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How do I restore MacBook to factory settings?

T

Tacticus

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 18, 2013
33
1
Hi, I am looking to sell my MacBook Pro and need to restore it to factory settings, does anybody know how I do this ? I don't have any installation disks (it didn't come with any).
 
Reboot and hold Cmd-Opt-R at the chime to get into Internet Recovery. You will then be able to launch Disk Utility and wipe the hard drive, then reinstall OS X. This process may take more than an hour.
 
Great thanks, the reinstall OS X step ..... I don't have discs so would that be from the hard drive ?
 
Tacticus said:
Great thanks, the reinstall OS X step ..... I don't have discs so would that be from the hard drive ?
Click to expand...

I would recommend downloading and creating a bootable OS X Lion/ML thumb drive. Much faster than internet recovery unless you have super blazing internet.
 
If your computer originally started on Lion, but you manually upgraded to Mountain Lion, what does Internet Restore install?

Also, while we're at it...how would you secure erase a SSD on OS X?
 
hkim1983 said:
If your computer originally started on Lion, but you manually upgraded to Mountain Lion, what does Internet Restore install?
Click to expand...

Internet Recovery (Cmd-Opt-R) uses the computer's serial number to download the version that it came with. This is not the same as the Recovery System (Cmd-R) which reinstalls the same version as is currently present.
 
Nermal said:
Internet Recovery (Cmd-Opt-R) uses the computer's serial number to download the version that it came with. This is not the same as the Recovery System (Cmd-R) which reinstalls the same version as is currently present.
Click to expand...

Thank you!
 
cntwtfrmynwmbp said:
I had the exact same question here (https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1543870/), but no answers there.

So I'm happy about finding this thread :)

Has anyone an idea about the SSD question? (see quote below).
Click to expand...

That is correct... you don't want to secure erase an SSD. If you want to make sure your data is safe before you sell, just turn on Filevault2 encryption on the drive and wait for it to finish encrypting. Then follow the step in this thread to get to Internet Recovery and erase Macintosh HD, then reinstall the OS.

When you erase the HD, it will erase the encrypted Filevault2 volume. So even if someone used tools to recover what you erased, it would still be encrypted.
 
PatriotInvasion said:
Why does secure erase harm the SSD and why would Apple still provide a secure empty trash feature on SSD-based Macs?
Click to expand...

The theory is that a secure erase by overwriting with zeros like DU does needlessly adds wear cycles to the drive. If you look at DU on a SSD Mac, you will see the secure erase option is greyed out.
 
Weaselboy said:
That is correct... you don't want to secure erase an SSD. If you want to make sure your data is safe before you sell, just turn on Filevault2 encryption on the drive and wait for it to finish encrypting. Then follow the step in this thread to get to Internet Recovery and erase Macintosh HD, then reinstall the OS.

When you erase the HD, it will erase the encrypted Filevault2 volume. So even if someone used tools to recover what you erased, it would still be encrypted.
Click to expand...

Thanks! I'll try that.
 
Weaselboy said:
The theory is that a secure erase by overwriting with zeros like DU does needlessly adds wear cycles to the drive. If you look at DU on a SSD Mac, you will see the secure erase option is greyed out.
Click to expand...

Secure erase is greyed out in Disk Utility, but you still have the option to "Secure Empty Trash" when emptying your trash bin. Isn't this in fact doing the same thing on a smaller scale?

And, if secure erase is the way to go for a HDD, how do you prevent recovery of data on an SSD if secure erase is not an option?
 
PatriotInvasion said:
Secure erase is greyed out in Disk Utility, but you still have the option to "Secure Empty Trash" when emptying your trash bin. Isn't this in fact doing the same thing on a smaller scale?

And, if secure erase is the way to go for a HDD, how do you prevent recovery of data on an SSD if secure erase is not an option?
Click to expand...

Yes, it would seem so. A secure empty trash does overwrite the area with random data, so in theory this adds one more "write cycle" to that area of the disk.

To prevent data recovery with an SSD you can either encrypt then delete like I described in post post above, or you can boot from Linux and run the ATA secure erase command which does not add a write cycle.
 
Weaselboy said:
Yes, it would seem so. A secure empty trash does overwrite the area with random data, so in theory this adds one more "write cycle" to that area of the disk.

To prevent data recovery with an SSD you can either encrypt then delete like I described in post post above, or you can boot from Linux and run the ATA secure erase command which does not add a write cycle.
Click to expand...

Thanks. So if you only plan to have the SSD-equipped Mac for say 3 years and only do a secure empty trash occasionally, I'm guessing write cycles shouldn't be too big of a deal?
 
PatriotInvasion said:
Thanks. So if you only plan to have the SSD-equipped Mac for say 3 years and only do a secure empty trash occasionally, I'm guessing write cycles shouldn't be too big of a deal?
Click to expand...

I would not worry about it. There is some good info in this article on the topic.

This is from the article. Even with the newer TLC NAND, at 10GB writes a day you are looking at over 11 years. So even if secure empty trash cut that back somewhat, the computer will likely be dead and gone before the SSD starts to die.

screenshot20130220at115.png
 
Details?

Nermal said:
Reboot and hold Cmd-Opt-R at the chime to get into Internet Recovery. You will then be able to launch Disk Utility and wipe the hard drive, then reinstall OS X. This process may take more than an hour.
Click to expand...

Can you give a little more detail on this process? I restarted with Cmd-option-R and got into a screen that says Mac OS X Utilities. I choose the Disk Utility option and Disk Utility opens. I have options to Erase or Restore my hard drive. But I don't see where it tells me there is an Internet Recovery option.
Thanks
 
jonmanheim said:
Can you give a little more detail on this process? I restarted with Cmd-option-R and got into a screen that says Mac OS X Utilities. I choose the Disk Utility option and Disk Utility opens. I have options to Erase or Restore my hard drive. But I don't see where it tells me there is an Internet Recovery option.
Thanks
Click to expand...

You want to select the "install a new copy of OS X" option when the recovery program loads, not Disk Utility.
 
Yes. If its a newer machine it will boot over the Internet provided you put it on a network. Be patient because it is not fast.
 
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