Reformatting Macbook Pro

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Hi guys, new to the forums here. I just got a macbook pro about a month ago. I was wondering how to reformat it. The macbook had Leopard installed first, and came with a snow leopard CD. When I reformat can I just use the Snow Leopard CD, or do I have to use the Leopard CD first and then upgrade to Snow Leopard? Also in the beginning if I use the "erase and install" option, my hard drive is getting wiped out and getting a fresh install right? I'm a neat freak and don't want files/programs from my old install laying around. Thanks guys, I've been a PC guy for my whole life, and having a hard to getting used to Mac. But I am liking it more and more as I get more used to it.
 
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Boot it from the snow leopard cd (right after it turns on with the CD in, press and hold down "c" and it will boot from the cd).

Once it comes up with the language or whatever, there should be a "Utilities" drop-down at the top of the screen. In that drop down select "disk utility." There you can select the hard drive and "erase" it and you should be good to go. You can then install a fresh copy of Snow Leopard.

And don't worry, Mac stuff is usually very simple and straightforward, and if you don't know how to do something that you know how to do on a PC, just google it, and you should be good. :)
 
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Thanks for the speedy reply, so just to confirm once it boots off the cd, go to utilities and delete the hard drive; which one the Macintosh HD or Fujitsu hard drive? So your saying the Snow Leopard disk that came with my macbook is a full version, not an upgrade version right? I just want a SUPER CLEAN install :D , and my mind will be at peace. Hate being OCD sometimes... Thanks again.
 
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late 08 macbook 2.0 4gig 320hdd10.7.3 32 gig iPhone 4s
That disc will do both.
 
T

todd51

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Thanks for the speedy reply, so just to confirm once it boots off the cd, go to utilities and delete the hard drive; which one the Macintosh HD or Fujitsu hard drive? So your saying the Snow Leopard disk that came with my macbook is a full version, not an upgrade version right? I just want a SUPER CLEAN install :D , and my mind will be at peace. Hate being OCD sometimes... Thanks again.

As long as you use the Disk Utility to format the drive like Kevin said, then yes it will be a clean install. Trust me, it's the exact way I upgraded to Snow Leopard.
 
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Okay I have another easy question, I'm trying to burn my music onto a DVD disk, how do I go about doing that on the Macbook. For PC I would just open nero and make a DVD data disc. The Apple support site says to run iDVD, I don't have that though just have "DVD Player".

edit: okay, I think I found out how-> insert blank dvd-> finder-> file-> new burn folder-> burn baby burn! hope it comes out right...
 
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Okay I have another easy question, I'm trying to burn my music onto a DVD disk, how do I go about doing that on the Macbook. For PC I would just open nero and make a DVD data disc. The Apple support site says to run iDVD, I don't have that though just have "DVD Player".

edit: okay, I think I found out how-> insert blank dvd-> finder-> file-> new burn folder-> burn baby burn! hope it comes out right...

Once again dude, google is your friend. :D


Mac OS X: About burning data onto CDs
 
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Questions regarding SL Install

Hi guys,

I'm moving from Leopard to Snow Leopard. I plan on reformatting my internal HD to create three bootable partitions:

1) Home Computer (surfing the net, emails etc)
2) Audio Computer (for Pro Tools, Logic etc)
3) Bootcamp for booting as a PC.

So, as long as I use my SL disc to access utilities and re-partition (having backed up all my data 1st!!!) as GUID/Mac OS Extended (Journaled) for each of the partitions I should be fine?

I'm assuming there are no issues to having two bootable Snow Leopard partitions on one HD?

Also, is there any advantage to choosing any of the other erase options (i.e. Zero Out Data, 7 pass erase or 35-pass erase)? Would these options allow my Snow leopard installs to be less fragmented on the drive? My thinking if I choose the 'don't erase data' option then my new SL installs will have to fragment themselves on the disc (I assume...).

Thanks!

J
 

chscag

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Better make some different plans. You can't install a Boot Camp partition if you have more than one partition on the drive. Why do you think you need two partitions for OS X? If you were using Windows, I would agree that two partitions might be easier to manage than one.

Don't over complicate your setup as that will lead to problems. Plus, you won't be able to install Windows using Boot Camp.

Regards.
 
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I'm quite happy to ditch bootcamp. The reason for the two partitions is one will be for Word, surfing the net, itunes etc. The second will be for Pro Tools and will not connect to the net.

Right now I have one partition which I use for both these purposes (running big audio sessions and using the same SD for internet etc etc. I've had this running on Leopard for a year or so now and my computer is running slower than it used to.

I know Mac's don't suffer with getting bogged down the way PCs do but they still do a little bit.

Ideal I want an audio optimized SD partition and a 'home PC' SD partition.

Should this work ok?

Thanks for the reply.

J
 
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Reformatting Mac book pro

I am trying to reformat my Mac book pro. I've inserted the osx cd and when booting it I held the 'c' key but when I do that the screen gets stuck at the apple logo screen and nothing happens.


Any thoughts?
 
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Way... way too many specs to list.
is it the CD that came with that Mac? Does the drive read media reliably?

In addition to all this, HFS+ isn't as susceptible to fragmentation as either FAT or NTFS is. There are multiple reasons for this, and without going into detail here are the primary two. HFS+ uses extent based allocation and it conditionally defrags (it actually just relocates the file) on the fly when you access a file.
 

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