OS X V10.7 Lion :: Clean Hard Drive Of Used Computer, Missing Latest Disc?
May 18, 2012
I just bought a used MacBook Pro off somebody online to replace my 2005 pre-Intel Power Mac, which still runs great but I'm just tired of lugging it around. The MacBook Pro was erased but still contains some of the old owner's information (computer name, accounts, etc), and before moving files over I'd like to just wipe it clean and reinstall the OS. He did give me the gray discs, but they are for 10.6 (Snow Leopard) but the computer has been upgraded to 10.7 (Lion); I fear by rebooting I would downgrade to 10.6 since that's the disc I have. Reinstalling 10.7 after 10.6 is out because I don't have the login info used to buy 10.7. I've also considered just keeping 10.6 and just upgrading to 10.8 whenever it comes out (likely soon).
Over the past few days, I've been pruning my hard drive of excess files and moving many of them to external hard drives. My machine is a year-old Macbook Pro. Even after removing over 100GB of files from my 750GB internal hard drive, the info pane for my hard disc still tells me I have only about 60GB of free space.I have been using Disc Inventory X to find files and get rid of them. My latest scan of my HD with this program yields 450GB of actual files stored on my computer, yet the info pane for my HD (powered by Finder) is still telling me I have about 76 GB free. Does anyone have any ideas for how this discrepancy could exist? If the actual files on my computer only come to 450GB, how can I free up the remaining 250GB of space that seem to be missing?
I'm using a iMac PowerPC G5 that I've received from my brother. He gave it to me with a fresh install of Leopard on it, but he unfortunately no longer has the disc that came with the computer that he also used to format it before handing it to me. With that said, I ordered a new internal hard drive. Naturally, I'll need to re-install Leopard, but I don't have an install disc anywhere. How is this going to be possible? Or will it not be? Do I have to buy a new Leopard install disc? If so where and how much?
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So let me get this straight: I have to install an outdated OS (snow Leopard) in order to install Lion.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
I have a mid 2011 21.5" 2.7 GHZ I5 IMac with a 1 TB HDD. It is reporting that the startup disk is full (<8gb left). I have surveyed the hard drive and found the "users" folder is using 972GB.The sole "user" folder (me) is using 972 GB An exploration and sum of "folder size" of each of the underlying folders (there are 8: Audio books, Desktop, Documents, Download, Movies, Music, Picture and Public) collectively sums to 316,6GB. The system tool in "about the iMac" (storage tab) shows "other" allocated a 893,97GB. Where is the missing 640GB plus of space? Please can anyone advise me how to identify where space has been allocated and how to rectify the problem?
I have done the following: All updates are installedVerified the partition - no faultsTimemachine - never been activatedre-indexed spotlight as suggested in a support article.deleted a dormant user (6GB) and deleted their dataI have emptied the trash. What else can i do?
Info: iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.3), IMAC hard drive missing space
After installing OS X Lion, all of my files are gone from My Documents and my desktop has been wiped clean. I also installed this on my laptop and that seems to be fine.
In trying to repair my hard drive, which disc utility said was corrupt, it stopped repairing it because it could not unmount the disc?I booted my macbook pro from my backup hard drive.
when I upgraded to lion (I think). I also run VMware fusion with windows 7 so maybe a virus? I ran disk utilities, followed suggestions on these communities to no avail. Our IT person and then apple support told me I should replace the hard drive. So I did. I played around a little bit and everything seemed good. Then I did a full restore from time capsule and everything is going downhill again.
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'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?
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).
As the title says, I'm looking for a program to organize and clean up my hard drive. I have an iMac now, but I had a iBook before that and the way I backed up my iBook was by dragging my Volumes folder into an external hard drive. I have folders inside of folder for days. I have my ibook backed up several times that way.
What I would love is a program that did the following
1.) Delete duplicates of everything.
2.) Put all file types into a single file extension folder (put all .doc in a folder called DOCs and all pdfs in a PDF folder, etc.etc.).
Would like to sell my old iMac, but have yet to figure out how to wipe it clean of my files, etc.. Have old operating system of tiger 10.4.11 IMac is from 2006. Do not have OS X install disc anymore.
Have to throw out my old Power Mac 8600, since no one wants an old but perfectly good computer.How do I wipe the hard-drive clean before throwing it away?
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.
My time maching back up is 60 GB less than my Hard Drive and I know that the back up is an accurate count of used GB's as I have been keeping an eye on this. I recently empltied my trash and found 15 GB's but I am still showing a 60 GB difference between what my MAC HD says vs. my Time Machine back up HD. How could this be? and where could I possibly missing 60GB. I would think if they were actually used somewhere that Time Machine would be backing them up as well.
"More than half a million Macs are infected with the Flashback Trojan, a malware package designed to steal personal information, according to a Russian antivirus company." on Cnet:
[URL]
I went to the Fsecure link and followed some of the steps on terminal. None of the file names came up so it seems like my computer is clean, but how can I be 100% sure? What's a good virus/malware/trojan scan I can run on my computer to be 100% sure?
Been using my MBA for 3 months now and noticed that I have lost a large amount of hard drive space, I currently have 40GB free when I have hardly anything on the computer, I have a few freeware apps and about 8GB of Music, thats it, I have looked at where the space has gone but can't figure it out. Is there any such tools for removing stuff that is not used and to do a "Spring Clean" to get rid of anything I don't need?
I have a iMac (bought new in 2009) running Leopard. I live in a home with two roommates and I think one of them has been viewing inappropriate material on my desktop while I'm at work. Is there any way for me to view the history other than through Safari. i.e., IP adress history?? Also, how can I clean my computer/hard drive thoroughly as to prevent incrimination? I have since changed my password to prevent access from anyone other than myself, but I do not want anything I'm not aware of on my hard drive!
I recently sold my older MBP and already backed up the system via Time Machine. However, I need to wipe clean the hard drive for the new user. Is there a clear cut way to restore the system? I do not have the boot drive with me as I am traveling but would like to know if there is a way without using the disk.
I'm replacing the stock HD with a new SSD and I'd like to have a clean install of latest OSX. I think if I use the recovery disks that it will install an older version of OSX (10.4) but I want the latest 10.9.4 installed right away and avoid having to do an upgrade.
