AT OUR SCHOOL, THE PUPILS TAKING THE COURSE I AM TAKING HAVE TO PAY FOR A LAPTOP.OH YES GREAT A LAPTOP IN SCHOOL WELL NO ! AS THIS LAPTOP IS MAINLY USED INSIDE SCHOOL THE SCHOOL DECIDES WHAT GOES ON THE LAPTOP. I DONT LIKE WHAT IS ON THERE. I HAVE NO CHANCE TO DO ANYTHING, EVRYTHING IS RESTRICTED TO ADMIN ONLY. SOME SITES, THE CONTROL PANNEL, NO ACCESS TO THE HARDDRIVE, CANT EVEN CHANGE THE TIME. IS THERE A WAY I CAN TURN THIS LAPTOP INTO A NORMAL ONE. COMPLETELY WIPE IT AND GO BACK TO NEW OR SOMETHING. THEY ARE NEVER CHECKED SO THEY WONT KNOW THE DIFFERENCE. I HAVE TRIED USING A DIFFERENT HARDDRIVE BUT IT WOULDNT BOOT CAN ANYONE HELP ME ??
You need to get a OS disk you can boot from. I am almost positive than any OS X disk is bootable (even the upgrades). If you already have one, you might be able to find an extra copy on a torrent site. But I am not exactly sure how you can make sure it is a bootable disk. You also need to figure out if your laptop can read DVDs (as opposed to only CDs) because I think at least 10.4 only comes on a DVD these days. You also might be able to find an legit older OS version (like 10.2 or something) on eBay for pretty cheap.
Then you put the disk in the drive and reboot holding down the "C" button (I think?) If the C-key doesn't work, hold down the option key when booting and it will let you select what disk you want to use. Pick the OS disk and when the OS installer starts you can should be able to go to one of the pull down menus at the top to go to the Disk Utility. From here you can erase the Hard Drive. then go back to the installer and install the OS from scratch.
REMEMBER, by reformatting you are losing EVERYTHING on your computer. DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK. But as long as your save all your documents on another drive or disk and you don't care about any of the programs or anything you should be good.
I don't know any reason this would not work. I would think any security controls would be on the software level, and would completely go away with a reformat. I am pretty confident that there is no ability to constrict actions within the OS from the Firmware (Mac-speak for BIOS) which would be the only thing that you are not erasing.
thanks, i done exactly what you siad and i now have a laptop that i am able to use. there was so much restricted on this laptop it is was unbelievable !!
