Complete format of my hard drive

[gbf]

I did the command R thing. Erased the hard drive with erase all volumes (don’t know what that means but apple told me to do it)

now I’m installing macOS Big Sur.

The 2 questions I have is why is the screen so slow while I’m doing this and secondly where is this Big Sur version coming from a partition of apple servers giving me a fresh copy?

Please help

 

[Fishrrman]

Booting to the recovery partition (command-R) WILL NOT permit you to erase the entire drive.

You need to boot to INTERNET RECOVERY:
Command-OPTION-R at boot.
If you're on wifi, you'll also need your wifi password.
The internet utilities take a while to load.

When you get to the utilities, open disk utility.
VERY IMPORTANT STEP:
You MUST go to the view menu and choose "show all devices".
Now look to the left.
The "topmost item" should be your physical internal drive.
Click on it and click "erase".

Choose APFS, GUID partition format.
Once the drive is erased, close disk utility and open the OS installer.
Try installing now.
The Mac may reboot one or more times.
The screen may go dark for 2-3 minutes.
BE PATIENT.

When the install is done, you should see the initial start screen (choose your language)...

 

[gbf]

Thank you. They said something completely different. I did the command r and I went to disc utility and was able to erase all volumes or something like that. Why is your info and there’s different?

I really appreciate your help.

 

[appltech]

When you do the Command R thing, you boot into a Recovery volume, which is hidden on the hard drive. Meaning, you will be able only to erase "your" volumes, the volumes with an operating system and your data. You cannot erase a volume you are booted from.
The real question is what are you trying to achieve exactly? If you simply need a clean reinstall, doing Command R thing is fine, but it will reinstall the same version of operating system.
If I understand correctly, what @Fishrrman suggested will erase all volumes (including hidden Recovery Mode = the whole drive) and install the latest OS supported by your hardware (possibly, Big Sur).

 

[gbf]

They told me that it’s a brand new copy of Big Sur I was getting from the apple servers. That’s what I wanted. I wish I saved the conversation so you could see it. I didn’t want a partitioned copy I wanted a brand new copy. See this is what I hate about apple is the lack of knowledge.

 

[Fishrrman]

Did you try the procedure I gave you in post 2 above...?

 

[gbf]

Why is try emphasized?