Hey guys, Ive been a PC user and I'm switching over to apples. Basically I plan on purchasing a Macbook and want to replace the HDD. Curious on the process of installing OSX on a unformated drive. I know for PCs you have to go into bios and select CDROM as the boot drive. What is the process for a Mac? Also when purchasing a Macbook will I be given the OSX install disc? Thanks!
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New to Apple:OSX install
- Thread starter sil180sr
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It seems pretty easy - I reinstalled OS-x before I took my last Macbook back.
You will get two DVDS with the full OS and full I-Life/apps - ready to install.
Install new drive (search for online vids on this procedure), turn on machine - insert OS-X DVD 1, when you hear the "Wake up bong" - press C - it will boot from the OS-X DVD and ask you what type of install you want to do. - I selected "erase drive" and install OS - after a reboot - it asked for the second DVD and loaded the apps - took about 1hr on new Macbook pro (2.0GHZ / 512 / 60) - really painless.
(not sure if you switch drive capacities if anything needs to done with (to use a pc term) BIOS etc) - maybe someone can fill in the blank here...
You will get two DVDS with the full OS and full I-Life/apps - ready to install.
Install new drive (search for online vids on this procedure), turn on machine - insert OS-X DVD 1, when you hear the "Wake up bong" - press C - it will boot from the OS-X DVD and ask you what type of install you want to do. - I selected "erase drive" and install OS - after a reboot - it asked for the second DVD and loaded the apps - took about 1hr on new Macbook pro (2.0GHZ / 512 / 60) - really painless.
(not sure if you switch drive capacities if anything needs to done with (to use a pc term) BIOS etc) - maybe someone can fill in the blank here...
It is also a good idea to select a custom install and deselect all the printer drivers and foreign language support if you do not need them. This will save you a couple of gigabytes of disk space.
Yeah, you can just hold C as you start up, as cighh said. If the drive is brand new, you may need to format it using Disk Utility, which will be on the first disc you insert. It's in one of the menus (maybe the Installer menu, it's been a long time for me) and is pretty straight forward. Pick Mac OS Extended (Journaled) as the format.
Switching drive sizes requires nothing--both older PPC macs and the newer Intel ones use something significantly more advanced (albeit less configurable) than BIOS, so hard drive properties are automatically detected, and you just need to hold down "C" to get it to start from the optical drive. It just works, always has.
Installation really is about that simple. I believe if you install a completely unformatted drive, when you first boot from the OS install discs, you must go to the menu and select "Disk Utility", where you should see your drive and can partition and format it in preparation for OS install.
The only glitch you might run into (I did) when doing this is after you format the drive, it may not show up as available to install OSX on in the "Select a Partition" window. Restarting fixed this, however--I guess it fails to detect the status change if you format it for the first time while the installer is still running.
Minor hassle, really, and 10.4 may have already fixed this--I think it happened to me under 10.3.
And indeed, particularly on a laptop, do yourself a favor and don't install all those extra printer drivers--they're mostly CUPS stuff for obscure older printers that you'll probably never even see, and take up literally gigabytes of space. Same goes for the language translations. If I'd been thinking when I first got my MacBook I would have reinstalled first thing just to not install that stuff (it comes installed by default), but I didn't, so I had to go back in and delete it manually. I don't believe I broke anything in the process, but using an app to wipe that many language files was unsettling.
Installation really is about that simple. I believe if you install a completely unformatted drive, when you first boot from the OS install discs, you must go to the menu and select "Disk Utility", where you should see your drive and can partition and format it in preparation for OS install.
The only glitch you might run into (I did) when doing this is after you format the drive, it may not show up as available to install OSX on in the "Select a Partition" window. Restarting fixed this, however--I guess it fails to detect the status change if you format it for the first time while the installer is still running.
Minor hassle, really, and 10.4 may have already fixed this--I think it happened to me under 10.3.
And indeed, particularly on a laptop, do yourself a favor and don't install all those extra printer drivers--they're mostly CUPS stuff for obscure older printers that you'll probably never even see, and take up literally gigabytes of space. Same goes for the language translations. If I'd been thinking when I first got my MacBook I would have reinstalled first thing just to not install that stuff (it comes installed by default), but I didn't, so I had to go back in and delete it manually. I don't believe I broke anything in the process, but using an app to wipe that many language files was unsettling.
I don't know about the new Intel Macs, but on my old Mac (and all Macs I am aware of since 1992), if your internal hard drive has no Mac OS on it and you put an OS install disc in a CD or DVD drive and startup, you do not need to press C as the computer will by default look for an operating system to start up from after not finding one on the internal drive. You simply boot up, go to Disk Utility to reformat, then go to the OS X installer. Bada boom, bada bing. You're done.
PS I have to wonder why you are going to the trouble of replacing a brand new, fully functional hard drive. It may be better and easier to simply buy an external firewire hard drive (or two) to store really large files, or for backup, etc.
PS I have to wonder why you are going to the trouble of replacing a brand new, fully functional hard drive. It may be better and easier to simply buy an external firewire hard drive (or two) to store really large files, or for backup, etc.
He probably wants a 7200 RPM drive for the additional speed, which isn't even a CTO option on the MacBook.spinne1 said:
Buy-it-yourself drives are also drastically cheaper than CTOing a larger one from Apple, although it's certainly true that unless the portablility of the storage is hugely important, it's somewhat easier and (and a lot cheaper per MB, if you go 3.5") to just get an external. Considering that vertical-bit hard drives are just starting to get going (note the remarkably low price on Seagate's new 750GB and their older 500GB drives), I'd expect to see a rather abrupt price drop in the near future, so this isn't exactly the best time to be buying a new drive if size is your only goal.
Well, talk about perfect timing....I bought my Macbook last week (Toronto Apple Store) and just finished placing my order with OWC for a replacement 7200 rpm HD and 2 gig of RAM. This thread has the exact info I need except for one thing.
I seem to remember something about formatting the drive in a different format to be able to use bootcamp/Windows. I can't seem to find the thread though, is my memory failing me or is there something to consider here. I'm not even sure that I'm going to install bootcamp since I really have no need for Windows but since I'm starting from scratch with new machine and new HD I want to keep my options open just in case.
Thanks
I seem to remember something about formatting the drive in a different format to be able to use bootcamp/Windows. I can't seem to find the thread though, is my memory failing me or is there something to consider here. I'm not even sure that I'm going to install bootcamp since I really have no need for Windows but since I'm starting from scratch with new machine and new HD I want to keep my options open just in case.
Thanks
flyguy451 said:
Just install OS X as stated above. When you have OS X up and running you use the Boot Camp Utility to add a window partition at whichever size you like.
http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/
That page tells about the process and what not.
You don't need to decide now to format for Bootcamp, but doing so seems like a good idea IF you have your copy of Windows already (full install SP2). If you don't plan to run Windows much, don't give it a very big partition. 10 GB seems like enough for basic use, and maybe 20-30 (or more) if you want to get serious about gaming.
That page tells about the process and what not.
You don't need to decide now to format for Bootcamp, but doing so seems like a good idea IF you have your copy of Windows already (full install SP2). If you don't plan to run Windows much, don't give it a very big partition. 10 GB seems like enough for basic use, and maybe 20-30 (or more) if you want to get serious about gaming.