone. Hope you can help me.

Since I am new to the Mac and used to Windows, I'm having lots of trouble with it and I am in need of your help.

First of all, we didn't bought the computer, a friend give it to us. The computer was a office computer (I mean, used for work), so everything is messed up because it was suppose to have 1 central Hard Drive in the office for all computers, so nothing works here.

Anyways, I need to "format" my computer so I can have full use of it and free my Hard Drive. But we do not want to format it completely (taking out the Mac OS X 10.1.5), just to put it back to how it comes when you buy it (no programs intalled).

So if you guys can post here a guide or a link to a guide, it would really help me solve this.

Computer Information:
- Computer: Power Mac G4
- Operation System: Mac OS X 10.1.5
- Ram Memory: 1.25Mbs
- Processor: 2 x 450(or 400)Ghz

uummm.....

That computer (most likely a Sawtooth) "came from the factory" with OS 8.6 or 9, so you will need to get or buy a copy of some version of OS X to do a reformat & reinstall of the OS X back to a clean state.

Or if you friend has a back-up HD with OS X on it, you could just connect/install it & copy everything over, but that would not be the same as a fresh installation from the CD's......

 

[SalokinX]

I download the Mac OS X 10.4.6 Tiger ziped (compressed) with Winrar and when I unzip it, it had 6Gbs, so I can't burn it into a DVD. So what should I do to reinstall (or format) the Mac OS X?

OBS.: I burned the Mac OS X 10.4.6 Tiger into a DVD along with Winrar for Mac OS X to see if I could unzip it into the Mac, but it won't read the DVD and won't work. It reads other DVD normally, but it just won't work with the DVD I just Burned.

Ty.

 

[hopejr]

I download the Mac OS X 10.4.6 Tiger ziped (compressed) with Winrar and when I unzip it, it had 6Gbs, so I can't burn it into a DVD. So what should I do to reinstall (or format) the Mac OS X?

OBS.: I burned the Mac OS X 10.4.6 Tiger into a DVD along with Winrar for Mac OS X to see if I could unzip it into the Mac, but it won't read the DVD and won't work. It reads other DVD normally, but it just won't work with the DVD I just Burned.

Ty.

Pirated is it? There's your problem.

 

[kalisphoenix]

Please don't discuss pirated software on here. It gets a thread locked pretty quickly.

 

[SalokinX]

I'm sory about the pirate thing.

I now copied the Mac OS X 10.4.6 Tiger (4 CD). But when I restart the computer and wait it reboot while pressing "C", the computer just opens normally as if I was doing nothing.

OBS.: I burned the Disk 1 to a DVD-R.