how to start from scratch, School mac?

Clean Install of Snow Leopard

1. Boot the computer using the Snow Leopard Installer Disc. Insert the disc into the

optical drive and restart the computer. After the chime press and hold down the

"C" key. Release the key when you see a small spinning gear appear below the

dark gray Apple logo.

2. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue

button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.

After DU loads select the hard drive entry from the left side list (mfgr.'s ID and drive

size.) Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window. Set the number of

partitions to one (1) from the Partitions drop down menu, set the format type to Mac

OS Extended (Journaled, if supported), then click on the Partition button.

3. When the formatting has completed quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed

with the OS X installation and follow the directions included with the installer.

4. When the installation has completed your computer will require a restart after

which you will be running a fresh install of OS X. You can now begin the update

process by opening Software Update and installing all recommended updates to

bring your installation current.

You can use your Snow Leopard retail install disk to erase the drive and reinstall 10.6 Snow Leopard. You will lose any iLife installs (iPhoto, iMovie,GarageBand, iDVD and iWeb) since those are on disk #2 of your original install disks.

Put your install DVD into the optical drive (CD/DVD drive) and reboot. Be sure to either use the disc that came with your Mac, or, if you installed a later Mac OS X version from disc, use the newer disc. 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) until the apple 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 and scroll down to Disk Utility and click it. You should see your hard drive in the left hand column along with your other drives. Click on the drive and select the Erase tab. Set the format value to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and click 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