Macbook Pro running very slow. Still have 79GB available on a 350 GB hard drive. Have backed up all data manually and with Time Machine. When I go to Disk Utility, then erase, erase option is greyed out along with Format, Security Options and Name, even after I highlight which drive in the left pane. Any suggestions? Thanks.
Reformating hard drive
- Thread starter grant614
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You can not perform an action on the hard drive while it's mounted. That's like asking your Mac to commit suicide. And since you didn't tell us which Mac you have or what version of OS X you're running, we can't advise you how to go about doing what you want.
Respond with info and we'll go from there.
Respond with info and we'll go from there.
- Joined
- Jan 23, 2008
- Messages
- 65,248
- Reaction score
- 1,833
- Points
- 113
- Location
- Keller, Texas
- Your Mac's Specs
- 2017 27" iMac, 10.5" iPad Pro, iPhone 8, iPhone 11, iPhone 12 Mini, Numerous iPods, Monterey
OK, thanks for posting back your info. In order to format the hard drive you have to boot your Mac with the Snow Leopard disk. Once it boots to the disk, accept the language and the license. Go to the top menu and select Utilities, then Disk Utility. From there you should be able to find your way around to do the erase and reformat.
I should mention that we do not normally recommend erasing and reformatting your hard drive because of slow downs. Slow downs can be caused by many things: not enough memory, hard drive space lacking, hard drive fragmentation, and others.
I suggest while you're booted from the disk, to run a verify and repair on the hard drive before erasing and formatting. If your hard drive has errors or is dying, that could cause slow downs which will not be cured by erasing and reformatting.
And don't forget to make a backup before doing any work on the hard drive. And keep in mind that erasing and formatting destroys all data.
I should mention that we do not normally recommend erasing and reformatting your hard drive because of slow downs. Slow downs can be caused by many things: not enough memory, hard drive space lacking, hard drive fragmentation, and others.
I suggest while you're booted from the disk, to run a verify and repair on the hard drive before erasing and formatting. If your hard drive has errors or is dying, that could cause slow downs which will not be cured by erasing and reformatting.
And don't forget to make a backup before doing any work on the hard drive. And keep in mind that erasing and formatting destroys all data.
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