- Application Crashes
- System Crashes
- Fixing Hard Drive Problems
- Resetting PRAM
- Restoring a Lost Administrator Password
- Reinstalling System Software
- Summary
Reinstalling System Software
Why do you want to reinstall system software? Perhaps your Mac is unstable, no matter what you do, and all your efforts to clean things up have failed. There is a drastic method to fix everything, but it's not something you would do normally—run your Mac Restore DVD (or CDs, depending on the model).
Reinstalling Mac OS X does not necessarily replace your system accounts, information, or configuration. There are, however, a few drawbacks. Most notably, the system updates are replaced by the original version of the operating system. After running the Mac OS X Installer to recover a damaged system, you must force an update on your computer by going to the Software Update setting of System Preferences and clicking the Check Now button, or by choosing Software Update from the Apple menu. Here are the steps you need to follow to reinstall Mac OS X with your System Installer DVD:
- Find and insert the System Installer DVD into your Macintosh.
- Restart your Mac while holding down the C key. If need be, force a restart as described previously. The installer launches automatically.
- After your system installation finishes, restart the computer and check that everything works properly.