I Can't Reinstall OS X...

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Level 1

1 points

I Can't Reinstall OS X...

I messed a lot of things up and I was thinking about posting a question about all of that, but then I figured I don't have much to lose if I just reset my macbook to factory settings.

So, I used the Lion Recovery feature and selected "Reinstall Mac OS X". It looked like it was going through all of the steps to install a fresh copy and took about 30 minutes to finish. After it finished, it started up and BAM! Everything is exactly the same as it was before the reinstallation!

What did I do wrong? How can I get my macbook back to it's original state? I want it to completely delete everything I've added since I opened it from the package. All files and settings.

MacBook Air, Mac OS X (10.7.2)

Posted on Nov 24, 2011 12:04 AM

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Answer 1

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ds store

Level 7

30,715 points

Nov 24, 2011 12:27 AM in response to pnewcomb

What you did was re-install only OS X, it leaves your programs, users and files alone. This is in case something is wrong only with OS X itself, you can replace it.

If you really want "everything" gone, you have to enter Lion Recovery again and use Disk Utility to Erase the Lion OS X "MacIntosh HD" partition (with Security Option Zero All Data if you need the drive scrubbed) and then quit and reinstall Lion that way, then it will be all gone for sure.

All your files, programs, etc, everything. Poof. 🙂

When you reboot, you will go through the new setup like a brand new machine.

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Answer 2

pnewcomb Author

Level 1

1 points

Nov 24, 2011 12:44 AM in response to ds store

OK, thank you so much!

I'm so used to the way windows does it, so I figured "reinstalling" would delete everything. That's actually a very cool feature that it saves all of your data.

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