Trying to wipe out hard drive and reinstall OS - Not clearing info

Hey guys,

So I've gone through two 1.5 hour download sessions trying to reinstall Lion and start front scratch again but whenever I choose "Reinstall Lion" it just brings me to a download screen (which then goes on to download something for an hour and a half) then it goes to my old home screen. All my old programs are still there, all my old files are there.

How do I completely wipe this thing out?

Any help would be a great help, I was having trouble locating a specific tutorial for this. There are not THAT many options after I restart the computer while holding command+R.

When you get to the panel that offers to restore from Time Machine or Reinstall or get help online or disk utility.

Choose Disk Utility and use it to format the disk. Quit back out of Disk Utility and then choose re-install

If you have bought Lion from the app store you can create a bootable DVD which will save you the download time

mrplow said:

When you get to the panel that offers to restore from Time Machine or Reinstall or get help online or disk utility.

Choose Disk Utility and use it to format the disk. Quit back out of Disk Utility and then choose re-install

If you have bought Lion from the app store you can create a bootable DVD which will save you the download time

Click to expand...

Thanks for the help. Much appreciated.