Restoring my Macbook Pro to Factory Settings?

[Weaselboy]

What is the build number mine needs? is there a way to find this out?

That retail disk in the Apple Store is 10.6.3 and you will need 10.6.6. That grey OEM installer they sell you will be 10.6.6. After you erase the disk and install that, just run software update and that will get you to 10.6.8 along with the App Store app that came with 10.6.8.

 

[sopngeo]

That retail disk in the Apple Store is 10.6.3 and you will need 10.6.6. That grey OEM installer they sell you will be 10.6.6. After you erase the disk and install that, just run software update and that will get you to 10.6.8 along with the App Store app that came with 10.6.8.

thank you for your help!, I rang them today and the disks are in the post!

hopefully it should be simple to re-install now?

 

[Weaselboy]

thank you for your help!, I rang them today and the disks are in the post!

hopefully it should be simple to re-install now?

Rather than just install, once you get booted to the DVD use Disk Util to erase the disk, then install the OS. That will erase everything on the disk and give you a fresh start.

Glad to help.

 

[sopngeo]

Rather than just install, once you get booted to the DVD use Disk Util to erase the disk, then install the OS. That will erase everything on the disk and give you a fresh start.

Glad to help.

Sorry to pester again with more questions, but my disks arrived today and I'm just wondering the best way to begin deleteing everything. You mentioned here 'once you get booed to the DVD, use the Disk Util to erase the disk' what exactly do you mean, maybe you know a link to a tutorial?

Sorry to be a pain,

Thanks

 

[Weaselboy]

Sorry to pester again with more questions, but my disks arrived today and I'm just wondering the best way to begin deleteing everything. You mentioned here 'once you get booed to the DVD, use the Disk Util to erase the disk' what exactly do you mean, maybe you know a link to a tutorial?

Sorry to be a pain,

Thanks

No problem...

Pop in the DVD then reboot and hold the C key to boot from the DVD and select a language when prompted. (Or I think it will ask if you want restart to install after you pop in the DVD while the system is running... and that is okay also.)

Then at the lower left of the screen click utilities and select Disk Utility. Now select your hard drive itself at the very top of the list on the left. Make sure you select the hard drive (like 500GB Seagate or whatever) and not the Macintosh HD partition. We want to erase the entire drive.

After selecting the drive at the top, click the erase tab then in the Volume format drop down select Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and name the drive Macintosh HD then click erase. Now you have a completely blank drive to start fresh.

Quit Disk Utility then continue with the installation by selecting Macintosh HD as the install target then click install. At the end of the install you will be prompted to setup a new account for yourself.

Once you restart into your account do a software update and that should get you to 10.6.8 along with the App Store.

 

[sopngeo]

No problem...

Pop in the DVD then reboot and hold the C key to boot from the DVD and select a language when prompted. (Or I think it will ask if you want restart to install after you pop in the DVD while the system is running... and that is okay also.)

Then at the lower left of the screen click utilities and select Disk Utility. Now select your hard drive itself at the very top of the list on the left. Make sure you select the hard drive (like 500GB Seagate or whatever) and not the Macintosh HD partition. We want to erase the entire drive.

After selecting the drive at the top, click the erase tab then in the Volume format drop down select Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and name the drive Macintosh HD then click erase. Now you have a completely blank drive to start fresh.

Quit Disk Utility then continue with the installation by selecting Macintosh HD as the install target then click install. At the end of the install you will be prompted to setup a new account for yourself.

Once you restart into your account do a software update and that should get you to 10.6.8 along with the App Store.

thank you,

when i put in the disk and re-start, holding C on boot, I just get stuck at the apple screen, not even with any loading icon (grey screen with apple in the middle). IT wont budge from there, it makes a lot of noise for a while as if it's trying to load the disk but the nothing...

when i put the disk in when the laptop is running i get a pop up saying

'Install max OS X.app

Optional Installs

Instructions'

Not sure why it's being unresponsive...

Oh lord now it's beeping "beep beep beep........... beep beep beep.............. beep beep beep............... (on the grey mac screen)

is this a good sign?

So I tried pressing the options key, then selecting the disk from the 2 options, but I just get the grey screen and beeping. :/

 

[Weaselboy]

thank you,

when i put in the disk and re-start, holding C on boot, I just get stuck at the apple screen, not even with any loading icon (grey screen with apple in the middle). IT wont budge from there, it makes a lot of noise for a while as if it's trying to load the disk but the nothing...

when i put the disk in when the laptop is running i get a pop up saying

'Install max OS X.app

Optional Installs

Instructions'

Not sure why it's being unresponsive...

Oh lord now it's beeping "beep beep beep........... beep beep beep.............. beep beep beep............... (on the grey mac screen)

is this a good sign?

Ackk! That three beeps at startup means bad RAM normally.

So you can still start normally and everything works? What happens if you insert the DVD when the system is logged in and tell it to install the OS? Is that when it chokes on the restart?

It is also fairly common for the optical drive on this things to go out. Do you have any other CDs or anything you can try in there to see if the optical drive works.

This thing is cursed I tell ya'.

 

[sopngeo]

Ackk! That three beeps at startup means bad RAM normally.

So you can still start normally and everything works? What happens if you insert the DVD when the system is logged in and tell it to install the OS? Is that when it chokes on the restart?

It is also fairly common for the optical drive on this things to go out. Do you have any other CDs or anything you can try in there to see if the optical drive works.

This thing is cursed I tell ya'.

It logs in normally if i don't press anything it loads fine.

I've loaded the disk once it's started up normally and clicked 'install Mac OS X.app and it's installing apparently... '51 minutes remaining', so i'll see how this goes?

 

[Weaselboy]

It logs in normally if i don't press anything it loads fine.

I've loaded the disk once it's started up normally and clicked 'install Mac OS X.app and it's installing apparently... '51 minutes remaining', so i'll see how this goes?

That's better.

When it gets done, use the DVD Application Install disk 2 they sent you to run the Apple Hardware Test. Just pop in DVD 2 then hold the D key when booting to get to the test. This will do a RAM test for you.

Before you started the install from the DVD did you use Disk Util to erase the disk first?

 

[sopngeo]

That's better.

When it gets done, use the DVD Application Install disk 2 they sent you to run the Apple Hardware Test. Just pop in DVD 2 then hold the D key when booting to get to the test. This will do a RAM test for you.

Before you started the install from the DVD did you use Disk Util to erase the disk first?

disk 2...

I just got one disk :S, oh well I'm just gonna worry about that in 50 mins when this is done.


ohhhh lord...

it just got to 40 mins and then restarted and now it's beeping again.

This little bitch is cursed.

basically this disk is not going to work, I'm not sure what to do... ring them again ask for the right disk?

this is what they sent

 

[Weaselboy]

disk 2...

I just got one disk :S, oh well I'm just gonna worry about that in 50 mins when this is done.


ohhhh lord...

it just got to 40 mins and then restarted and now it's beeping again.

This little bitch is cursed.

basically this disk is not going to work, I'm not sure what to do... ring them again ask for the right disk?

Oh okay... they just sent the OS OEM disk which is fine. I would have thought they would send the disk 2 that has the iLife apps and all on it also. But this is fine.

This disk should work and the fact it begins the install shows that. If this disk was the wrong version it would not even start the install.

Is it giving you the three beeps in a row again? That is bad memory. You can try opening up the machine and pulling out the RAM chips and reseating them. Sometimes that will do the trick. Otherwise, at this point I'm thinking you need replacement RAM chips.

 

[sopngeo]

Oh okay... they just sent the OS OEM disk which is fine. I would have thought they would send the disk 2 that has the iLife apps and all on it also. But this is fine.

This disk should work and the fact it begins the install shows that. If this disk was the wrong version it would not even start the install.

Is it giving you the three beeps in a row again? That is bad memory. You can try opening up the machine and pulling out the RAM chips and reseating them. Sometimes that will do the trick. Otherwise, at this point I'm thinking you need replacement RAM chips.

Ahh okay so not a bad disk!

Right okay, I'll have to have a go at that. Which is the correct ram to buy if I need to buy new ones?

Is it something I can get off amazon? thanks


Okay so I had a fiddle and reseated the chips but I still get beeping with the disk.

it's so strange because it books perfectly normal without the disk.

is is definitely the ram?

 

[Weaselboy]

Ahh okay so not a bad disk!

Right okay, I'll have to have a go at that. Which is the correct ram to buy if I need to buy new ones?

Is it something I can get off amazon? thanks


Okay so I had a fiddle and reseated the chips but I still get beeping with the disk.

it's so strange because it books perfectly normal without the disk.

is is definitely the ram?

If it is three beeps in a row that is bad RAM. Reinstalling the OS is much more stressful than just normally running, so it could be the error only shows up under stress.

Amazon has this kit for $44 that would give you the same 4GB you have now, or you could upgrade to 8GB with this kit for $78. I would go with option two if you can spring the extra $$.

 

[sopngeo]

If it is three beeps in a row that is bad RAM. Reinstalling the OS is much more stressful than just normally running, so it could be the error only shows up under stress.

Amazon has this kit for $44 that would give you the same 4GB you have now, or you could upgrade to 8GB with this kit for $78. I would go with option two if you can spring the extra $$.

thank you,

God it's so much more expensive from the UK amazon, how annoying! I'll get back when I've tried replacing those! thanks again.

 

[sopngeo]

If it is three beeps in a row that is bad RAM. Reinstalling the OS is much more stressful than just normally running, so it could be the error only shows up under stress.

Amazon has this kit for $44 that would give you the same 4GB you have now, or you could upgrade to 8GB with this kit for $78. I would go with option two if you can spring the extra $$.

so I ordered the new ram and it came today, still the beeping... no idea whats going on here, so strange!

 

[Weaselboy]

so I ordered the new ram and it came today, still the beeping... no idea whats going on here, so strange!

Hmm... I am kind of at a loss here. Three beeps is bad RAM. I suppose it is possible the logic board connection to the RAM is bad and that is causing this.

It still won't do a C key boot to the DVD? Aside from the beeping, that at least should work. I wonder if you have a combination of problems going on here.

I hate to see you throwing more money at this. Do you have an Apple repair center you can take it to?

 

[sopngeo]

Hmm... I am kind of at a loss here. Three beeps is bad RAM. I suppose it is possible the logic board connection to the RAM is bad and that is causing this.

It still won't do a C key boot to the DVD? Aside from the beeping, that at least should work. I wonder if you have a combination of problems going on here.

I hate to see you throwing more money at this. Do you have an Apple repair center you can take it to?

I read this which made me think it might not be the RAM? I do have an apple center I could take it to as a last resort.

I thought about trying getting a 8gb USB with mavericks bootable on it and trying that?

I found this which might be worth a try?

Thanks for the help

 

[Weaselboy]

I read this which made me think it might not be the RAM? I do have an apple center I could take it to as a last resort.

I thought about trying getting a 8gb USB with mavericks bootable on it and trying that?

I found this which might be worth a try?

Thanks for the help

It is possible it is not the RAM and maybe installing straight from the USB key would work, but I would be really leery of buying a bootleg Mavs install like that though. Do you have a friend maybe that would let you use their Mac to buy Mavs under your AppleID then make a recovery key with this and a 1GB or larger USB key. Then you could boot from that and erase the drive and install download Mavs directly.

Sorry we are not more success here. This is a puzzler.

 

[sopngeo]

It is possible it is not the RAM and maybe installing straight from the USB key would work, but I would be really leery of buying a bootleg Mavs install like that though. Do you have a friend maybe that would let you use their Mac to buy Mavs under your AppleID then make a recovery key with this and a 1GB or larger USB key. Then you could boot from that and erase the drive and install download Mavs directly.

Sorry we are not more success here. This is a puzzler.

I will get on that mission, most of my friends are PC's so it might be a search but I'll try! thanks again

 

[Weaselboy]

I will get on that mission, most of my friends are PC's so it might be a search but I'll try! thanks again

You might even try walking in to the Apple Store with your own USB key and telling them your sad story and they may let you make the key there.

 

[sopngeo]

You might even try walking in to the Apple Store with your own USB key and telling them your sad story and they may let you make the key there.

I just saw this:

'DiskMaker X is not able yet to build a Mavericks installer from Mac OS X 10.6.8. More information here.'

does that mean i can MAKE a usb from a mac running 10.6.8. or can BOOT a usb on a mac running 10.6.8

thanks

 

[Weaselboy]

I just saw this:

'DiskMaker X is not able yet to build a Mavericks installer from Mac OS X 10.6.8. More information here.'

does that mean i can MAKE a usb from a mac running 10.6.8. or can BOOT a usb on a mac running 10.6.8

thanks

It just means you cannot make a Mavericks installer key from 10.6.8.

Just to clarify, what I am suggesting is not making a Mavs installer key, but just a Mavs recovery key. To do that you would need to get on a Mavs Mac and purchase Mavs from the App Store with your AppleID from that machine then stop the download of the OS.

Then after that use the recovery assistant tool with a 1GB or larger USB key to make a recovery key. This key does not contain the OS. All this tool does is move the small 650MB recovery partition from the host Mac to the USB key. Then you can option key boot to that key on your Mac and use the utilities on the key to erase your drive and download and install Mavericks.

 

[sopngeo]

It just means you cannot make a Mavericks installer key from 10.6.8.

Just to clarify, what I am suggesting is not making a Mavs installer key, but just a Mavs recovery key. To do that you would need to get on a Mavs Mac and purchase Mavs from the App Store with your AppleID from that machine then stop the download of the OS.

Then after that use the recovery assistant tool with a 1GB or larger USB key to make a recovery key. This key does not contain the OS. All this tool does is move the small 650MB recovery partition from the host Mac to the USB key. Then you can option key boot to that key on your Mac and use the utilities on the key to erase your drive and download and install Mavericks.

I tried to find a friend with a mac this weekend and failed most are at uni so have the macs with them, and it's only a few. if I did risk it from ebay and got bootable mavs on a USB would this solve the problem or would i still need to make a recovery key?

 

[Weaselboy]

I tried to find a friend with a mac this weekend and failed most are at uni so have the macs with them, and it's only a few. if I did risk it from ebay and got bootable mavs on a USB would this solve the problem or would i still need to make a recovery key?

If what you purchase is a properly made Mavericks bootable installer, you should be able to option key boot to that and erase the disk with Disk Util then install Mavs directly. Assuming this underlying beeping deal does not interfere.

I wish you were in the US I would have just made you a 1GB recovery key and mailed it to you. I have USB keys laying around here like dog treats.

 

[sopngeo]

If what you purchase is a properly made Mavericks bootable installer, you should be able to option key boot to that and erase the disk with Disk Util then install Mavs directly. Assuming this underlying beeping deal does not interfere.

I wish you were in the US I would have just made you a 1GB recovery key and mailed it to you. I have USB keys laying around here like dog treats.

That's a shame, I don't suppose if I paypal'd you the money for postage and effort you'd be able to? It sounds insane but at this point it would be worth it haha

Then I would just need to get onto the app store somehow and buy mav's on my itunes account, and go from there?