As I've said before, slowing down is not an option
for me. At one point, I realized that there were plenty of files on my
Mac that I didn't need any more, but too many to delete individually. In
other cases, your Mac can be experiencing some major malfunctions:
constant crashing, locked controls, slow boot times, missing files, etc.
Often,
the best option to fix these problems would be to reformat your
computer and reinstall your OS, but since most of us don't plan on ever
taking this drastic measure, we don't obtain a recovery disc or thumb
drive.
Thankfully, the geniuses over at Apple have made the
process easy for us—no need for a disc; no need for a drive. With just a
few clicks of some buttons and your Mac is gonna be running like it did
the day you got it. Best of all, this will work with Lion, Mountain
Lion, Mavericks, and even Yosemite.
Step 1: Back Up Your Files!
Okay, so you may
have a lot of files that you want to get rid of, but you definitely have
some files you want to keep. In my case, I even have programs I want to
keep so I don't have to re-download them after the process is over.
Use a writable CD/DVD, a USB drive, or any of the multitude of cloud options to keep your important files backed up.
Step 2: Restart Your Computer
Once you've double-, triple-, and quadruple-checked your backups, restart your computer.
Step 3: CMD+R
The second you see a grey screen, hold the CMD and R keys down for about 15 seconds, then let go and you'll be taken to OS X Utilities recovery.
Step 4: Wipe Your Hard Drive
Click on Disk Utility and a menu will pop up.
Then proceed to highlight your computer's hard drive and select Erase.
Once erased, exit Disk Utility.
Step 5: Reinstall OS X
Click the Reinstall OS X
option in the menu and proceed to follow the directions. You will need
to be connected to the Internet, so make sure you're plugged in via
Ethernet, or are connected to a Wi-Fi network.
VoilĂ ! You Have a Fresh Install of OS X
You
should now have a fresh copy of Mac OS X installed, and your computer
is back to its factory settings. All without the need for a recovery
disc or thumb drive. If you want to play it safe and create a bootable
install drive for Mac OS X, you can do so using our guides here for Lion/Mountain Lion, Mavericks, and Yosemite.
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