Do Fresh Install Of Mac Os And Erase Hard Drive
- Do Fresh Install Of Mac Os And Erase Hard Drive Windows 7
- Do Fresh Install Of Mac Os And Erase Hard Drive Mac
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It should only take a minute or two for the drive to be erased and reformatted. Now your drive is ready for OS X. Install OS X. There are two ways you can install OS X on to your external hard disk: by reinstalling OS X from the OS X Utilities repair screen or by downloading OS X. Oct 10, 2010 Insert the Mac OS X install disc that came with your Mac. Note: The disc will begin the process of installing Mac OS X on your Mac. Whether or not you actually choose to install Mac OS X is your choice, but if you do, you’ll do it after you’ve securely erased your Mac’s hard drive. Select your preferred language from the list presented.
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Apple is ready to give you a change — the all-new macOS Catalina, available as a free download — so let’s get you all set.
There are two different options on how to upgrade. You can install Catalina over your current macOS, keeping all its data untouched. Or, you can get a fresh start with a clean install. The main benefit of clean installation is that you get rid of the system junk and leftovers which might hamper your Mac’s performance.
Get Setapp to get ready for Catalina
A complete toolkit of utilities that prepare your Mac for macOS Catalina install. Upgrade your Mac in minutes without losing any data.
One way or another, getting Catalina on your Mac is definitely worth a try. Look at the bells and whistles it brings along:
- A renewed iTunes experience — with dedicated apps for Music, Podcasts and Apple TV.
- Simplified porting of iOS apps to macOS.
- Sidecar for using your iPad as an additional screen.
- Major updates of your favorite native apps, including Photos, Reminders, and Find My.
And that’s only a small part of your new macOS experience. If you need more reasons, find a complete review of the new Catalina features here.
Prepare your Mac for the clean install
If you’ve seen the new Catalina, you must be excited to get your hands on the installer — we get it. But don’t dive right into the upgrade. Your Mac has to be ready. First thing, check device compatibility. The rules are not much different from the Mojave compatible Macs, except for a few older Mac Pro models that Catalina will no longer support. Here’s the full list:
- MacBook Air (2012 or newer)
- MacBook (2015 or newer)
- MacBook Pro (2012 or newer)
- Mac Pro (2013 or newer)
- Mac mini (2012 or newer)
- iMac (2012 or newer)
- iMac Pro (all models)
Found your Mac on the list? Congrats, you’re on the Catalina team. Just a few more things and you’re ready to install:
- Get a USB drive with minimum 16GB of free space if you plan to install Catalina on a startup disk.
- Backup your data and clean away all the clutter.
- Note that it will take your Mac an hour or two to run the upgrade.
Choose your way to clean install Catalina
As we’ve said before, the healthiest method of clean installing the new macOS is by putting it on your startup drive. It’s your perfect choice if your Mac has a single non-partitioned drive where all the files are stored. Simply backup an entire drive and go ahead with the installation.
Another choice would be to test Catalina on a non-startup drive. If you have a spare drive or your startup drive is divided into volumes, this might be a good option to explore. Especially if you don’t want any files to go away.
Let’s dive into the details of clean installation.
Clean install macOS 10.15 on a startup disk drive
Again, this is the recommended option that will leave you with a high-performing Mac. It involves lots of cleaning and securing your files, though. You can take care of all the data stored on your old OS manually, or by using a few easy utilities. Let’s save your time and see how to do it real quick:
Remove junk from your Mac with CMM X
Download a powerful macOS cleaner to get ready for the Catalina upgrade. All the junk, leftovers and old caches will be gone in a moment.
Step 1. Get rid of the junk
Every ancient app leftover that is hiding somewhere in the depths of your Mac may potentially hinder its performance. That’s not what you want. CleanMyMac X can handle the junk before an upgrade. In one smart scan, the app will spot and remove everything — from outdated caches to file duplicates.
One more important detail, Apple will stop supporting 32-bit applications in the new macOS 10.15. So make sure you get rid of them, too. This will help you see the functionality that Catalina will be missing, and find the right alternatives in advance. In CleanMyMac X, navigate to the Uninstaller tab, filter apps by 32-bit, and click Uninstall. As easy as that.
CleanMyMac X is a nice utility to keep on your new macOS, too. In fact, it’s the quickest way to refresh an entire system and remove potential threats before they start affecting your performance. The app is available on Setapp — and so is the backup utility for your Mac we’ll talk about in a moment.
Step 2. Backup your drive
You want the redundant files to go. But you also want the needed files to stay. That’s easy with Get Backup Pro, one of the best backup apps for Mac. Unlike Apple’s native Time Machine, Get Backup Pro has the functionality of creating bootable clones — which gives you absolute peace of mind. In case there’s a tech problem with your Catalina installation, the drive can be recovered at any time.
We encourage you not to ignore the backup process. It will help you roll back at any time with minimum loss. Plus, it’s an easy way to move your files to the new OS in batch.
Read more information about Mac update
Step 3. Create a bootable Catalina installer
Before you clean install Catalina, we have to warn you there might be no going back. First, because macOS 10.15 is truly great. Second, because Apple removes an old macOS installer from the App Store once the new version is out. So if you want to have an exit plan, you’ll have to download Mojave installer in advance.
Here’s how you create Catalina installer:
- Access the App Store and get the new macOS Catalina.
- Wait for the download process to finish and click File > Quit as soon as the installer launches. Your installer will be stored in the Applications folder.
- Connect your USB stick and go to Disk Utilities.
- In the Erase tab, select Mac OS Extended (Journaled) as your format.
- Name your USB stick and then click Erase > Done > close Disk Utility.
- 6. Access Terminal and type the following command (make sure you replace [XXX] with your drive name):sudo /Applications/Install macOS Catalina.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/[XXX] --applicationpath /Applications/Install macOS Catalina.app
- Hit Return and type in your admin password.
- When the process is finished, click Done and close Terminal.
- Congrats, you’re a Catalina user — now officially.
Step 4. Get Catalina on your startup drive
The final part. Your data is securely backed up, so you can go ahead and erase your startup disk drive:
- Access System Preferences > Startup Disk and choose your Catalina installer.
- Restart your Mac and hold Command-R.
- Connect your bootable USB.
- In the macOS Utilities window, click Reinstall a new copy of macOS.
- Click Continue and agree to the terms and conditions.
- Select your startup drive and click Install.
Once the new macOS gets on your Mac, it will be born anew. So yes, you will have to set it up — just like a new Mac. If you’ve used Setapp on the old macOS, you can quickly get your apps back by downloading the installer on setapp.com.
Clean install macOS 10.15 on a non-startup disk drive
If you don’t have a free, non-partitioned drive, you can install Catalina on a non-startup drive. Here are three easy steps:
Step 1. Erase your non-startup drive
If you install Catalina on a new drive, this is not for you. Otherwise, you’ll have to wipe everything away from the drive before using it. Navigate to Disk Utility, select your non-startup drive, and click Erase. If there’s any data you want to keep, use ChronoSync Express to sync it with another drive.
Step 2. Download the Catalina installer
Access your Mac App Store > Updates and grab the installer. Once the installer will launch automatically, quit — you don’t want to install it from there.
Step 3. Install Catalina to your non-startup drive
You’ll find the downloaded installer in your Applications folder and launch it. Select a drive — you’ll have to change it from “startup” to your target one. Follow the instructions and finish your installation.
Once your system is upgraded, set up your new Mac and make sure you try all the perks. And before you get frustrated that your favorite 32-bit app is missing, get Setapp — it surely has a decent alternative.
If you are a true macOS fan, check out the comparison of iOS and macOS adoption trends below:
Hello and welcome to my User Tip
You need to erase and install 10.6 Snow Leopard, I will show you how to do this.
If your here because you upgraded to 10.7 Lion and want to go back to 10.6 Snow Leopard you need to see this thread.
A little more preparation is in order to make sure your files work in Snow Leopard.
If your here because you have a problem and you think erasing and reinstalling is going to solve it, it most certainly will, but you might not need to go this far and you might want to recover data off the non-booting drive first.
If your here because you want to secure erase data better than writing Zero's acorss the selected hard drive or partition (good enough for most folks), this tip doesn't cover that, see this one then come back here afterwards.
Use the correct 10.6 disk to install Snow Leopard
Use the free MacTracker to find your model of Mac, you can gleam the model from your Apple Menu > About this Mac > More information and look for something like 'MacBook Pro 3,1' and punch that into MacTracker.
There are basically two types of 10.6 install disks, the gray or black machine specfic ones that came with a new Mac (free iLife) or the 10.6.3 retail disks (no free iLife).
You can't use another model of Mac's 10.6 machine specific disks with another Mac, there isn't hardware drivers on those disks that will work on other Mac's.
If a Mac came pre-installed or from the factory with 10.6.3 or later, you cannot use the 10.6.3 retail disks (no iLife) from Apple online, you have to call Apple for your 10.6.3+ machine specific install disks (free iLife included)
Ready to erase and install Snow Leopard?
Your data will be gone after this and not recoverable what so ever, don't come crying later that you missed something.
You might want to take this chance to export web browser bookmarks, grab product keys or even clone the old 10.6 drive before you erase it.
Unmount and disconnect all other drives. No mistakes. Here we go.
Make sure the bottom of the disk is clean, use a very soft cloth and a tiny dab of rubbing alcohol and polish to a shine. 🙂
Hold c (or option/alt key) down on a wired or built in keyboard, and boot the machine, off the 10.6 installer disk (or hold option key boot off the 10.6 clone drive) and under the Utilities menu (folder) is Disk Utility.
Do Fresh Install Of Mac Os And Erase Hard Drive Windows 7
To erase the entire drive of all partitions:
Select the entire internal boot drive on the far left, it will have the drive makers name and size.
Do not select the indented names, those are just partitions on the drive, you need to erase the entire drive to catch everything, rebuild the GUID partition table and the hidden EFI partition.
If your here to revert your machine to Snow Leopard from 10.7 or later, then make sure to select the ENTIRE drive on the left in Disk Uitlity.
Image finder software for mac windows 10. Just select scan and the software quickly alerts you to any Mac-specific malware infection — often. Like the Windows iteration of the free version, though, this is not an always-on solution and is thus more suited for performing deep scans and ridding yourself of particularly pernicious MacOS threats like.There are scheduling and proactive blocks, but these features expire after two weeks in the free version. You need the premium version for live protection, which starts at $40 for a year.Avast Security for MacAvast Security for Mac is one of the most popular security suites available, and it’s easy to see why.
To erase just the OS X partition leaving others like Bootcamp etc.
Select the indented name of the OS X partition instead, however it will not cure problems in the hidden EFI or GUID partition table. Do not do if your reverting to Snow Leopard from a later OS X verison, because 10.7 and later OS X verisons alter the GUID and add a Recovery HD partition that needs to be removed before 10.6 is reinstalled. This is so later when you need to use the 10.6 disk to repair the drive, it knows what is on the boot drive.
Click Erase > Security option > Zero All Data (will map off any failing sectors) go watch a movie, it takes a bit and improves your hard drives reliability and read speeds. (SSD no need zero, just erase). Trust me this works wonders!
If the Disk Utility > Zero Erase fails or hangs, the drive has run out of spare sectors and is worthless, it will have to be replaced, better you found out now than later with your data on it.
Check under Partition: Options that you have a GUID and Format: OS X Extended Journaled, if not change it to those and apply.
Quit Disk Utility. You will be back into the 10.6 installer.
Fresh installing Snow Leopard 10.6
If your using your option key bootable 10.6 clone, use the cloning software to reverse clone 10.6 onto the internal drive then return your files from the storage drive. Your done, see you later.
Now for you who just erased the internal drive via the 10.6 disk and need to install fresh.
'Fresh' means no possibly corrupt TimeMachine, Migration Assistant, or clone restores. New OS X, programs and only vetted files returned.
Performance types swear by this method as it allows the leaving of previous junk, malware, old files etc behind. Trim and speedy.
1: Quit Disk Utility and install 10.6. from the installer disk.
Reboot, setup and use the same user name as before. (different password ok) Why?, because you can place your user files from backup right on in and your iTunes playlists, permissions etc work. Unless you don't want to use the same name, then you lose the playlists and have to recreate them, change the permissions for files.
2: Use Software Update to get up to 10.6.8 fully, repeat until clear. This is very important to do or you'll have problems later.
3: Install Rosetta for your PowerPC based programs
Insert the Mac OS X installation disc that came with your computer or with your Mac OS X retail package.
Double-click the Optional Installs folder, and then double-click the Optional Installs package.
A package has an icon that looks like an open box.
Follow the onscreen instructions. Select the disk where you want to install Rosetta and click Continue.
Select the checkbox next to Rosetta, click Continue, and then click Install.
4: Install all third party programs from fresh original sources and compatible with 10.6.8
If by chance you get a hang upon reboot after installing third party software, hold the shift key down upon booting and update or remove the problem software, you will know, you just installed it. 🙂
If you had 10.5 previously on the machine, you'll notice your iLife is missing with the 10.6 install. This is because the 10.6.3 disk doesn't have it, only the machine specific disks do that come with the Mac when it was new.
Do Fresh Install Of Mac Os And Erase Hard Drive Mac
You can either buy the 10.6 iLife from Apple or use Pacifist from CharlesSoft to extract the 10.5 versions from the 10.5 install disks. You paid for it so it's yours.
5: Once you have all your third party software installed (as best as you can of course) next is to hook up your storage drive.
Return the contents of those user files folders: Music, Pictures, Movies, Documents etc (not Library) to their respective folders in each account
Apple support doc on installing 10.6 again
Do Fresh Install Of Mac Os And Erase Hard Drive Iphone
Hard drive performance tip
If you installed exactly in the order as I have outlined above (1, 2,3,4), and keep your boot drive below 50% filled, it will operate at peak performance forever until it dies, or you damage it by moving it around while it's operating.
Your hard drive performance will suffer greatly the more OS X boot partition data is written on the second 50% of the drive, even if you remove some to get under 50%.
If there is any data on the second 50% of the drive, the heads have to travel there to get it, use the smaller sectors and that slows read/write performance on hard drives (SSD no need to worry).
Whatever you do, don't go past 80% filled on boot drives on Mac's as your pressing your performance and stability luck.
Problems installing?
1: Hold the power button down to hard shutdown.
2: Hold the option key and trackpad button/wired left mouse button down (wired or built in keyboard might be needed) and boot the machine.
3: The disk hopefully should pop out, if not when you get to Startup Manager, keep pressing eject on the keyboard.
4: Take some rubbing alcohol (a tiny bit) on a soft clean cloth and polish the bottom of the disk, when dry and blemish free, stick it in and when it appears, click the arrow key to boot from it.
5: Review your secure erase procedures here to make sure your not leaving data
6: Try to reinstall 10.6 again
Mac os x force eject smb drive. Nov 03, 2017 You can force eject a Mac network drive (SMB or AFP network drive) if it is hanging on eject. Hold down your trackpad button (or your left mouse button) and restart your Mac. Hold the button down until the desktop appears. This will trigger the system to eject your disc before OS X begins loading. Shut down the Mac and restart it, then let it sit for 15 minutes. After a short amount of time, the disc may eject. Jul 13, 2012 Sometimes OS X doesn’t want to let you eject a volume or an external drive. Sometimes this is because a program is using a file on the volume in question, but other times the volume just seems to be stuck! Fortunately, there’s an easy solution! We’ll show you two ways to force your Mac.
7: If that fails, call Apple and tell them what Mac you have and see if you require MACHINE SPECIFIC Snow Leopard install disks. (10.6.4 -10.6.8) These disks also include the free iLife suite on them.
The 10.6 white retail disks sold online are 10.6.3 and won't work in your machine due to a lack of more recent hardware drivers not present on those disks also they don't contain the free iLife suite.
Apple might also have 10.6.0 - 10.6.3 machine disks as well if you need the free iLife, but they could take longer to come than the 10.6.3 white retail disk.
8: After install, just hard shutdown and it will boot to the 'Welcome' video for the next owner.
Advanced options
9: If Apple is going to take too long to send you disks or won't, there is a option to create a image of the bad disk and burn a new one on another Mac (possibly on a PC too) as a ISO image.
Sometimes when the read and burn occurs, errors are repaired and the new image will work when the old one won't.
10: Another option is to create a Snow Leopard boot USB from the 10.6 disk, then boot and install with that.
That's it, enjoy. 🙂