Formatting a hard drive along with the install of a new OS is the best option. The vast majority of operating system installations provide a "format" option as part of the installation process.

I think the reason we haven't heard many complaints about the doing away of physical media is exactly this. As long as power users can make their own offline media, there's nothing to complain about.

Mac OS X Mountain Lion gives users several ways to access the Terminal and three common options for formatting a hard drive. You can launch Terminal within Mac OS X to format hard drives currently not ...

Like Lion (OS X 10.7) before it, Mountain Lion (OS X 10.8) doesn’t ship on a disc—it’s available only as an installer app downloadable from the Mac App Store ...

Mavericks (OS X 10.9) doesn’t ship on a disc. Instead, it’s available only as an installer app downloadable from the Mac App Store, and that installer doesn’t ...

How to use Rufus to create a bootable USB drive to install (almost) any OS Your email has been sent After last week’s article, ” Pro tip: How to create a bootable ...

How to create an OS X multiboot USB install drive Your email has been sent In an ideal world, sysadmins everywhere would only need to manage one or two operating systems–one desktop, one server–and ...