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wippers

wippers

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Gareth
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Hi all - I am trying to get my 24" Imac back to its original state (so there are no traces of my data etc). I am currently running it on the latest Lion software but as the machine only came with the Snow Leopard CD, I don't know how to restore the machine so that it has the Lion OS?
I contacted Apple who told me to create a new user and then delete the old users and this would erase everything. I have done this but all my original photos, CS5 etc etc can still be found. :shrug:

Can anyone help?

Thanks for looking.

Gareth
 
Hold the option (alt) key down as soon as you start the machine. You'll see your "Macintosh HD" disk, and another disk called "Recovery Partion". Select the recovery partition and boot from that. Once booted you can use "Disk Utility" to erase the "Macintosh HD" partition. You can then do a clean install of Lion - be aware that your computer must be connected to the internet to be able to do this as most of the system will need to be downloaded again.
 
Slaphead said:
Hold the option (alt) key down as soon as you start the machine. You'll see your "Macintosh HD" disk, and another disk called "Recovery Partion". Select the recovery partition and boot from that. Once booted you can use "Disk Utility" to erase the "Macintosh HD" partition. You can then do a clean install of Lion - be aware that your computer must be connected to the internet to be able to do this as most of the system will need to be downloaded again.
Click to expand...

Will this automatically install the Lion OS or Snow Leopard OS? Will the install see what OS is currently on the Mac and re-install accordingly?
 
wippers said:
Will this automatically install the Lion OS or Snow Leopard OS? Will the install see what OS is currently on the Mac and re-install accordingly?
Click to expand...

It will install Lion - theoretically the latest version. If you want to reinstall SL you'll need to boot from the the SL DVD.
 
Slaphead said:
It will install Lion - theoretically the latest version. If you want to reinstall SL you'll need to boot from the the SL DVD.
Click to expand...

Lion is what I am after so that sounds spot on. Although I have Lion currently installed (legit), I don't have an serial numbers etc. Will the new install see that I have a legit copy of Lion already installed?
 
Don't panic - once you have a Lion recovery partiton on your HD then it's considered by apple to be legit. There are no serial numbers to worry about, just go ahead and do what I said in my first post. All should be fine ;)

Don't forget to connect the mac to the internet otherwise it won't work.
 
You could also create a Lion USB installer or DVD installer if you still have the original Lion download dmg. That will be far quicker to install from than doing a recovery download.

There are plenty of videos / web pages that show you how to create the DVD or USB drive.
 
Ploddles said:
You could also create a Lion USB installer or DVD installer if you still have the original Lion download dmg. That will be far quicker to install from than doing a recovery download.

There are plenty of videos / web pages that show you how to create the DVD or USB drive.
Click to expand...

I had a look into this but I needed to find an "Install OS lion" file (or something like that) but when I searched the HD I couldn't find it. :shrug:
 
Ploddles said:
You could also create a Lion USB installer or DVD installer if you still have the original Lion download dmg. That will be far quicker to install from than doing a recovery download.

There are plenty of videos / web pages that show you how to create the DVD or USB drive.
Click to expand...

True, but in this case it would probably need to be redownloaded anyway. Most people just let the Lion installer run after download. Once Lion is installed via this method the Lion installer app self destructs. To make a DVD/USB installer you need to stop the installation process, and then extract the "Mac OS Install ESD" dmg from the Lion install app before the installation takes place.
 
Well i've started the download of Lion and it looks like it's going to take about 4 hours. Do I need to do anything to prevent any screen burn as there is no screen saver? Or will the machin just go into sleep/standby mode?
 
wippers said:
Well i've started the download of Lion and it looks like it's going to take about 4 hours. Do I need to do anything to prevent any screen burn as there is no screen saver? Or will the machin just go into sleep/standby mode?
Click to expand...


Screen burn isn't an issue with TFT screens, there may be some image persistence, but that will only be very slight if any at all, so don't worry about it, however you can set the screen to turn off in system preferences, display

:)
 
Rob 80386 said:
Screen burn isn't an issue with TFT screens
Click to expand...
Urban myth I'm afraid. TFT DO suffer screen burn if you leave things on-screen for extended periods.
 
Right, well i've done the OS Lion reinstall which seems to have worked fine, but most of my apps are still there (such as photoshop etc). As I've sold the Mac, I don't want it to have any of my apps on it as they are licensed to me alone.
How can I do this?
Also, how can I check if any of my images etc are still on the hard drive?
 
wippers said:
Right, well i've done the OS Lion reinstall which seems to have worked fine, but most of my apps are still there (such as photoshop etc). As I've sold the Mac, I don't want it to have any of my apps on it as they are licensed to me alone.
How can I do this?
Also, how can I check if any of my images etc are still on the hard drive?
Click to expand...

You could of formatted the drive befor installing. You do this in disk utility, erase then quit and install OS.
 
If you turn down the brightness on the screen to as low as possible before leaving it to do things then it will reduce the chance of screen burn.

Might be something useful in this apple article: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1820

I'd probably do the zero all data thing. Install snow leopard then update to lion again.

Deleting the users would delete all the data assuming you were using a non admin account to save data in. An admin one would be harder to delete. You'd have to create another admin user, delete the old user, then it should be ok as normally you can't delete the only account with admin rights.

There is a mac place in Newcastle Under Lyme called SL Electrotech. 01782 454126 They might be able to offer a wipe service or advice as they resell second hand macs now and again.
 
Last edited:
As explained previously in the thread. Just boot from the recovery partition (you know how to do that). The cancel the actual installation of Lion or choose Disk Utility from the Utilities menu at the top (can't remember on top of my head).

1. Select your main drive (you will see the Installer partition as well but choose your main drive)
2. Go to the Erase tab
3. Select security options (and choose a 7x wipe to ensure nobody can recover your files)
4. Click on erase and let it do its stuff for probably 7 hours.

Then you can install Lion and have a factory fresh install.
 
dejongj said:
As explained previously in the thread. Just boot from the recovery partition (you know how to do that). The cancel the actual installation of Lion or choose Disk Utility from the Utilities menu at the top (can't remember on top of my head).

1. Select your main drive (you will see the Installer partition as well but choose your main drive)
2. Go to the Erase tab
3. Select security options (and choose a 7x wipe to ensure nobody can recover your files)
4. Click on erase and let it do its stuff for probably 7 hours.

Then you can install Lion and have a factory fresh install.
Click to expand...


Cheers for breaking that down for me. I'll get started asap. :thumbs:

Gareth
 
arad85 said:
Urban myth I'm afraid. TFT DO suffer screen burn if you leave things on-screen for extended periods.
Click to expand...


I think your are getting confused with image persistence, which isn't the same thing, TFT screens can never burn as they don't produce light of their own, unlike CRT and plasma screens, that use phosphor coatings, which is excited by electrons to emit light, screen burn is characterised by a perminant ghosting that is seen even after the screen has been turned off, image persistence happens when the image "sticks" slight ghosting occurs, but it is reversible, by displaying moving images or a white screen, usually for the same amount of time the static image was displayed,
Turning down the brightness on a TFT screen will only protect the backlight not the panel itself.

:)
 
Rob 80386 said:
I think your are getting confused with image persistence, which isn't the same thing, TFT screens can never burn as they don't produce light of their own
Click to expand...
Have a look here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_persistence

Wikipedia said:
Usually the image persistence is temporary, but can become permanent.
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and from here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screen_burn-in

Wikipedia said:
For LCDs, burn-in develops in some cases because pixels permanently lose their ability to return to their relaxed state after a continued static usage profile.
Click to expand...

Yes, I know it is Wikipedia and you don't always believe what you read on 'tinternet, but I have seen it claimed in a number of places (including by a retailer of LCD TVs on another forum).

No display technology is 100% burn-in proof, no matter what you call it.
 
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