Re-formatting HD

[talkinghead]

I'm new to Mac OS, so don't pummel me too badly. I bought a used iMac (late 09). I "thought" I would clean the HD by installing the OS again. I loaded the Start DVD and proceed forward. Took about 45 minutes.
However, when I started it up back again it still had the old owners information and PW on it. Did I select the correct option or what. I wanted a clean install.

 

[alust2013]

Restart the computer with the disk in it. Then hold the option/alt key down before the grey screen appears. When the hard drive and a disk icon come up, click the disk. This will boot from the install DVD, which will allow you to erase the hard drive in disk utility, and do a fresh install of OS X.

 

[spinnerlys]

Clean Install of OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard (Erase and Install)

Installing OS X 10.5 Leopard - Erase and Install Method for OS X 10.5 Leopard

 

[talkinghead]

Thanks guys, I thought I had it, but not! The first time I directed the install to the HD icon on the left. Nope. Then I tried again and directed the install to the right icon, the disk.

In both cases, after the install, the programs and personal info was still there. This is version 10.6.2.

 

[talkinghead]

Clean Install of OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard (Erase and Install)

Installing OS X 10.5 Leopard - Erase and Install Method for OS X 10.5 Leopard

Got it, finally! Oops...NOT!

Well, I thought I did. I carefully followed each step in the above guide, but after reinstalling all the updates, etc, it still popped up the previous owners name when it wanted to update the keyboard firmware. Is this coming from the Apple site, or did I just not fully clean the hard drive?

 

[talkinghead]

See above. Still not there!

 

[No1nfoProvided]

Do you have more than one partition? I think you do because you see 2 HD icons when trying to install OS X. Go back to Disk Utility, and play around with it until you combine your HDD into one partition. Then follow that guide and erase, then reinstall OS X. You might have erased one partition or something, and installed OS X on that partition, but booted into an old partition.