New iMac user

Ewbone · Sep 20, 2012

Bought a used 21.5 iMac yesterday that had been purchased new last March. In addition to the basics, it has extra RAM and Office Mac installed. The seller tried to get everything of his deleted out, but it still shows as his compter in several places. Is there a way to sort of re-boot the machine to make it like a new computer? Something like a re-install? I'm brand new at this Mac business and am just exploring what I've purchased. Would appreciate any help and advice you can give me to sort of get me going in the right direction. Thanks from a real iMac greenhorn.

Ewbone

Gandalph · Sep 20, 2012

If you got the Disc with it, and you should have, then do a re-install. Then go to the App store and download the updates.

chscag · Sep 20, 2012

You can reinstall the operating system fresh and that will remove everything including the old owner's name and software. Unless he gave you the original disk set for MS Office, you don't own the license to it anyway.

However, you will have to purchase your own copy of the operating system (assuming Lion or Mountain Lion) otherwise you will be unable to download a new copy to install fresh. If the computer was purchased last March it came pre-installed with Lion.

Let us know what you would like to do and someone here will give you the steps you need to take in order to put a fresh copy of OS X (I recommend Mountain Lion) on the iMac.

Ewbone · Sep 20, 2012

New to iMac

chscag said:
You can reinstall the operating system fresh and that will remove everything including the old owner's name and software. Unless he gave you the original disk set for MS Office, you don't own the license to it anyway.

However, you will have to purchase your own copy of the operating system (assuming Lion or Mountain Lion) otherwise you will be unable to download a new copy to install fresh. If the computer was purchased last March it came pre-installed with Lion.

Let us know what you would like to do and someone here will give you the steps you need to take in order to put a fresh copy of OS X (I recommend Mountain Lion) on the iMac.

Gandalph asked if I got a disk. No I didn't. I'd really like to keep the Office Mac, so probably just want to get as much of his info and identification out of the computer as possible and stay with Lion for now...or at least until I get my feet on the ground. Can I do that by just starting with "setup"?

chscag · Sep 20, 2012

The latest Mac operating systems (Lion and Mountain Lion) are digital downloads only from the Mac App store. Any Mac computer shipped from around late 2011 until the present time does not come with a disk set. (Which is why I didn't ask you.)

You have a recovery partition on your hard drive that can be booted to from which you can perform disk maintenance and operating system reinstallation as a download from Apple.

You can not run setup again without possibly doing damage to the operating system. What you can do is create another user account for yourself and give it admin permissions. Then copy all the data from the old account to your new account. Once you have verified that everything is working OK, you can delete the old account and that will get rid of his user info.

And I encourage you to purchase your own copy of MS Office and Mountain Lion as soon as you can. Mountain Lion is only $19.99. MS Office Home and Student version single install can be purchased for around $90 from several web stores.

Ewbone · Sep 20, 2012

New imac user

chscag said:
The latest Mac operating systems (Lion and Mountain Lion) are digital downloads only from the Mac App store. Any Mac computer shipped from around late 2011 until the present time does not come with a disk set. (Which is why I didn't ask you.)

You have a recovery partition on your hard drive that can be booted to from which you can perform disk maintenance and operating system reinstallation as a download from Apple.

You can not run setup again without possibly doing damage to the operating system. What you can do is create another user account for yourself and give it admin permissions. Then copy all the data from the old account to your new account. Once you have verified that everything is working OK, you can delete the old account and that will get rid of his user info.

And I encourage you to purchase your own copy of MS Office and Mountain Lion as soon as you can. Mountain Lion is only $19.99. MS Office Home and Student version single install can be purchased for around $90 from several web stores.

Thanks for the info. I've printed it out and will use it as soon as I get the hang of how things work iMac-wise. I really appreciate your help and prompt reply. Sorry I was gone so long, but had to tend to an ill spouse. Nothing serious, just really sick. BTW, is that A/C a B-26? Can't see it too clearly, but it looks like one.

Ewbone

chscag · Sep 20, 2012

The aircraft in my avatar is a Douglas B-26D which was used in the later part of the Korean war and up until several years into the Viet Nam war. I was a crew chief for awhile on a similar bird back in my military days.

Ewbone · Sep 20, 2012

A/c

chscag said:
The aircraft in my avatar is a Douglas B-26D which was used in the later part of the Korean war and up until several years into the Viet Nam war. I was a crew chief for awhile on a similar bird back in my military days.

Had no idea they were in service that long. Never heard a lot about them, but do recall a propeller problem early-on. My old golf partner flew them in WW II and he really liked the plane. Didn't it also have pretty high wing loading which limited its use?

Ewbone

chscag · Sep 21, 2012

Your old golf partner probably flew the Martin A-26 Marauder later
re-designated the B-26 Marauder which had the R-2800 engine and a four bladed prop. That bird was used as a low level attack bomber during WWII. The Douglas models were built toward the end of WWII and were called the B-26 Invader.

Ewbone · Sep 21, 2012

chscag said:
Your old golf partner probably flew the Martin A-26 Marauder later
re-designated the B-26 Marauder which had the R-2800 engine and a four bladed prop. That bird was used as a low level attack bomber during WWII. The Douglas models were built toward the end of WWII and were called the B-26 Invader.

Exactly. I wasn't aware that there were two A/C designated as B-26. See, even when you're approaching 80 you can still learn something. Hopefully that applies to the iMac too.

Again, thanks for your help.

Ewbone

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