How to: Reformat my Macbook Pro 10.7.4

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Level 1

5 points

How to: Reformat my Macbook Pro 10.7.4

hey guys

i know this question has been asked alot but i cant seem to find an exact answer to my question. i have a macbook pro late 2008 with OS Lion install and im currently copying everything i want to save on an external harddrive, but cant seem to find find a way to reformat my MBP. i got lion of the app store and know that i cant just wipe de HD with Disk Utilities because i wont be able to reinstall OS Lion, on the net they keep talking about LION RECOVERY DISK ASSISTANCE but they say you need to have a recovery saved or somthing of the sort... isnt their just a simple CLICK TO REFORMAT BACK TO SCRATCH WITH OSX LION RE-INSTALLED?

thanks for your help.

Sean

Macbook Pro 15" (late 2008), Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on Jul 2, 2012 11:52 AM

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Answer 1

Jul 2, 2012 11:55 AM in response to KSAnstey

Restart pressing Command R

You can then use Disk Utility to erase the drive.

After that, reinstall Lion.

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Answer 2

mende1

Level 10

93,624 points

Jul 2, 2012 11:58 AM in response to KSAnstey

You can format your Lion partition because you don't need it to download Lion again. Boot in recovery mode pressing Command and R keys, format the partition using Disk Utility (it's called Macintosh HD if you didn't modify it) and reinstall. Note that your computer will download Lion, so the process could be long. When you have installed it, you can restore a Time Machine backup (if you did one) or restore your files of your external drive manually if you didn't activate Time Machine

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Answer 3

KSAnstey Author

Level 1

5 points

Jul 2, 2012 12:27 PM in response to mende1

excellent thanks i thought it was that simple. didnt understand all this lion recovery assistance, so just restart my mac hold down CMD + R simple why do some forums say to hold down option when restarting?

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Answer 4

KSAnstey Author

Level 1

5 points

Jul 2, 2012 1:27 PM in response to KSAnstey

Hey again I'm on my iPad I saved everything and restarted my Mac holding down cmd R

Then did erase disk selected the Macintosh HD format: Mac OS Extended (journaled) then did erase.... It only took 10secondes to erase all but now I'm still on the same page ..... What do I do next? I'm still on disk utilities / erase tab

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Answer 5

KSAnstey Author

Level 1

5 points

Jul 2, 2012 1:29 PM in response to KSAnstey

Ps: I only did the normal erase I'm redoing it with the 7 pass secure erase so redoing it and says 5min

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