I was trying to erased may hard drive and start from scratch as if I just bought it. Well I erased the Macintosh HD and now I get the folder with ? mark or padlock password screen. Now It does nothing while holding command + R at start up, or any other command for that matter. Please Help.
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Help me Rescue My Macbook Air
- Thread starter RareBreed
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Use internet recovery? Command + option + r.
Erasing the disc would remove the recovery partition.
Erasing the disc would remove the recovery partition.
I tried doing that but all get is a padlock screen password. I've tried putting in mu admin. password and nothing. And yes the partition was erased. And when i use shift Option Command R all I get is a flashing file with ?
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The MacBook had an efi password that must be entered in order to restore the os. No one here can help except Apple.
You could get a thumb drive with an OS installer on it then you can boot off the thumb drive, run disk utilities and reformat the SSD then reinstall the OS.
I have a few thumb drives with OS preinstalled. If you need one my recommendation is for you to get a 8GB or 16GB thumb drive. I can make one for you and then send it. If you're interested sent me a PM.
If you have a MacBook Air, you should have one of these bootable thumb drives in my opinion.
I have a few thumb drives with OS preinstalled. If you need one my recommendation is for you to get a 8GB or 16GB thumb drive. I can make one for you and then send it. If you're interested sent me a PM.
If you have a MacBook Air, you should have one of these bootable thumb drives in my opinion.
Unfortunately, booting with anything other than the internal SSD will not work if the Air has an efi password.
I attached a picture of the EFI padlock screen.
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This is true and Apple will not help if you don't have a legit receipt proving that you're the legitimate owner of this laptop.
I hope so as well. Part of the risk of buying a "used" Mac laptop is if the previous owner placed an EFI password. Worse if they forgot their password.... it happens unfortunately. I have been lucky in that all my "used" Macs did not have an EFI password assigned to them.
Good idea when buying a used MacBook would be to boot the machine while holding down the option key.
Replacing the ssd won't bypass the firmware password and allow you to reinstall the os.
The point of the firmware password is to prevent the air from booting from any drive other than the ssd inside the machine when the password was set.
If you're the original buyer you can take your receipt to Apple and they can remove the firmware password. If you bought the computer used, your only option is to contact the previous owner and get them to give you the firmware password so you can enter it. Otherwise, you have a computer you can no longer use.
Is it possible for me to check if I have a firmware password without locking myself out of my MBA? It is a 2015 machine which I purchased second hand. I want to upgrade the SSD but I'm reluctant to begin in case I get locked out.
Yes indeed, hindsight is always good knowledge and that is now in my knowledge base. Unfortunately I've already been using it for 15 months!