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Need help wiping the hard drive and starting over...

Mike Teezie

Mike Teezie

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Nov 20, 2002
2,205
1
I just got my Dual 1.25 PM G4. I got it used, so I want to clean the hard drive and reinstall OS X.

How would I go about doing that?

All the searching in Mac Help has gotten me is how to partition my drive and intall OS X on top of OS 9. I want to wipe EVERYTHING, and reinstall only OS X.

Any help would be very appreciated!!!
 
thats easy, just boot from cd, if ur running pather just insert then it will prompt for a restart from there it will ask you if its an upgrade install or a clean; it may ask before it tells u to reboot tho, i cant remember, but once ur booted from cd it will open up the disk utility, from there just format and then u can start fresh and clean. should be similar in jag
 
Do a search for "zeroing a drive" That is the most effective and permanant solution, it takes a while but will do what you want it to. Just be aware no information can ever be retrieved afterward.

What operating system are you using?

In 10, use disk utility, click on erase, then options, then zero drive

In 9 if I recall, you can do the same

Hope this helps,

Bill
 
Simply formating does NOT erase a drive, many things can be recovered and minir annoyances still be around. Even a clean install will leave bits of past info all over the drive, not seen with standard software...You must zero the drive if you want it clean, it puts zeros and ones all over the drive in random order making it non recoverable..
 
Or select the disk from the Startup Disk panel in System Preferences.

Or reboot and hold down option to get a list of all bootable drives and select it from there.
 
HOLY @#$%!!

I booted the computer from a Panther Disc. I went through until it told me to select a volume to install Panther on. Then, when I tried to select my hard drive, it said I couldnt not install there because OS X was already on the drive. SO, I erased the drive.

Now, when I try to boot from the Panther CD, it works, but tells me I can't install there because there is no previous version of OS X on the machine.

WHen I try to use the "Install OS X" or "Install OS 9" or "software restore" CD's I get a big fat question mark. SO I have an empty hard drive and no way to install an OS, I am freaking out!!

Help please!!
 
Back to basics here we need to know what you have on discs...

I am assuming that you have an upgrade panther disc and that is where the problem lies. If I had known that I would not have recommended zeroing the drive. I appologize....

So whatever OS you have that is a complete install is the only thing that will go on that drive now. If you have 10, jaguar (10.x) then install that after booting with the C key. If not, reply back. OS 9 will do you no good except to run 9 apps, which, I'm sure is not why you have that computer! If you do not have a full version of 10 the nearest apple store may help you with this situation and put jag on your drive if you can prove you bought panther.

Reply and let us know what you have...
 
You obviously have a computer that has an OS on it or you would not be on the net and this board, what is it and what OS is it running? I may have another solution for you....
 
I'm on mac rumors on my Powerbook.

Right now, I'm carbon copying my entire disk onto the Powermac's disk.

I don't know if thats going to work though.

I pulled out all of the CD's that came with the computer, and tried the "install OS X" disc, to no avail. I just get a mac face, then a question mark.

Wouldn't some disc that came with the Mac have a complete OS X install on it?
 
Maybe, since you got the computer used you may have not gotten the disc that came with it. The discs that come with the computers now are "computer specific" and will not work on another computer. Only retail full versions will boot any computer. If you are carbon copying your drive to the powerbook that should work, but you have to use a program like carbon copy cloner. It is available as freeware on the net.

Good luck! I am getting off the computer for the night, if you need more help, call me in the next 10 min or so..804-339-2984.. and I will be glad to do what I can.

Bill
 
I got OS X on the machine!

Thanks for the help everyone, now I just need a little more.

Since I carbon copyed my friend's powerbook drive onto my hard disk, there are a few problems:

1. His user name is all over the place. How can I delete his main account and make my new one the main one? Seeing his name everywhere is killing me.

2. Please tell me I dont have to lose everything on my iPod. I don't have to plug the iPod in before I can set it to "manual update" do I?

Thanks so much for getting me through my crisis everyone...this place is so great!
 
You will need your friend's password. Go into System Preferences and create a new user for yourself. Make it an admin account. Then log out and log into your new account. Then you can delete your friend's account.

Do not plug you iPod in yet! iTunes (with no library) will say that the iPod doesn't match the iTunes library and delete the contents of the iPod to make them match. This isn't automatic but more often than not people just click OK without reading and let their iPods get erased. Go to versiontracker.com and get an iPod utility for transferring from the iPod. Personally I've used xpod but there are others. Install that and then plug in the iPod. Read every box that iTunes puts up very carefully. Tell it you do not want to sync this iPod. Then use xpod (or whatever) to put your music onto your Mac. Put it in the iTunes library. Then you can safely tell iTunes to sync playlists.

Makes sense?
 
Got everything guys!

Now I just have one more little question....

For some odd reason I can't change the HD icon. It let me change its name to "system", but I can't simply change the icon.

I clicked the lock, I'm pretty sure I am doing everything right, but it won't change.

Any ideas?
 
Copy the icon you want to use for your HD. Select the HD and "Get Info" on it. Clickon the HD icon (upper left) and then Paste the previously copied icon. Close window.
 
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