How can I remove the OS from my laptop to reinstall + how to fix a split hard drive

N

NYMacLab

Guest
Hello,

I'm both new to this forum and to macs in general, so hi to all.

I have a two-fold question:

First, I'd like to know how to go about removing the OS from a 15" Powerbook that I recently aquired. It's not functioning properly and the owner information is incorrect. So I'd like to somehow uninstall the software to then reinstall it.

Secondly, the person who had the computer before me created 3 different hard drives -- at least thats what I'm assuming because there are three icons on the desktop. One entitled Mac OS 10, the other Mac OS 9, and the last titled "Untitled".

I'm not sure why he did this. I got my frist mac, a 17" G4 late summer of last year and everything was new and working so I just had to learn how to navigate.

Any help on these problems would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.


-Candice
 
Joined
Jul 22, 2003
Messages
6,999
Reaction score
187
Points
63
Location
Hamilton College
Your Mac's Specs
20" iMac C2D 2.16ghz, 13" MacBook 2.0ghz, 60gb iPod vid, 1gb nano
What you do is put in the OS X Install cd.

reboot the computer

hold down C when the computer is booting to boot from disc
this will bring you into setup mode where you can reinstall the OS.
One of the install options Clean Install which is what you would like to do

it sounds to me like he just dragged his system folders onto the Desktop not having 3 partitions.

When you open up the finder and double click User Names Computer how many hard drives is it showing you
 
OP
N

NYMacLab

Guest
trpnmonkey41 said:
What you do is put in the OS X Install cd.

reboot the computer

hold down C when the computer is booting to boot from disc
this will bring you into setup mode where you can reinstall the OS.
One of the install options Clean Install which is what you would like to do

it sounds to me like he just dragged his system folders onto the Desktop not having 3 partitions.

When you open up the finder and double click User Names Computer how many hard drives is it showing you


Hi, thanks for responding. I just rebooted the computer with the OS 10 install disk. I'm up to the point where I need to select a destination, and it lists 3 different hard drives: the OS 10, OS 9, and the untitled



I have no clue what do here :-\
 
Joined
Jul 22, 2003
Messages
6,999
Reaction score
187
Points
63
Location
Hamilton College
Your Mac's Specs
20" iMac C2D 2.16ghz, 13" MacBook 2.0ghz, 60gb iPod vid, 1gb nano
alright so he did partition it to three discs then

Go to applications --> Utilitie --> Disk Utility

Click on the main hard drive (it will show the three partitions beneath it.
There should be a tab of some sort that says Partition. Go in there and click on the OS 9 and Untitled and click delete on each of them.

Now when you reboot and go into the install thing check to see what it gives you as the options
 
OP
N

NYMacLab

Guest
trpnmonkey41 said:
alright so he did partition it to three discs then

Go to applications --> Utilitie --> Disk Utility

Click on the main hard drive (it will show the three partitions beneath it.
There should be a tab of some sort that says Partition. Go in there and click on the OS 9 and Untitled and click delete on each of them.

Now when you reboot and go into the install thing check to see what it gives you as the options



Ok, I went int the disk utility and under the partition tab I saw the three drives, however it's locked and I cannt access the delete button. I thought that if I changed the ownership settings in the info section for all three drives, I could do it. But it didnt seem to work.
 
Joined
Jul 22, 2003
Messages
6,999
Reaction score
187
Points
63
Location
Hamilton College
Your Mac's Specs
20" iMac C2D 2.16ghz, 13" MacBook 2.0ghz, 60gb iPod vid, 1gb nano
hmmm. I have never had to deal with this but I am sure that one of the main guys on the site will be able to help you when they check the board for new messages
 
OP
N

NYMacLab

Guest
trpnmonkey41 said:
hmmm. I have never had to deal with this but I am sure that one of the main guys on the site will be able to help you when they check the board for new messages


Bummer. Thanks for the help anyhow.
 
Joined
Nov 4, 2003
Messages
654
Reaction score
11
Points
18
Location
Southern Indiana
Your Mac's Specs
Mac Pro Quad Xeon 2.66GHz 3GB RAM, G4 Quicksilver w/Sonnet 1GHz Encore ST, 1ghz G4 Powerbook
Restart using the OS 10 install cd. When it reaches the point to allow installing there will be a "Disk Utility" option under one of the menus.

Start Disk Utility. That is where you will be able to erase a partition or delete it.
 
Joined
Feb 25, 2003
Messages
5,279
Reaction score
138
Points
63
Location
Tropical Island, Jealous?
Your Mac's Specs
MacPro 3.0Ghz 16GB RAM, 4x256 Vid, 30''cinema display
NYMacLab said:
Hello,

I'm both new to this forum and to macs in general, so hi to all.

I have a two-fold question:

First, I'd like to know how to go about removing the OS from a 15" Powerbook that I recently aquired. It's not functioning properly and the owner information is incorrect. So I'd like to somehow uninstall the software to then reinstall it.

Secondly, the person who had the computer before me created 3 different hard drives -- at least thats what I'm assuming because there are three icons on the desktop. One entitled Mac OS 10, the other Mac OS 9, and the last titled "Untitled".

I'm not sure why he did this. I got my frist mac, a 17" G4 late summer of last year and everything was new and working so I just had to learn how to navigate.

Any help on these problems would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.


-Candice


1st question:
If you have the reinstallation disks of OSX or OS9 or what ever you would like to install on it, simply pop the disks in. Double click on the cd, double click on the installation icon, it will restart your computer, and bring you to a screen, simply select clean installation and ur on your way.

2nd question:
alright so you are on that clean installation place. open up "disk utility", click on the drive at the very top of the list, it will say like Maxor or something and the total space on it. then look a little to your right, you will see 4-5 bars and one of those tabs will say partition on it and one will say erase. select erase first, and you should beable to just erase those drives entirly. Then click on partition and you can make your own drives outa that disk. They can be handy, its always good to have atleast 2 HDs or a partitioned drive. Ok now go back to the CD, and install.

Its a bit rocky, but pretty much trial and error will get ya through it :D

2ndly, if you put your personal information on the computer, any hacker with a tiny bit of knowledge can get it from there with a simple netstatdealie.

hope that helps and its not too confusing (I hvnt erased my HD in over a year.)
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top