My macbook has been running incredibly slow, I'm not an expert at using my computer, but I think erasing everything would get rid of it. I also realized my sister has been using my computer for watching illegal free movies that contains many pop ups and gross advertisements that I think have been messing with my computer. Will my computer go back to normal? Thank you.
MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.5)
Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
Don't expect that you have a virus. When you reset the Mac to factory settings, the whole hard disk is erased, so if it's a software problem, it will be solved, but as I said, you haven't got any virus. See > http://www.thesafemac.com/mmg
First, don't let your sister do that with your machine anymore. That sort of thing is one of those hazardous activities that could invite some rare Mac malware onto your machine. If you have Java enabled in your web browser, you could be infected with something. That's unlikely, but not impossible.
That said, it's quite unlikely that the performance problems you're having are malware-related. Look elsewhere for a solution to your performance issues. Further, erasing the hard drive and reinstalling the system from scratch may or may not help, depending on what the cause is. Try going through all the suggestions in my Mac Performance Guide first. If none of those help, then it may be time to try a clean reinstall.
Take a look at this link, https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2796834
Yes, it will. Ensure that you use the Disk Utility to erase the drive as well as reinstalling the OS.
(77732)
If I reset my macbook pro will it get rid of the viruses?
