Deleted apfs-Data volume... bricked MBA 2012

[yippi]

I wanted to re-install the OS (e.g. Mojave) in my APFS formatted MacBook Air 2012 for sale. In recovery I deleted the Data partition to remove my private contents, but this resulted in a bricked MBA. On normal restart it is caught in a cycle of Kernel panics and in recovery partition, the re-install commend starts the process, but in the third step complains that it cannot install because of a hardware problem.

I created a startup and install USBstick with a Mojave installer that I had saved, but this didn't work either. Will it help to delete the whole Container, if this is at all possible?

Is there any way to install a pre-BigSur OS on this machine? Thanks!

 

[Significant1]

read here what you should do before you sell.

What to do before you sell, give away, trade in, or recycle your Mac - Apple Support

Reset your Mac to factory settings to prepare it for a new owner.

support.apple.com

Section 7 is about erasing your drive.

If it doesn't work, I would boot recovery from usb, start disk utility, choose partition, delete all and create a new. Make sure you have selected the internal drive. Pressing cmd+2 to show everything in the sidepanel, gives better overview in my opinion.

 

[yippi]

Thanks so much. I should have thought of consulting Mac Support pages before! My stupidity.