Finally, erasing your Mac’s drive could take some time. When it’s finished, close Disk Utility to return to the MacOS Utilities window. Restore a Mac to its Factory Settings. Reinstalling the OS. With the primary drive erased, you now need to reinstall MacOS. Click the Reinstall MacOS option on the MacOS Utilities list and click Continue to. This article will help you create a Mac OS X or macOS recovery USB drive to use in case of disaster or no boot from internal hard drive. Every Mac running OS X Lion and later has a small (650MB) hidden recovery partition called Recovery HD located on your Mac’s internal hard drive which is reserved for common utilities such as Time Machine Backup,Terminal utility, Disk Utility, Hardware.
UPDATE: On recent versions of macOS (tested with High Sierra 10.13.4) you can restore from a networked drive directly from the 'Restore from Time Machine Backup' option in the recovery mode. The following steps are not required (but are super awesome!). For Mac OS X 10.6 and earlier, you will need the OEM installer disc. For Mac OS X 10.7 and later, you can use the recovery partition on the original drive. To make sure you have a functional recovery partition, restart your computer and immediately hold down the Command + R keys until the Apple logo appears. If your computer boots into a four. Jun 01, 2020 The version of macOS offered by macOS Recovery might vary in some cases: If macOS Sierra 10.12.4 or later has never been installed on this Mac, Option-Command-R installs the macOS that came with your Mac, or the closest version still available. And Shift-Option-Command-R isn't available. If you erased your entire disk instead of just the startup volume on that disk, macOS Recovery might. If you are using an older Mac, it probably comes with a grey recovery DVD that you can use to run recovery routines. If you had bought a copy of a newer operating system, you can also use the installation disk to perform recovery. It is the easiest way to go into Recovery Mode and here is how you can do it: Insert the grey DVD and reboot your Mac. Dec 08, 2019 Click on your Mac's startup drive in the Disk Utility sidebar. It should be the drive at the top of the sidebar if there are multiple drives. Click First Aid. First Aid will run, checking the health of your Mac's drive. This process could take a little while. Click Disk Utility in the Menu bar. Click Quit Disk Utility.
macOS Recovery is part of the built-in recovery system of your Mac. You can start up from macOS Recovery and use its utilities to recover from certain software issues or take other actions on your Mac.
How to start up from macOS Recovery
- Turn on your Mac and immediately press and hold these two keys: Command (⌘) and R. Need help?
- Release the keys when you see an Apple logo, spinning globe, or other startup screen.
- You might be prompted to enter a password, such as a firmware password or the password of a user who is an administrator of this Mac. Enter the requested password to continue.
- Startup is complete when you see the utilities window:
- After starting up from macOS Recovery, select a utility, then click Continue:
- Restore From Time Machine Backup:Restore your Mac from a Time Machine backup.
- Reinstall macOS: Download and reinstall the Mac operating system.
- Get Help Online: Use Safari to browse the web and find help for your Mac. Links to Apple's support website are included. Browser plug-ins and extensions are disabled.
- Disk Utility: Use Disk Utility to repair your disk or erase your disk or other storage device.
Additional utilities are available from the Utilities menu in the menu bar: Startup Security Utility (or Firmware Password Utility), Network Utility, and Terminal.
- To quit macOS Recovery, choose Restart or Shut Down from the Apple menu . If you want to choose a different startup disk before quitting, choose Startup Disk from the Apple menu.
If you can't start up from macOS Recovery
If your Mac can't start up from its built-in macOS Recovery system, it might try to start up from macOS Recovery over the Internet. When that happens, you see a spinning globe instead of an Apple logo during startup:
To manually start up from Internet Recovery, press and hold either of these key combinations at startup:
- Option-Command-R
- Shift-Option-Command-R
Learn more
If startup from Internet Recovery is unsuccessful, you see a globe with an alert symbol (exclamation point):
In that case, try these solutions:
- Make sure that your Mac can connect to the Internet. If you're not prompted to choose a Wi-Fi network during startup, move your pointer to the top of the screen, then choose a network from the Wi-Fi menu , if available.
- Press Command-R at startup to try using the built-in Recovery system instead of Internet Recovery.
- Connect to the Internet using Ethernet instead of Wi-Fi, or vice versa.
- Connect to the Internet from a different Wi-Fi or Ethernet network. Your network configuration might not allow the Internet access that macOS Recovery needs.
- Try again later, because the issue might be temporary.
- Start up from another disk or volume, if available, or use a bootable installer to reinstall macOS.
If you still need help, please contact Apple Support.
If you've encountered a problem with macOS, the solution might be to reinstall the system on your Mac. This can be done by any Mac owner, but it can be a little bit complicated. You'll need to put your Mac into macOS Recovery, which gives you tools to diagnose problems on your Mac, as well as reinstall the operating system.
Here's how to reinstall macOS using Recovery mode.
Entering macOS Recovery
macOS Recovery has tools at its disposal that allow you to diagnose problems with your Mac's hard drive, reinstall macOS, and restore from a Time Machine backup. You can enter Recovery by pressing certain key combinations. The combination you choose will determine which version of macOS will be installed on your system when you select Reinstall macOS.
- Press Command - R to install the latest version of macOS that was installed on your Mac without installing a later version.
- Press Options - Command - R to upgrade to the latest version of macOS that's compatible with your Mac.
- Press Shift - Option - Command - R to install the version of macOS that came with your Mac, or the version closest to it that's still available.
How to check your startup disk with Disk Utility in macOS Recovery mode
The first thing you'll want to do is make sure your Mac's startup disk is healthy. You'll need to use Disk Utility to do that.
- Click Disk Utility when in macOS Recovery.
- Click Continue.
- Click on your Mac's startup drive in the Disk Utility sidebar. It should be the drive at the top of the sidebar if there are multiple drives.
- Click First Aid.
- Click Run. First Aid will run, checking the health of your Mac's drive. This process could take a little while.
- Click Done.
- Click Disk Utility in the Menu bar.
- Click Quit Disk Utility.
How to erase your startup disk in macOS Recovery mode
How To Recover Mac Os
If you need to start completely fresh, then you'll want to erase your startup disk using Disk Utility. If you want the content on your Mac to stay intact, skip to the next section.
- Click on your startup disk in the Disk Utility sidebar.
- Click Erase.
- Click the Format drop-down menu.
- Click on the format you want to use for your drive. If you're running macOS High Sierra or later on a Mac with an SSD, your choices will be some form of APFS.
- Click Erase. Your drive will proceed to be erased.
How to reinstall macOS while in Recovery mode
The next step is to reinstall macOS.
- Click Reinstall macOS.
- Click Continue.
- Click Continue.
- Click Agree.
- Click Agree.
- Click on the drive on which you wish to install macOS.
- Enter your Apple ID and password if you're asked to, though you might not be.
- Click Install.
Your Mac will now go through the normal macOS installation process, eventually restarting. If you're starting from scratch, you'll need to set up your Mac from scratch.
Questions?
If you have any more questions about reinstalling macOS on your Mac, let us know in the comments.
Updated December 2019: Everything is up to date through macOS Catalina.
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