clean hard drive

Put your Snow Leopard install DVD into the optical drive and reboot. As soon as you hear the boot chime, hold down the "c" key on your keyboard (or the Option key until the Install Disk shows up). That will force your MacBook to boot from the install DVD in the optical drive. When it does start up, you'll see a panel asking you to choose your language. Choose your language and press the Return key on your keyboard once. It will then present you with an Installation window. Completely ignore this window and click on Utilities in the top Menu Bar and scroll down to Disk Utility and click it.

You should see the your hard drive in the left hand column along with your other drives. Click on the hard drive and select the Erase tab. Set the format value to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and click on the Erase button. After that has finished select the Partition tab. Type in a Name for your hard drive and select how many partitions you want from the Volume Scheme. (The usual setting is one partition.) Click on the Options button after you've selected a partition to make sure it's set for GUID. Then click the Apply button and after the partitioning is done quit Disk Utility.

You can now follow the instructions on the install screen.

After you've installed Snow Leopard run the updates until you are up to date. Then you can reinstall any non Apple programs you want to pass on.

1: Get all your data off first obviously, disconnect all other drives and media.

2: Stick the SL disk in the computer and reboot holding the c key down, you'll boot off the disk

3: First screen is the language, second screen is the installer, but wait, look under the Utilities menu for Disk Utility, launch that.

4: On the left you'll see a bunch of things, your hard drive makers name should be at the top left, select that.

5: Next click the Erase tab thing, click Security Erase > Zero All Data (leave the formatting HFS+ journaled) and then click Erase... come back in a hour or two. If you need more security pick the 7x erase, it will take more hours and really scrub the drive to military standards.

6: Once that is completed, quit and you back in the installer, install OS X SL onto the hard drive.

When it's finished you can time it when it starts to reboot and hold the power key down to shut it down hard.

When the next user goes to boot, they get the Welcome Screen and initial setup, so it's all ready.

All the OS X bundled programs are included on the SL upgrade disk except iLife, that's on the grey disks that came with your computer and to get that back you first have to install OS X from those disks first, then setup a initial account then use the SL disks to upgrade.

I'm assuming you don't have the grey disks, so that's why your installing from the white SL upgrade disks. (which really has the whole OS, not a upgrade)

If you do want iLife installed, then you need to install from the grey disks first, the proceedure is just about the same on 10.5, hold c and boot, use Disk Utility to Erase the drive, install 10.5, reboot, go through the initial setup, then insert the 10.6 disks (no c boot needed) and simply double click on the updater installer and it will handle the upgrade to 10.6

Usually the next person is going to wipe everything off anyway, but then again they may not. You'll have to pick some sort of nick name to enter into the user fields, and skip the registration process.

The important thing is to use the Security Option> Zero all Data (or 7 pass erase), this scrubs the entire drive of all YOUR DATA, so it can't be recovered using certain software.

Kelly Siech wrote:

...all i have is the new white, snow leopard upgrade disk. does this not have ilife on it?

No it does not. iLife only comes free on the grey disks that used to come with a new computer

Kelly Siech wrote:

i had ilife 08. so what programs will it be missing?

iLife 08 contains: iPhoto, iWeb, GarageBand, iDVD, and iMovie

(iLife 11 sold now contains iPhoto, Garageband and iMovie.)

Kelly Siech wrote:

is there a way to get the orginial install disks? can i order them from apple using my serial number or download it?

Yes, you can call Apple customer service # and provide the serial and hopefully they will send you a copy of the grey disks that originally came with your machine, could be 10.5, so you have to do the, wipe, then 10.5 install then upgrade to 10.6 method.

Else if your grey disks were 10.6 then you don't need the white disks obviously.

If you don't have your install disks you can get the origiinal gray install disks that came with your MacBook by calling Apple Store Customer Service at 1-800-676-2775 They can send them to you for about $16 per disk plus S & H. Just give them your serial number and they'll know which ones you need.

If you only want iPhoto or other single iLife or iWork apps you can get them from the App Store after you've upgraded to 10.6.6. iPhoto '11, iMovie '11 or Garage Band '11 for $15 each and Pages '09, Keynote '09 or Numbers '09 for $20 each.

frederic1943 wrote:

If you only want iPhoto or other single iLife or iWork apps you can get them from the App Store after you've upgraded to 10.6.6. iPhoto '11, iMovie '11 or Garage Band '11 for $15 each and Pages '09, Keynote '09 or Numbers '09 for $20 each.

The OP said they want to pass the machine on, obviously programs downloaded from the MacAppStore require a account and the programs are registered to the person, not to mention being copy protected.

So the next person won't be able to re-download them if it becomes necessary.

Kelly Siech wrote:

i just want to make sure when i reintall it, it will have pages, numbers, iphoto and those programs.

iLife 08 contains: iPhoto, iWeb, GarageBand, iDVD, and iMovie

No Pages or Numbers, that's part of iWork, that's a seperate purchase and likely now requires registering and purchasing in the MacAppStore, so it's registered to you and copy protected so it can't be transferred.

So if the next person wants it, they will likely have to purchase it, download and install it themselves.

Can't pass software on anymore. Welcome to MAS. 😟

If you can find the iWork disks, then your set, just install it. 🙂

If you want to include a free Office like alternative that's cross platform compatible (Windows, Mac, Linux) and can read and write to the common Office files, then look at installing LibreOffice. Again it's free and does the job pretty good.

I often send a installer image along with the files so people can install it and edit files I've created in it.

https://www.libreoffice.org/