Macbook Question?

Question

how do i delete everything on my mac so it will be like when i bought it

Answer 1

when you bought the computer it should have came with a restoring cd if you use that it should do that for you

Answer 2

When the disk is reformatted you are effectively deleting everything on the disk. I say effectively as the old files are not overwritten. The links to them are broken. If someone really wanted to they can recover the information.

When new information is written to the disk the new information writes over what was there before. That will more completely delete what was there in the past.

Some reformat commands offer the quick reformat option where the links are updated but the old data is not really changed. Then there is the option to overwrite the disk with a random set of 1's and 0's. Disk utility on the Mac does this.

Assuming you do not really care how well things were deleted you can boot from the DVD or CD that came with the machine. Then you can tell it to do s fresh install to the hard drive. That will lay out the operating system and otherwise get you back to the original configuration. Note there might be some slight differences between what the DVD/CD has and how the factory burned the disk initially. They should be materially the same but there could still be tiny differences that only an Apple technical staff member would notice.

Just be really sure you want to go down this route and that nothing you might have loaded on the drive has value. That and create a back up of anything you do want.

Answer 3

Reinstall the software, it will wipe everything. However, remember, if you are wiping it in order to sell or return, that information still exists (in a form) untill you write over it. For security, always remove and physically distroy a hard drive if it is to leave your hands.

Answer 4

put the install disk in and completely reinstall the system everything will be wiped, and your computer will be just like one from a store