Mac Forums

I want to completely erase everything on the computer and start again fresh. I have a G4 powermac and it came with OS 9. So, now that's been upgraded to OS Tiger, should i reboot from THAT disk holding down C, or do I need to go from the beginning with the original restore software of OS 9 and build my way back up?

If it were OS 10.2, I would say it doesn't matter. With Tiger, you probably want to use a journaled file system and to do that, the drive volume(s) needs to be erased with Disk Utility by booting to the Tiger install disk. After you choose the primary language at the first screen, you get a menu bar at the top. Under Utilities, open Disk Utility. Select the drive volume (maybe you have only one or maybe you have partitions??). Choose the Erase tab. For the file system, choose Mac OS Extended (journaled). If you have any Power Mac G4 other than the Firewire 800 model (your's isn't FW800), you also have the option to put a check for Install OS 9 drivers on the startup disk. That is essential.

You could also look into partitions at this point. I use a partition for the OS and other partitions for various purposes. The big advantage is that if the OS partition gets corrupted, I can usually copy files to the other and do an erase-reinstall quickly without loosing any stuff. Just a thought. Typically, Tiger needs 10-15 GB for the system and updates, unless you keep all your documents on your desktop like my GF.

If you're starting over fresh, I believe you should just start with the OS X disk. Go into utilities and find the disk manager. Use that to erase the disk to your heart's contempt, then exit that and install like normal.