Newbie (questions about dealing with items on the disk)

[oSutrooper]

I finally took the leap and bought a g5 iMac and have a couple of questions.


1. Can you format the hard drive like you could in windows.

2. The guy we bought it from left a lot of stuff on it. What is the best way to wipe it clean.

3. There is about 10 gigs of music on it that I would like to merge into my itunes. What should I do before moving mine over so that it doesn't disappear


Thanks in advance

 

[AirborneAngel]

To keep the music you should back it up on an external HD, as for erasing all the other material I would suggest you reinstall whatever OS is currently on it, Leopard, Tiger, etc. If you don't have the install CD's I would suggest you get them somehow because they are the best way to erase the HD and allow you to start with a fresh install.

Cheers

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Welcome to the world of Apple and welcome to the forum. You'll love the world of Mac, juts give yourself time to adapt to the small - but still significant - differences. I'm a recent switcher, and I love my MBP. Re your query, I'd recommend the same. Back up the music onto an external drive, and re-install the OS; the person you bought it from should have the discs and I suggest that you try to obtain them. Good luck with the switch. Cheers.

 

[SnowLeopard2008]

Use an external HD to backup the music and thus add it to your own collection.
for the fresh install, i recommend using the system restore disc, just ask the guy he should give it to you, and go into disk utility via the disc and erase everything, and then install.

Don't know what you mean by reformatting like in windows, but using the system restore disk and accessing disk utility allows you to wipe hard drives and such.

 

[agentphish]

Make sure that when you boot to the system restore discs and do the install of the OS, you do a full format and install, there should be an "options" button at the bottom of the installer screen during the part where you select what hard disc you would like to install the OS on.

Other than that, welcome to the forums and to the rest of your computing life

 

[CanadaRAM]

Welcome to MR -- You'll get better responses (and annoy fewer people) if you make your thread title relevant to the question.

 

[GGJstudios]

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