removing yosemite

Unless you made a USB Mavericks installer, you will find it difficult to do so since Mavericks is no longer available from Apple.

What you can do is install the original OSX that came with your MBP when new (Lion or Mt. Lion). In order to do so, start the MBP with the key combination of OPTION+COMMAND+R. The display will show a revolving globe and you will be connected to the Apple servers. Follow the instructions. A solid Internet connection will be required.

Do have your data backed up. Though it should not be affected, things do go wrong from time to time.

Ciao..

Apparently you can't do this with older MacBooks. I have one from early 2009. When I try this technique the only thing I can restore is another version of Yosemite. Yosemite is slow, slow, slow, slow on my 2009 iMac. (I haven't even tried it on my mid-2011 iMac. I'm so over Yosemite I think my next computer might be a PC with Windows 10.) I have a copy of Mountain Lion that I burned to DVD, but when I try to use it I get the message that Mountain Lion is too old to run on Yosemite. I created a new partition and tried to copy the Mountain Lion OS disk to it, but of course that didn't work either.

So if I completely reformatted my hard disk, do you think Mountain Lion would boot up from DVD and install itself after that?

You have to understand some of the qualifying criteria and constraints.

The procedure I outlined is valid ONLY for Macs that came with Lion (10.7) OSX or newer. A 2009 Mac came with Leopard (10.5) or Snow Leopard (10.6).

You can only install an OSX no older than what it came with. If you have installed a newer OSX, in order to install an older version, you must erase the HDD, then you may install the older version on an erased volume.

Your Mt. Lion installer should work on a Mac that has an erased HDD volume and that originally came with Mt. lion or an older OSX. This of course assumes that the install DVD is functional.

I have a partitioned MBP that originally came with Tiger (10.4). I have Tiger, Leopard (10.5) and Snow Leopard (10.6) installed on separate partitions on that MBP. It can be done.

Ciao.

I don't know how to do all that. Instead I found the disks that came with the computer six years ago, inserted the OS disk, and rebooted by holding down the command and C keys. That booted it from the DVD. Starting at that point, I just reformatted (or just deleted?) everything on my laptop's OSX partition and re-installed the OS and programs that came with the computer from the factory. I still have a Windows XP on the hard disk, but I'm thinking I'll be able to delete that partition and reintegrate that space into the OSX partition.

If I can't do that, I guess I'll just try to sell it as a bonus feature of a used laptop. :-)

Fred-Norfolk, VA wrote:

I don't know how to do all that.

Do what, exactly? What is your objective?

Instead I found the disks that came with the computer six years ago, inserted the OS disk, and rebooted by holding down the command and C keys. That booted it from the DVD. Starting at that point, I just reformatted (or just deleted?) everything on my laptop's OSX partition and re-installed the OS and programs that came with the computer from the factory.

That is correct (except holding the COMMAND key should not be necessary).

I still have a Windows XP on the hard disk, but I'm thinking I'll be able to delete that partition and reintegrate that space into the OSX partition.

If I can't do that, I guess I'll just try to sell it as a bonus feature of a used laptop. :-)

Windows is an alien world to me. You may have to delete the Windows partition first and the reformat the HDD and install the OSX. It may be dependent upon how Windows was installed.

Ciao.