Removing windows and reinstalling OSX

[owen22]

Hi,

I'm VERY new to Macs and have just decided to buy a MacBook. Due to being a poor student I think I will have to buy a secondhand one and luckily I've seen a 13" MB in the window of a shop near me for sale for a very cheap price (£230/$370).

When I went in to find out what model MB it was I was 'warned' that it only ran Windows and the shop owner seemed to be suggesting this was a) stupid and b) the reason it was going cheap.

Not knowing anything I enquired no further but having read a little online since then it seems this is not uncommonplace at all!

I want to find out a little more before going back to the shop but also don't want to arouse his suspicions that I'm getting a bargain (if indeed I am!)

It there an easy way to tell whether the system is automatically booting to Windows on a partition via bootcamp or whether windows is installed as the sole OS and OSX has been completely removed?

If OSX has been completely removed what is the process for (presumably) formatting the hard-disk and reinstalling OSX?

Apologies if this is an easy answer to find elsewhere...

Thanks,
Owen.

 

[balamw]

If OSX has been completely removed what is the process for (presumably) formatting the hard-disk and reinstalling OSX?

Buy US$29 Snow Leopard upgrade package (assuming no discs with the MB) boot to it (hold down "C" at boot) and follow directions. If you want iLife you'd have to get that too.

B

 

[CylonGlitch]

Hold down Option while booting the machine. If there is an OSX partition, the machine will show both the Windows and OSX partitions, if there is only one, then you know your answer. As for reinstalling OSX, see above. Technically you need to buy the full version not the upgrade, but I'll leave that choice up to you.

 

[balamw]

Technically you need to buy the full version not the upgrade, but I'll leave that choice up to you.

Ah, but there is no full version!

The Mac Box Set contains upgrades of OS X, iLife and iWork for machines that were shipped with OS X 10.4 Tiger and never upgraded to 10.5 Leopard. We don't know if that is the case here until the OP can properly determine which MacBook this is.

The OP is trying to keep it cheap, so let's keep it cheap.

You are right that the OP should try holding Alt/Option, but I'm not sure if doing so in front of the vendor would suddenly raise the price.

B

 

[Stridder44]

Hi,

I'm VERY new to Macs and have just decided to buy a MacBook. Due to being a poor student I think I will have to buy a secondhand one and luckily I've seen a 13" MB in the window of a shop near me for sale for a very cheap price (£230/$370).

When I went in to find out what model MB it was I was 'warned' that it only ran Windows and the shop owner seemed to be suggesting this was a) stupid and b) the reason it was going cheap.

Not knowing anything I enquired no further but having read a little online since then it seems this is not uncommonplace at all!

I want to find out a little more before going back to the shop but also don't want to arouse his suspicions that I'm getting a bargain (if indeed I am!)

It there an easy way to tell whether the system is automatically booting to Windows on a partition via bootcamp or whether windows is installed as the sole OS and OSX has been completely removed?

If OSX has been completely removed what is the process for (presumably) formatting the hard-disk and reinstalling OSX?

Apologies if this is an easy answer to find elsewhere...

Thanks,
Owen.

Running Windows only on your Mac is fine, but most people will tell you to leave an OS X partition (if only a very, very small one...like 5 GB or whatever will fit) for firmware upgrades, etc.

As for reinstalling OSX, see above. Technically you need to buy the full version not the upgrade, but I'll leave that choice up to you.

There is only one non-server version, and it's $29. Check your facts next time.