Troubleshooting to the max! HELP PLEASE!

[EddieMac]

note* this problem was probably caused by a 3rd party software.

My mbp turns on but wont start up it stays in the grey apple loading screen. I already tried to repair the disk and permissions by putting in the osx disk and pressing "c" when turning the mbp on. I want to erase the whole drive and start fresh seeing as thought my mbp is only 2 weeks old (didnt use time machine or have important data). the only problem is that i installed office 2008 and i dont know if i can install it again with the same product key?

(step by step guide/advise is helpful from you guys)


-Thanks

 

[ryannazaretian]

Office 2008 will be fine as long as you have the installation disk. You have a legitimate reason for reinstallation if you do have any problems activating it. Just give MS a call, and they'll fix it.

So, first off, boot off of the OSX Install DVD holding down the C button as you previously mentioned.

Wait for it to load.

Go to disk utility, click the disk, not the partition, in the left pane.

You should have an option to erase, do that with 1 partition, Mac OS Extended + Journaled

After you're done erasing, close Disk Utility and the setup should resume.

Install OSX.

Done.

Then install whatever software you want.

Also, you can't permanently screw anything up in the process, so don't worry about that. If you run into trouble, just try to figure it out on your own.