samslyflyguy
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: how to wipe mac mini hard drive

Hi guys I have a 2007 mac mini that is running 10.6.8 that was recently given to me and i would like to wipe the hard drive and set to factory default settings.  I have tried going to disk utility and erasing it from there, but the buttons to erase are greyed out.  the only otion i have is to erase free space (which i do not want to do).  I have also tried restarting in recovery mode (holding down the power button and holding the option key down) and it brought me to the screen to chose the mac drive or the recovery partition, but the recovery partition was not there and if i chose the mac drive, it would start up as normal.  There is also one other complication: although I do have the os disks, the cd/dvd player does not work.

 

S.O.S send help

thanks.

Mac mini, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Aug 28, 2015 1:02 PM

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samslyflyguy

Q: how to wipe mac mini hard drive

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  • by Kappy,

    Kappy Kappy Aug 28, 2015 1:10 PM in response to samslyflyguy
    Level 10 (271,101 points)
    Desktops
    Aug 28, 2015 1:10 PM in response to samslyflyguy

    You will need a retail copy of the Snow Leopard DVD:


    You can purchase Snow Leopard through the Apple Store: Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard - Apple Store (U.S.). The price is $19.99 plus tax. You will be sent physical media by mail after placing your order.

     

    After you install Snow Leopard you will have to download and install the Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1 to update Snow Leopard to 10.6.8 and give you access to the App Store.


    Clean Install of Snow Leopard

     

         1. Boot the computer using the Snow Leopard Installer Disc or the Disc 1 that came

             with your computer.  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, click on Options button

             and select GUID, click on OK, then set the format type to MacOS Extended

             (Journaled, if supported), then click on the Apply 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 Restart into the Setup

             Assistant. After you finish Setup Assistant will complete the installation 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.

     

    Download and install Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1.

  • by lllaass,

    lllaass lllaass Aug 28, 2015 1:11 PM in response to samslyflyguy
    Level 10 (188,843 points)
    Desktops
    Aug 28, 2015 1:11 PM in response to samslyflyguy

    Recovery mode was introduced in 10.7.

    You need to ether get the intern optical drive fixed/replaced or get an external FireWire or USB optical drive and insert your install DVD and boot from the install DVD and then format/erase the internal HD.

    If you have another Mac with FireWire you can use Target Disk Mode to access the Mini HD on the other Mac

    How to use and troubleshoot FireWire target disk mode - Apple Support