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imac deleting disk help
- Thread starter eco7777
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When you boot to the recovery system (Command-R), you will have several choices.
If you want to erase your hard drive, and you don't have any interest in keeping anything (or you have everything that you want backed up somewhere else), then go to the Disk Utility, and erase the boot partition - which is the partition with the name that you know, such as Macintosh HD, etc. That will take only a few seconds.
Then, Quit Disk Utility, and you will return to the main screen. Choose Reinstall OS X.
The installer will download a full set of system software, and reinstall. That will take most of an hour.
When that is complete, you will have a completely fresh install of OS X, and none of your own files, or anything else that might have been added to the basic system.
If you want to erase your hard drive, and you don't have any interest in keeping anything (or you have everything that you want backed up somewhere else), then go to the Disk Utility, and erase the boot partition - which is the partition with the name that you know, such as Macintosh HD, etc. That will take only a few seconds.
Then, Quit Disk Utility, and you will return to the main screen. Choose Reinstall OS X.
The installer will download a full set of system software, and reinstall. That will take most of an hour.
When that is complete, you will have a completely fresh install of OS X, and none of your own files, or anything else that might have been added to the basic system.
one more question:
I am supposedly installing Mac os to the usb drive.
console is open and only says :
"copying installer files to disk"
I don't see or perceive that anything is happening. It has been like this for 30 minutes and still at the same point.
Is this normal?
Will i only get a complete message when it is done?
How long might this take?
Thank You in advance again.
I am supposedly installing Mac os to the usb drive.
console is open and only says :
"copying installer files to disk"
I don't see or perceive that anything is happening. It has been like this for 30 minutes and still at the same point.
Is this normal?
Will i only get a complete message when it is done?
How long might this take?
Thank You in advance again.
I have a flash dive that I use for installs, which gets rebuilt every time there is an update to the system. Yesterday, did the rebuild again. It took about 1 hours 30 minutes to complete. It's a USB 2.0 device that has been erased 25 or 30 times. Gets slower on every rebuild. (It's close to 'retirement'... 
)
So, nothing unusual with 30 minutes. Assuming the USB drive is still good, just wait it out.
Are you really installing the system to the flash drive? The usual goal with a flash drive is to use it to make a bootable installer from the OS X installer app. You can do that with the createinstallmedia command in the terminal.
Is that what you used?
Or easier, use the DiskmakerX app, which does a great job without entering anything in the terminal.
The time involved is about the same, as it uses the same commands, but DiskmakerX does that all in the GUI - and makes it pretty at the end. Nice drive icon, too.
)So, nothing unusual with 30 minutes. Assuming the USB drive is still good, just wait it out.
Are you really installing the system to the flash drive? The usual goal with a flash drive is to use it to make a bootable installer from the OS X installer app. You can do that with the createinstallmedia command in the terminal.
Is that what you used?
Or easier, use the DiskmakerX app, which does a great job without entering anything in the terminal.
The time involved is about the same, as it uses the same commands, but DiskmakerX does that all in the GUI - and makes it pretty at the end. Nice drive icon, too.
I have a flash dive that I use for installs, which gets rebuilt every time there is an update to the system. Yesterday, did the rebuild again. It took about 1 hours 30 minutes to complete. It's a USB 2.0 device that has been erased 25 or 30 times. Gets slower on every rebuild. (It's close to 'retirement'...
So, nothing unusual with 30 minutes. Assuming the USB drive is still good, just wait it out.
Are you really installing the system to the flash drive? The usual goal with a flash drive is to use it to make a bootable installer from the OS X installer app. You can do that with the createinstallmedia command in the terminal.
Is that what you used?
Or easier, use the DiskmakerX app, which does a great job without entering anything in the terminal.
The time involved is about the same, as it uses the same commands, but DiskmakerX does that all in the GUI - and makes it pretty at the end. Nice drive icon, too.
I did with terminal, now this is what is going up:
I start the computer using the option key and it gives me two options, recovery disk and the usb "install el capitan" but when i hit the install el capitan, the machine starts loading up like when you start any mac, i see the apple logo and the bar below it.
The bar is already full but the machines stays there and does nothing else.
I am told i should have been able to see Disk Utility, but i haven't seeing it.
What am i doing wrong?
i can see step 3
http://osxdaily.com/2015/10/01/clean-install-os-x-el-capitan-mac/
But i never get to see step 4
The terminal commands that you used…
Did you use the createinstallmedia command as part of that?
You would remember if you did.
That would have been part of the link from that page, which shows you how to create the OS X bootable installer.
If you did create a good bootable installer - how long did you wait?
I would give it at least 10 or 15 minutes to finish booting up.
The other "option" that you have at the Option-boot screen, is to choose the recovery system.
Boot to that, then reinstall OS X from there (that should work, too.)
It will take significantly longer, because it will use your internet connection to download the OS X system files, rather than loading them from your USB stick. The result should be the same - it will just take longer.
Did you use the createinstallmedia command as part of that?
You would remember if you did.
That would have been part of the link from that page, which shows you how to create the OS X bootable installer.
If you did create a good bootable installer - how long did you wait?
I would give it at least 10 or 15 minutes to finish booting up.
The other "option" that you have at the Option-boot screen, is to choose the recovery system.
Boot to that, then reinstall OS X from there (that should work, too.)
It will take significantly longer, because it will use your internet connection to download the OS X system files, rather than loading them from your USB stick. The result should be the same - it will just take longer.
waited for more than an hour.
this is in terminal:
sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Elcapitan.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Elcapitan.app --nointeraction
[doublepost=1452913781][/doublepost]I will try recovery tomorrow like you said, it doens't matter if it takes longer
If that is the command, as you entered it, then that explains the problem. you have the installer app spelled wrong.
your command SHOULD be:
sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/ElCapInstaller --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app --nointeraction
(see the / and space between El and Capitan.app - that's pretty important, and would prevent the tool from making your installer. You can try again with the corrected command, if you like. Should work this time.
Before you run that command, make sure that your target drive (the USB flash drive) is actually named ElCapInstaller
That is the name as your command wants it.
And, now it should all work.