how do I safely reformat my boot hard drive?

Question

Level 1

0 points

how do I safely reformat my boot hard drive?

OK. My mid-2011 Mac Mini died. Graphics chip on motherboard went belly up. I have a second Mac Mini that was given to me by a friend who no longer uses it. Now I want to load my applications on the new Mini. First I'm trying to load Adobe CS6 but I get the following error:

Searching the Adobe forums it appears there's no way around this except to reformat my hard drive. I'm OK with that since the guy who gave me this Mini basically cleared out all his stuff so it's basically empty except for all the system files. My question is: how to I reformat this disk to a non-case sensitive volume that I can boot off.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks,

Kevin H.

Mac mini (Mid 2011), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.4), Photoshop CS6

Posted on Feb 11, 2016 2:24 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Best reply

Niel

Level 10

726,935 points

Feb 11, 2016 2:28 PM in response to kjhart0133

When booted from the disk or recovery partition you’ll be using to install the OS, open the Disk Utility, select the volume, click on the Erase tab, and specify the desired format.

(139433)

Reply

Answer 2

lllaass

Level 10

210,411 points

Feb 12, 2016 7:33 AM in response to kjhart0133

Do this.

What to do before selling or giving away your Mac

Reply

Answer 3

kjhart0133 Author

Level 1

0 points

Feb 12, 2016 7:35 AM in response to lllaass

This looks like just what I need. Thanks. I'll be trying it over the weekend and will report on my success.

Kevin H.

Reply

Answer 4

kjhart0133 Author

Level 1

0 points

Feb 12, 2016 12:00 PM in response to lllaass

Illaass,

Following the instructions you pointed me to on "What to do before selling or giving away your Mac," I'm attempting to boot up in restore mode. To do this I shut down the Mac first, then press the power button, then Cmd-R right after you hear the start up chime. Well, I'm not getting the start up chime and even though I try pressing Cmd-R, it doesn't boot up in Restore Mode; it just boots up in normal mode. I've checked that the speakers are working by playing a video, but still can't boot up with Cmd-R.

Any help is appreciated.

Kevin H.

Reply

Answer 5

lllaass

Level 10

210,411 points

Feb 12, 2016 12:35 PM in response to kjhart0133

Are you using a wired KB directly connected to one of the Minis USB ports?

Reply

Answer 6

kjhart0133 Author

Level 1

0 points

Feb 12, 2016 2:18 PM in response to lllaass

No, I'm using a Bluetooth KB and Bluetooth mouse.

Reply

Answer 7

lllaass

Level 10

210,411 points

Feb 12, 2016 2:28 PM in response to kjhart0133

Sometimes a wired KB is required.

A PC USB KB will work but you may have to use alternate keys for Apple special keys

Keyboard mappings using a PC keyboard on a Macintosh

Reply

Answer 8

steve359

Level 6

17,169 points

Feb 12, 2016 3:15 PM in response to kjhart0133

An inexpensive wired keyboard and wired mouse is always good to keep around. Some start-up operations require special keys that may be needed before any BT antenna is active. And sometimes BT just is not operating correctly.

Reply