How long does Internet factory reset take??!?

[SurferMan]

One of my Macs died so bought a barely used 13" Pro (retina) on CL. Already had El Capitan, the guy said to factory reset it use command/option/r which I knew, but it's taking forever. It's just sitting on the screen with the globe spinning and progress bar only a tiny bit white and not moving for over an hour now. Looks like some people on here said it should say how much longer but mine doesn't, just the globe and progress bar.

Is there an easier or faster way to do this? This is ridiculous lol. Can't be the Internet speed as its blazing fast on other computer and my phone and tablet.

Edit: go figure posted this and it gave an error message, said apple.com/support -5010F whatever that means as nothing pulls up online or at Apple for that code?

 

[ABC5S]

This is why we make a boot drive using a USB thumb drive

http://osxdaily.com/2015/09/30/create-os-x-el-capitan-boot-install-drive/

 

[SurferMan]

This is why we make a boot drive using a USB thumb drive

http://osxdaily.com/2015/09/30/create-os-x-el-capitan-boot-install-drive/

Hmm cool, luckily have a portable hard drive with me, so that should work right? Or does it have to be a USB thumb and not an external drive?

 

[Weaselboy]

One of my Macs died so bought a barely used 13" Pro (retina) on CL. Already had El Capitan, the guy said to factory reset it use command/option/r which I knew, but it's taking forever. It's just sitting on the screen with the globe spinning and progress bar only a tiny bit white and not moving for over an hour now. Looks like some people on here said it should say how much longer but mine doesn't, just the globe and progress bar.

Is there an easier or faster way to do this? This is ridiculous lol. Can't be the Internet speed as its blazing fast on other computer and my phone and tablet.

Edit: go figure posted this and it gave an error message, said apple.com/support -5010F whatever that means as nothing pulls up online or at Apple for that code?

The globe part you are seeing is just the 650MB recovery utility itself and not the actual ~7GB OS install. If you have fast Internet you should be through that spinning globe part in a few minutes tops.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201314

See halfway down this link for types of wifi you can use with Internet recovery. A lot of those errors like you got are from trying to use a wifi type not supported. You might try just opening up your wifi with no password just to get this done.

 

[DeltaMac]

Probably a network issue of some kind with your Wifi.
Be sure to try with a ethernet (wired) connection to your router.

Absolutely, a local installer drive will work much better.
You do need to download El Cap uisng a Mac that is capable of booting to El Cap. Doesn't need to be the same Mac as the one that needs it.
The installer.app will download from the App Store. Quit the app when the download is complete.
Make an 8GB partition on your external drive, just for the installer. Create the installer, either using known terminal commands. Or, even simpler, download and run the good DiskmakerX app, which makes that process easy, without needing to use the terminal. I like to use an 8GB USB flash drive for that. Works very nicely.

 

[SurferMan]

Probably a network issue of some kind with your Wifi.
Be sure to try with a ethernet (wired) connection to your router.

Absolutely, a local installer drive will work much better.
You do need to download El Cap uisng a Mac that is capable of booting to El Cap. Doesn't need to be the same Mac as the one that needs it.
The installer.app will download from the App Store. Quit the app when the download is complete.
Make an 8GB partition on your external drive, just for the installer. Create the installer, either using known terminal commands. Or, even simpler, download and run the good DiskmakerX app, which makes that process easy, without needing to use the terminal. I like to use an 8GB USB flash drive for that. Works very nicely.

How long does it take to download, it says downloading but no time frame, I don't know if it could be 15 min or 15 hours lol. Is there a way to check download progress from the app store?

 

[SurferMan]

Probably a network issue of some kind with your Wifi.
Be sure to try with a ethernet (wired) connection to your router.

Absolutely, a local installer drive will work much better.
You do need to download El Cap uisng a Mac that is capable of booting to El Cap. Doesn't need to be the same Mac as the one that needs it.
The installer.app will download from the App Store. Quit the app when the download is complete.
Make an 8GB partition on your external drive, just for the installer. Create the installer, either using known terminal commands. Or, even simpler, download and run the good DiskmakerX app, which makes that process easy, without needing to use the terminal. I like to use an 8GB USB flash drive for that. Works very nicely.

How long does it take to download, it says downloading but no time frame, I don't know if it could be 15 min or 15 hours lol. Is there a way to check download progress from the app store?

Edit - n/m just realized under purchases it list time progress, another 4 hours ughh lol

 

[DeltaMac]

If you would normally have much faster donwload speeds, Quit the download. Quit the App Store. Restart your Mac, then App Store, and resume your download. It will continue where it left off. That may pick up the download speed to be more like your normal internet speed.

 

[SurferMan]

Probably a network issue of some kind with your Wifi.
Be sure to try with a ethernet (wired) connection to your router.

Absolutely, a local installer drive will work much better.
You do need to download El Cap uisng a Mac that is capable of booting to El Cap. Doesn't need to be the same Mac as the one that needs it.
The installer.app will download from the App Store. Quit the app when the download is complete.
Make an 8GB partition on your external drive, just for the installer. Create the installer, either using known terminal commands. Or, even simpler, download and run the good DiskmakerX app, which makes that process easy, without needing to use the terminal. I like to use an 8GB USB flash drive for that. Works very nicely.

Ok not sure what I'm doing wrong but made an external drive bootable with capitan and diskmaker x. It installed, and nothing changed. Still shows up as the previous owners Admin name, and storage says 166gb free of 250? That can't be right. I never did this with my other retina, but my late 09' MBP was a piece of cake to format and reinstall.

All I want is to wipe the HD clean and fresh install of El Capitan and not the previous owners Admin (I changed password when I met him so I could use it). Plus the storage seems off, only 166 free?

Edit - oye vey lol, obviously I'm tired, forgot to wipe through disk utility first. Installed nice and clean, thanks guys!