Clean Sweep

Hey, I'm a fairly new Mac owner and upon receiving my laptop I decided to try and learn as much as I could about Macs through experimentation. After putting my laptop through a few questionable downloads, I have found myself with a laptop that runs exceptionally slower than when I purchased it. In short, I'm looking for a way to totally clean my hard drive and restore my laptop to the point of when I purchased it. This would be the Windows version of a total system restore. Since I'm new, I don't really know of any way to do this, so if anyone could tell me, it would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Insert your OS X disc that came with the computer. Click install OS X, let it do it's thing, eventually choose the option "Clean install." This will revert it to facotry settings (And wipe ALL the data you may have put on it since getting it. Be sure to backup.

you might want to run onyx before you reload, any time I have any slowdown Onyx cleans my machine right up. Just run the daily, weekly, and monthly scripts.

Just another thought, can't hurt. Good luck

you need to press C while starting so it boots from the CD.

Clean Sweep just for unnecessary files?

I know Mac does not provide a clean sweep for unnecessary files (the junk accumulated after downloading an application, etc.). Is there a trusted program to provide a search and destroy mission, or do I have to do it manually file by file? Thanks I use a MacBook 10.5.8

I've had exceptional luck with AppCleaner. It's free and gets rid of files for that application that don't get removed when you simply trash it. That said, if an app comes with an uninstaller, don't use AC and use the uninstaller.