I think the problem is that you are trying to do the erase via "erase & install". When you do this, the installer asks you to select which partition you want to erase (before installing OS X on that partition).

Since you want to get rid of your partitions (in order to have one big partition), you need to boot from the Install DVD but don't go into the install - instead get Disk Utility from one of the menus and use Disk Utility to erase the whole disk. (Alternatively you could use Disk Utility to remove the non-boot partitions and then later erase that one remaining partition.)

I forgot to ask about this--
Jan 23 02:08:42 localhost : Initialized /dev/rdisk0s2 as a 74 GB HFS Plus volume with a 8192k journal\n

What is the journal?

Thanks for your help.

Journaling is a feature of the Mac hard drive filesystem! It helps make your drive more reliable and less prone to corruption. An explanation can be found here.

Have you used hayne's suggestion above in post #21?

Trevor

I've tried it that way too, many times. I select the drive, and select partion, 1 partition. The volume immediately returns, showing 2 folders. I select the drive, and select erase. The volume immediately returns, showing 2 folders.

I know y'all probably think that I'm just doing something or everything wrong. And using Unix, yeah, I'll admit, I probably am. But I'm VERY good at reading a book, and following directions. And *****, I'll go ahead and brag a little!! I'm as good as a monkey when it comes to looking at pictures and putting my arrow in the same place as the arrow in the picture, and then hitting click!! I'm not trying to sound like a smart*ss, but I've done all of the obvious things. I've RTFM, but my problem isn't in the FM. It's very frustrating because no one gives me credit for being able to point and click. I got the same treatment with my PC. They didn't believe me until the hacker blatently changed my desktop, and stole my little girl's picture from it, and left a message "CATCH ME IF YOU CAN!". And I say he STOLE it, because it was no where to be found. This happened one day AFTER the "SECURITY tech", not just the "YOU DEAL WITH THE CRAZY LADY THIS TIME tech" wiped my drive, reinstalled my system, and came out to my house to securely set up and lock down my system, since I'd been so incapable of doing it myself. So then, after almost a year, he took a closer look at all of the problems that I'd told him about. NOW he believed there might actually BE a problem!! Because even though I (probably for the 50th time) didn't click "ERASE THE DRIVE AND NOT JUST THE VOLUME", he is CERTAIN that he chose "ERASE THE DRIVE AND NOT JUST THE VOLUME"!! It was only then, that he finally decided to look deeper into the things, because he knew that he had made the proper selection. "Oh, *****, she's not crazy after all!" It turns out I had a memory resident root-kit. They never could remove it. My problem wasn't getting wiped during the wipe.

I said all of that to say,

I chose to erase the drive and not just the volume. Every single time. I know the difference.

And don't think I'm mad, because I'm not. I'm very grateful that there are knowledgable people out there that are willing to help those of us who need it. I understand where this "drive/volume" thing could be an issue. But I want y'all to understand, that on the drive/volume subject, I understand. I get it.

I'm open and eager for other suggestions! And hopefully someone can come up with plan B.

Hi Mazzy,

I think part of our problem (well, at least part of *my* problem) is that I'm not quite sure what the two folders you are seeing after you Erase the drive are. Would it be possible to take a digital picture of your screen after you've erased the drive, and attach it to this thread?

Trevor

no one thinks you're crazy, or dumb. well, maybe a little crazy, but in a good way. ;) the problem we have is that we can't see the system, or what you're doing with it, and so we have to double-check on the simple things and work our way up. with that in mind, I'm going to assume you know how to use screen captures, and ask for a pic of the partition map in Disk Utility. also if you could open System Profiler, navigate to Networks/Volumes, and give us a screenshot of that page as well, that would be good.

Having a picture (e.g. from a digital camera) as trevor suggests would be very useful so that we could see what you are seeing.

And please take the time to write an extremely detailed (using lots of precisely chosen words) of exactly what you are doing and what you are seeing.
Compare the first two paragraphs in your post #24 above. The first paragraph is the one where you told us what you did and what resulted. You used very few words. The second paragraph is not really relevant to the issue at hand (yes I know you explained that you wrote it to convince us that you aren't "mad") but you used lots of words there.
But it would be more convincing if you omitted all that and used your energy instead to very carefully describe (in excruciating detail) what you are doing.
The sort of description I'm asking for is something like this:

"I put the Tiger Install DVD into the DVD drive, then I went to the Apple menu (top left) and chose the 'Restart' menu item. When I heard the startup chime, I held down the C key and kept holding it down until I saw ...
...
I went to the Utilities menu and selected "Disk Utility" from that menu and after it launched I saw the following in the left hand column of the Disk Utility window:
...
I clicked on xxx and it became blue (selected). I then clicked on ...."

You get the idea? You need to describe in sufficient detail that we can "see" what you are doing. Of course having some digital pictures in additional to this description would make it easier.

Is it possible to take a screenshot when booted to your OS X Install disc?

Trevor

With regard to folders on erased volumes, there will be stuff that
the OS puts there by default. There may even be some things that
Terminal won't even show. Here is an empty volume in Leopard...

Much of that stuff won't be there in Tiger (unless the volume was mounted
on a Leopard OS). The ".metadata_never_index" file was put there by me,
to stop Spotlight from indexing that volume. Finder's Get Info for that disk
shows 29.1 MB used! (which is hidden stuff, like the partition map, journal
and other "HFS+" items I guess?). Anyway, once erased with Disk Utility...
there are no sinister files left behind.

HTH,

-HI-

I've actually did that last week, then decided that I really didn't have anyone to show them to! So, I erased them. But yes, I'll do it again. And do you mind explaining these settings in Terminal, and why I'm unable to change them? And on this part, you can call me dumb, because I'm pretty clueless when it comes to Unix. I have a book, but Terminal doesn't take orders from me. No matter how well I follow the directions in the book!

BASH=/bin/bash
BASH_VERSINFO=([0]="2" [1]="05b" [2]="0" [3]="1" [4]="release" [5]="powerpc-apple-darwin8.0")
BASH_VERSION='2.05b.0(1)-release'
COLUMNS=80
DIRSTACK=()
EUID=501
GROUPS=()
HISTFILE=/Users/roxy/.bash_history
HISTFILESIZE=500
HISTSIZE=500
HOME=/Users/roxy
HOSTNAME=roxys-computer.local
HOSTTYPE=powerpc
IFS=$' \t\n'
LINES=24
LOGNAME=roxy
MACHTYPE=powerpc-apple-darwin8.0
MAILCHECK=60
OPTERR=1
OPTIND=1
OSTYPE=darwin8.0
PATH=/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin
PIPESTATUS=([0]="0")
PPID=2311
PS1='\h:\w \u\$ '
PS2='> '
PS4='+ '
PWD=/Users/roxy
SECURITYSESSIONID=411eb0
SHELL=/bin/bash
SHELLOPTS=braceexpand:emacs:hashall:histexpand:history:interactive-comments:monitor
SHLVL=1
TERM=xterm-color
TERM_PROGRAM=Apple_Terminal
TERM_PROGRAM_VERSION=133
UID=501
USER=roxy

And a couple of other things from my install log--
What are postflight scripts?? There are several of these .caction references--
Jan 23 02:17:46 localhost : run postflight script for BSD Subsystem
Jan 23 02:17:51 localhost : run postflight script for Automator
Jan 23 02:17:51 localhost : postflight[278]: cleaning up: /Volumes/Untitled//System/Library/Automator/Convert Address Book Object to Group Object.caction

Also,

Jan 23 02:17:54 localhost : It took 6.249832 seconds to Prepare volume "Untitled" (dm -prepareDisk:withType:)
Jan 23 02:17:54 localhost : It took 0.125214 seconds to Configuring volume "Untitled" (dm prepare*disk)

What is DM?

This is the first time I've been able to get this much information logged. So now maybe some of the things that I've seen during an install can be addressed.

Thank you VERY much!

most of the stuff in CAPS is just settings for your terminal session and window (basically telling what size the window is, which user is using the terminal, where various unix commands can be found, etc...). it all looks very normal.

'postflight' stuff is usually cleanup scripts that run after something has been installed. these would make sense if you just installed the system.

dm I'll leave to people more knowledgeable than me. :D

You should concentrate on one problem at a time. And the rule on these forums is: one topic per thread. So you should (later) start a new thread with questions about Terminal. But if you insist, start by reading this Unix FAQ: http://forums.macosxhints.com/showthread.php?t=40648
Please forget about the install and just concentrate on getting the disk erased. As explained above, you want to erase the disk as a separate step - using Disk Utility after booting from the Install DVD.

Thank you all!! I'll get to work on this later tonight. And I'll use lots of meaningful words!

Hi mazzy, when you say there are 2 folders, do you mean that the "Number of Folders" is 2?
For example, I have 137,593 folders on my drive, which contains all of my files:
http://i25.tinypic.com/11qi6tv.png

Having 2 hidden folders on a freshly erased drive is normal. These folders contain the "Journal" files, and the drivers and other things necessary for a computer to read the hard drive correctly.

I formatted a brand new flash drive with "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)", and ended up with 4 folders containing the necessary files for the filesystem to work properly:
http://i26.tinypic.com/2v827a8.png

Here is a Screenshot of Disk Utility and System Profiler Network/Volumes, and also a screenshot using Drive Genius--

Thanks y'all!

System Profiler shows nothing listed under Network/Volumes.

Drive Genius shows 4 partitions

You disk seems (from the pictures you supplied) to be correctly formatted with one large partition. (The other partitions shown by Disk Genius are (as far as I know) normal - these are hidden partitions intended only for internal (by the system) use.)

So you should go ahead and install OS X on that one partition.

ThreeDee,

You are right that those are the 2 folders I'm talking about. And it makes sense that they would contain the system files. I've had others tell me that there should be nothing there, and that nothing should be present on a clean drive drive.

And I don't mind being corrected, or told something different, or told I'm doing something wrong. I just want to know why I have java for PowerPC installed on an Intel? Why do I have printer drivers for a printer I never owned? Who is /user/dave? Why the spoofed websites and other problems?

Here's one I can count on......This is my "Am I clean yet?" test.
1. I go to TrendMicro.com
2. I click on the Trend Micro's FREE online virus scanner
3. Another page opens at http://housecall65.trendmicro.com/
4. I'm asked to agree to the terms of use and click the button "Launch Housecall"
5. Next page says "Trend Micro HouseCall can run on your system. If you want to start scanning for malware and vulnerabilities, you need an additional HouseCall kernel. You can select the relevant kernel for your system here. For further information about this step, please click here."
6. I click
7. A certificate pops up
7. It's outdated of course!

But Hey! I'm definitely making progress because THIS one expired in 2007, not in 1998 like previous one!!

Why would you do that? :confused: It doesn't even list OS X as a platform it supports!