want to clean install Yosemite

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My mac has been running very poorly, and I'm looking to just run a complete clean install, erasing all data and installing the operating system. What is the best way to do this? I've been trying for a few hours, but have had no luck yet. Thanks!
 
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Silver M1 iMac 512/16/8/8 macOS 11.6
G'day and welcome to the forums.

Tell us about your 'outer. Unless you have at least 8GB of memory, Yosemite may not be for you. Assuming you do however, first off backup to an external hard drive. Personally prefer cloning software to Time Machine. DO you have Yosemite on a bootable USB thumb drive?

If not you need to download it again. Don't run. Use Diskmaker X to make that bootable 8GB thumb drive. Thne reboot, with the thumb drive attached, hold down 'C' to access the Installer.

Leave Installer, to go Utilities > Disk Utility and erase the drive and format Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and under Partition > Options ensure GUID is selected. Back to Installer and let it run.

Hook up the backed up external drive, go to Utilities > Migration Assistant to copy everything over. Be aware if your problems have been software related, you may migrate them also. How large is the hard drive and how much free space after migrating?
 
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G'day and welcome to the forums.

Tell us about your 'outer. Unless you have at least 8GB of memory, Yosemite may not be for you.

I only have 4gb of ram, but I'm running Yosemite now. It's been running choppy since before Maverick even, do I not have enough ram to run Yosemite?
 

Raz0rEdge

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If things were choppy before Mavericks with 4GB, then Yosemite is going to be no better. While Yosemite did add extra stuff to compress memory and other things to be smart about memory usage, upgrading to at least 8GB will make things a lot more smoother for you..
 

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