Mac Mini :: Cannot Format Hard Drive And Do A Clean Install?
Apr 27, 2012
I'm in a pretty big mess right now. I was using boot camp with lion and Windows 7 no problem and I wanted to edit the sizes of the partions. It didnt go so well and I ended up losing both operating systems. Now the big problem is when I boot up from the recovery partion I cannot do any sort of formating from the disk utility, it always give me some sort of error. When I try to install lion via web there is no partion that I can Install it to. I can install Windows no problem from a USB drive whcih I have done already. When managing the disk in windows I see 2 of the windows partions, the mac recovery partion, and an 80 GB partition that I can format but I cannot do anything else with. I dont have any images or recovery devices other than the recovery partition.how to get the drive back to mac format so I can re install lion.
I'm drop shipping my 27" imac refurb to OWC for them to install the sdd, ram, etc. Someone here said OWC will clone the hd to the ssd and then the end user went back and did a clean install. Wouldn't it be better if OWC just installed the SSD, left it clean, and I did the install from the disks myself? I mean I assume it's a time issue why they would clone, not fresh install. I have plenty of time to do it. Is it not that simple? Is there something more fangled to it, or is it just running the disks and doing what they say?
This nonsense: To upgrade your Mac to OS X Lion, you must be running OS X Snow Leopard. If you have OS X v10.5 Leopard, purchase OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard now and install it on your Mac. Then buy OS X Lion as a digital download from the Mac App Store- seems very very un-apple.
So let me get this straight: I have to install an outdated OS (snow Leopard) in order to install Lion. ???
Remember when an OS was self contained, not an add-on upgrade feature?
I am puzzled- I would simply like to boot my mac pro from leopard (current os), and install LION on a newly placed, freshly formatted internal hard drive on same computer. Why would i need to have the intermediary step?
The folks at apple store couldn't answer- even the genius folk weren't sure- dissappointing at best-
Info: Mac Pro 3Ghz Quad Core Duo, Mac OS X (10.5.8), G4 MDD Dual 1Ghz Power PC
Clearly there must be a way to do this, right? Can I install off an external hard drive? Off a USB drive? Share my macbook pro's DVD drive somehow? If the hard drive on the mac mini is completely reformatted and I plug it into the USB port on the external hard drive which I partition and install the Leopard DMG would it be able to boot off of it?
I'm running Snow Leopard on my new Macbook Pro. I've got a 1.5TB External hard drive that I'm trying to figure out how to format in HFS+ with Apple Partition Map. I can figure out how to format in HFS using Disk Utility, however it still does it in GUID format and I do not know how to do it in Apple Partition Map.
Googleing this for hours has lead with all kinds of information on how to go to GUID FROM Apple Partition Map but not the other way around. I know GUID is the new hottness.. but this drive will be used exclusively to connect to my XBOX 360 and it supposedly only reads HFS+ when its formatted with Apple Partition Map. (I have tried it with Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with GUID, and the XBOX does NOT recognize it) I do not want to use Fat 32, (I know that that is the other major option) beacuse it limits file size.
Whats the best way to do a clean install on my mac mini?
I have basically sold it and looking at erasing my stuff on it, so therefore when the new person starts it, it takes them through all the welcome pages etc.
I got my Mac Mini from my moms friend (for free) so I don't have the disks that came with the computer, but I do have the Snow Leopard upgrade disk and the disks that came with the new MacBook Pro's if that helps. How would I go about doing a clean install on my Mac Mini?
I just got a Mac Mini with Snow Leopard. The guy I bought it from took out the 80GB HDD that was in it and put my old MacBook 160GB HDD in it so it's like my old laptop on a mini. I want to start over with the system fresh and new as it'll be serving a new, re: family computer, purpose now. I don't have the SL upgrade/install disc right now and not sure if/when I'll get them back. Is there a way to wipe it back to new and keep it on snow leopard? This HDD was initially a Leopard drive when I first purchased it FYI.
The internal hard drive on my early 2009 iMac is being replaced but I have to reinstall Snow Leopard myself.I did search in MRoogle and at Apple and cannot seem to find instructions on how to perform a clean Snow Leopard install on an iMac internal HD.
Can I do this? And if so how? Or do you think I should try and install Leopard on the existing Hd in the iMac? I still have these discs but have to get the SL applications install disc out of my drive (it's stuck and the iMac won't boot past the blue screen).
I have a MacBook Pro which was originally supplied with OS X10.4.9. I have upgraded using disks purchased from the Apple store to 10.5 and subsequently 10.6. More recently I upgraded to 10.7 using the download from the online App Store. I would like to perform an Erase and Install to get rid of the 'dross' on my hard disk and may do this as part of the 10.8 upgrade although have yet decide whether to wait for this or not.Â
when doing the erase and install, do I have to start from scratch by loading the original 10.4.9 OS X version or can I start at 10.7. If the latter how would I do this given that I don't have a disk as it was downloaded from the App Store?
Info: MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.4), 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Just got the WD MyBook 2TB. It's not the one specifically for Mac. It says it is compatible, needs to reformat. How easy is it to reformat? It is for Time Machine.
I have a Windows PC with Vista and I am trying to install Vista on the MBA through Remote Disc. I booted from the Leopard Disc 1 and deleted the partitions and also chose MBR (for windows) in the advanced options while doing so. But I am unable to boot from the Vista CD thru the Wifi Network. On reboot (while holding Atl) it only recognizes the Mac OS CD, when in the drive shared drive of the PC.
I just want a clean vista install with no Mac. It was too much for me to start learning now.
I am doing a clean install on my Mac Pro and want to bring in my user directory onto a 2nd drive (where it was originally).During the install, should I point to an external drive where I know have my user directory cloned and allow OS X to restore it?Should I just copy my user directory to the 2nd drive after doing the install?
Other caveats? I can foresee all sorts of potential problems. Anybody have any experience with this?I know that I will lose my apps in the process.
I am having a huge dilemma with my new Western Digital 4TB Hard Drive. It came formatted for Mac OS and I need to format it under NTFS. The problem is Windows will not format it, I always get an error message. I have tried two different machines. The major issue is that I cannot format it to FAT32 first before formatting it under NTFS bc the drive is larger than 2TB. My media player will not recognize Apple's format...
I followed instructions from Apple and reformated a second boot drive with GUID partitions, loaded my Snow Leopard OS and updated to the last version. Downloaded Lion and installed, set this second HDD as the new boot drive and waited - one monitor came up but then nothing happened for so long I went away. This has happened three times now and while I'm not watching my MacPro Xenon 8 core reboots from the Snow Leopard drive..
Info: Avid Media Composer 6, Mac OS X (10.6.8), MacPro 2.8 8 Core14Gb, 6Tb, AJA Io
I've converted to Mac about 6 months ago and I'm loving it. When I was running windows I periodically cleaned out my hard drive. I would like to do the same on my Mac, but don't see any applications?
I am going to be getting rid of a PC soon and I would like to know how to clear the hard drive completely clean so that no one who takes the machine if I throw it away attempts to take control of things that are on this computer. Also, I may let my dad or mom clear the hard drive but I don't want to let them do so if there is any way they look at the stuff that I've looked at on the hard drive.
I am looking for a way to wipe my hard drive clean so I can sell my G4 powerbook. However, I have read some forums with instructions that involve my start-up disk to reinstall os after it wipes... but i don't have my start up disk.
I just brought a Western Digital 1TB USB drive for my Mac Pro. Now when I try and format it in Mac OSX journaled it keeps coming up in an error saying it can't be done, It will format as FAT32 but I need it to be Mac OSX formatted. Does anyone know what might be wrong?
I just bought a new WD Elements (1tb) and I am getting an error when I try and format. I wish I could tell you what that error says but I was trying to figure something else out so I chose the disk6s1 and formatted it to os extended but it seems like it is frozen. I am afraid if I force quit it will screw up the drive. This is the 2nd one I have tried, I returned the 1st one thinking the drive was faulty. Now I think I screwed up the drive when I formatted it in disk utility. I have installed 2 western digital internal Hard Drives into my Pro and have used 2 other external HDs both western digitals. If there was any problems with any of my HDs, I would open up Disk Utility and Erase them to be Mac OS Extended (My WD TV won't read Journaled drives).
I'm trying to work out how to format my external hardrive so my MacBook Pro, Windows and PS3 can all have read and view access. If it can't be done can this be done: MacBook Pro: Read and View Access Windows: View Only Access PS3: View Only Access My external hardrive is WD 500gb Passport and i'm running Snow Leopard
Im trying to install a new g-tech external hard drive and i'm following the instructions to format it as MAC OS EXTENDED.In disk utilities it is only giving me the option of Mac OS (Extended journaled), (journaled encrypted), (case sensitive journaled) and (case sensitive, journaled, encrypted).
I recently received a Macbook hard drive for my niece. She trashed her Macbook to the point that i is not worth repairing. I usually work with PCs and am a hardware familar with Macs. I have a ineterested party for the hard drive but they want me to erase the drive and reformat it so they can use on a Mac. They will put on the OS. Is it possible for me to erase it and format it for use on a Mac with a PC? I don't own a Mac.
I would like to clean install Lion into my Macintosh HD drive and leave the bootcamp drive without getting affected from it...is it possible or do i have to do the install on all the drive?
After seeing the system requirements for Windows 7, I decided to upgrade to a larger hard drive later this week. I plan on giving my old 160 gig drive to a friend who uses Windows but I want to wipe it clean first. Do I insert my Leopard disc and use disk utility to reformat?
I purchased an external harddrive to back up my entire student drive. The drive had to be formatted to be compatible with a Mac, and I did this with the customer support over the phone. Used basic copy and paste methods to put my information on the ehd. I triple checked to make sure it stayed there, by properly ejecting drive and plugging it back in. Had my mbPro wiped clean entirely, reloaded Leopard, and am now left with just basic applications and files. Plug in the ehd, and it shares the exact same information as my current wiped-clean drive. I made it as an exact replica of my information filled mac, and it is now an exact replica of my empty mac. All documents, music, photos, applications, etc. GONE. This information was valuable to me beyond words, and I need it back. Does TimeMachine have anything to do with this? I have never used this application, but upon plugging in my ehd, it asked for SOMETHING (which I don't remember).
