[mmmoakes]

A few days ago I bought my first Mac used. It runs great and I haven't had any problems with it at all. The only thing is that the previous owner didn't reformat the HDD before he sold it. It has his name on everything for the OS and a bunch of documents and who knows what else on it. I really want to reformat the HDD and reinstal the OS...but I'm novice (or less) when it comes to Macs. Please help.
I have an iBook G4 that is currently running Mac OS X 10.3.5.

[maczan1205]

Did you receive the original disks with the computer? Which version 10.3?
If you have the original disks you can perform a clean install from these which will install a new blank system on the iBook.
This will wipe out all the users and applications in the application folder - just so you are aware.
Also, you might consider purchasing the Tiger install disk and upgrade to 10.4 especially if you do not have the original disks.

[mmmoakes]

I do have the original discs for the OS. I figured I could format that way but I just don't know how to go about it.

[maczan1205]

Insert the disk or DVD and restart the computer holding down the "C" key
The computer should start up using the CD or DVD.
Then open disk utility ( applications < utilities , Disk Utility )
Choose the hard drive and click erase
Enter a name for the new volume and click erase.
After its finished erasing the drive install the OS from the cd / dvd and perform all the updates.