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My mac has several problems, running very slowly being the greatest. I have decided for that reason and a few others that it will beneficial to format my Mac.

However, I do not have the installation disk.

So the question question remains as is the title:

How do I format my Mac without the installation disk?

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Without the disk there is no way to reinstall. Maybe apple can get you a replacement or you can take it to the genuis bar. – Daisetsu Jan 3 '11 at 22:27
any suggestions with how to improve performance then? – Ryan Murphy Jan 3 '11 at 22:28
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Create a new user account in System Preferences. If that one is also slow, it's a system/hardware issue. But if that account is faster, you have too much crap in your user profile. Uninstall software, remove Login Items (also in System Preferences » Accounts), remove Dashboard widgets, menubar utilities, etc. Safari also doesn't like lots of bookmarks, for example. – Daniel Beck Jan 3 '11 at 22:33
Not that it answers the questions directly, but I had slowdowns with my MacBook Pro, and it turned out the be the hard drive. I downloaded SmartUtility on the recommendation of Spiff's answer in superuser.com/questions/357308/… and I haven't looked back – Luke Jan 11 at 22:03
How does this question have 150000 views, yet isn't highly upvoted or has an accepted answer. Good job, SU. – ekaj May 21 at 4:00
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2 Answers

up vote 1 down vote

You could create a new administrator account and trigger the OOBE (Out of box experience) setup. I can give instructions if you're interested.

  1. Reboot
  2. Hold apple key + s key down after you hear the chime. (command + s on newer Macs)

  3. When you get text prompt enter in these terminal commands to create a brand new admin account (hitting return after each line): 

    $ mount -uw / 
$ rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone 
$ shutdown -h now
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Yes please. I would like to know more! – Ryan Murphy Jan 3 '11 at 23:23
Added to original answer – hyperperforator Jan 3 '11 at 23:27
Do tell -- what other OSX setup is there than an OOBE setup? ;) – Matthieu Cartier Jan 3 '11 at 23:28
You make a fair point sir, I just felt like saying fancy words ;) – hyperperforator Jan 3 '11 at 23:28
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Fixed the code tag (after an ordered list you need 8 spaces). The OOBE won't change anything on the hard drive except creating a new user account, which you can easily do in System Preferences. It is neat if you're selling your computer or something. – NReilingh Jan 3 '11 at 23:59
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up vote 0 down vote

I ended up creating a new user account and using the Erase Free Space option in Disk Utility in order to "reinstall" the OS without the original disc.

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