Would reloading my operating system reset my computer?

[Colorado]

Hi,

This may be a dumb question, but hopefully not.

I have a MacBook Black 3,1 v10.5.8, and to make a long story short I tried to free up disk space myself on a whim due to some problems with Address Book and iTunes. I know nothing about computers, and I think I uninstalled/deleted lots of important things. My computer runs worse than before and virtually every application I need quits or won't open or has no disk space yada yada...and I worry my comp will eventually just crash.

How do I fix it? I don't even care any more about repairing it, I did this months ago and the files are gone...plus I went on a rampage and who even knows how many things I messed up inside my poor machine...

If I reload the OS, will it be like starting a clean slate? Or is there any way to fix the computer and make it like a clean slate? I just can't spend 2 grand on a computer now....but is it possible I have ruined it permanently?

Thanks,

Anna

 

[old-wiz]

Just boot from the install disk and re-install. that will clean things up.

It's always a bad idea in OSx to run amuck deleting stuff when you don't understand what happens in *NIX. Another way to cause a terrible mess is to try doing global permissions changes.

The system itself isn't damaged; you just need to re-install.

 

[Colorado]

Thanks for the advice...yes I did both of those things unfortunately.