New Mac owner, need Help Please

Im new and i have no idea on how to make a forum lol im having major problems with a mac i bought from someone!!

Help!!

I recently bought a macbook from someone for my niece..... Each time I plug in a camera or Usb..... pictures pop up, there not of anyone we know. how can i fix this

anyone? lol

Give us time.

Surely you got the system install discs with the machine? Format the hard drive and do a clean install of your software with your niece as User and all the old files put on by a former owner will me gone.

sorry i will you give guys time lol

Well see thing is i went and got this computer fix, something happen to the hard drive, and everything was deleted, shouldn't this pics have gone too?

I moved your question to a new forum and thread. Exactly what issues are you having? What Mac did you buy? Model and specs and OS version if you can. You can click the Apple in the top left corner of the screen and on About This Mac and get that info for us.

Welcome to Mac Forums!

its a macbook version 10.4.11 .... each time we go to upload pictures or put in a usb..... pictures pop of someone we don't know :-/ i have used the mac cd that came with this computer to try and clear everything.... doesn't work ... yikes

You probably did an Archive and Install instead of an Erase and Install. You do have the OSX DVD that is for that Macbook? Archive and Install leaves all the content and just replaces the OS. If you did that, it's why you are seeing the previous owners Pictures.

unfortunately I don't have that cd anymore, I own a macbook pro would I be able to use that cd? I'm clueless when comes to computers

The DVD of OSX that comes with the MBP is keyed to that machine and will not work on the Mac Book. You can just remove the pics from iPhoto. In OSX when you plug in a camera, default iPhoto pops up and will show you the photos that are there.

they pop also when you put a usb in........ I have another question, is it possible that those photos got transfer to the usb and camera that were used on this computer, like an auto-save??

these photos only pop up when camera or usb is plugged

after some searching i found a mac os x leopard (cpu drop-in dvd) would that by any chance be the cd?

No, when you put in a Camera or some USB drives, iPhoto will come up and display the pictures on it. It will NOT auto transfer anything to your Camera or USB card. Not at all.

If you want Leopard, you need the Black Full Retail DVD. All the others are for other machines and you would be very lucky if one worked.

My suggestion to you is to copy everything that is personal to you (documents, photos etc) up onto a thumb drive or external drive, then have a tech WIPE that machine completely and put a fresh clean copy of your Leopard disc (assuming it's from that machine -- again, these discs are machine-specific) on there for you.

From your posts it does sound like the previous owner's stuff is still on there and that you are even using his or her old account, so that machine isn't really yours till you get that stuff off of there.

Apple Mac OS X Leopard Version 10.5 Full Retail In Box | eBay

Not cheap but that is what you need. Hard to find at a low price. Large demand for older machines.

Since it's a Macbook, if I were you I could purchase the $29 upgrade DVD of Snow Leopard and save $$$. It's a newer and faster OS anyway. Anything you install will delete iLife (iPhoto and a few other apps). You can get them from the App Store from Snow Leopard for $14.99 each.

10.6 Snow Leopard even if you purchase iPhoto and say iMovie will be way less $$$ than a used copy of Leopard that will run on that Macbook.

I was told that the hard drive got fixed, so when it got fixed it deleted their pictures? I'm totally lost lol the only cd I was given was the leopard one

It's hard to know what they meant by "got fixed" so we can't really say. Perhaps they replaced it ... and copied back the data from the old one.

As I say, what you really need is a "nuke and pave" (meaning erasing the old drive completely and then reinstalling a system and backed-up user stuff).

So im screwed if I don't have that cd!!

Well, depending on the machine you might be out $30.

If it's an Intel machine (I can't look back at the moment to see if you said), you can just jump to Snow Leopard (and then, optionally, to Lion).

If it's not an Intel machine, then Leopard is as far as you can go with it (specifically, 10.5.8). If the system is working fine OTHER than this one issue, you might consider just setting up a new admin account for yourself and deleting the old one (the previous owner's). You will of course lose any stuff you've put in the old account, so you'll want to back that stuff (if any) up first.