How to make a restore to factory image disk or drive?

[wannabelean]

New to the mac world . Been using the comp for the last few days or so and now want to go back to the factory state in which it came in. Im not too fond of internet recovery. I'd rather recover from a usb disk. How can this be done?

I have the lowest priced variant of 2013 MBA 13" inch. Thanks.

 

[Dalton63841]

New to the mac world . Been using the comp for the last few days or so and now want to go back to the factory state in which it came in. Im not too fond of internet recovery. I'd rather recover from a usb disk. How can this be done?

I have the lowest priced variant of 2013 MBA 13" inch. Thanks.

Any form of traditional recovery, including the recovery partition, downloads the recovery installation over the internet. You would need a Mountain Lion installer to build a flash drive installer to do it offline, but that wouldn't actually be "recovery", just a normal clean install.

If you've only used it a few days why do you want to return it to factory condition?

 

[wannabelean]

Does the factory recovery image have bloatware? Does a clean install make it faster?

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Any form of traditional recovery, including the recovery partition, downloads the recovery installation over the internet. You would need a Mountain Lion installer to build a flash drive installer to do it offline, but that wouldn't actually be "recovery", just a normal clean install.

If you've only used it a few days why do you want to return it to factory condition?

Installed a lot of unwanted software just to try them out. I come from a windows background and I'm a sucker for lag free and clean computing.

 

[Dalton63841]

Does the factory recovery image have bloatware? Does a clean install make it faster?

Mac never comes with "bloatware". When you buy a Mac the apps that are on it are the factory apps, similar to how Windows has notepad and Paint(?does it still?)

It is doubtful that it would make a difference in speed. That is a Windows train of thought. Mac doesn't actually work that way. Seeing it "work like new again" is as simple as making a new user account, transferring your data to it, and deleting the old user account. That is because everything that can cause slow downs is in your Library folder in your personal user account. Only big issues can screw up things outside your user account thanks to Unix permissions and ownership.

EDIT: Ahh I see... In that case you probably would see some improvement from a clean install. New app installations drop files all over the place, although most just sit there idly after you uninstall the app, some can be annoying.

EDIT:
Just thought I would show you this, considering you mentioned hating the whole online recovery thing. I hate it too, and I've already done something about it. It is pretty in depth though...
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1598564/

If you are not good at digging in deep but are brave, I did build an app to do the same thing last week. I have tested it extensively on my machine, but no one else has tried it out yet.
https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/17504389/

 

[ylrd]

Does the factory recovery image have bloatware?

 

[Weaselboy]

New to the mac world . Been using the comp for the last few days or so and now want to go back to the factory state in which it came in. Im not too fond of internet recovery. I'd rather recover from a usb disk. How can this be done?

I have the lowest priced variant of 2013 MBA 13" inch. Thanks.

Either way, you will need to use Internet Recovery once to DL the installer image, but after the first time you can save it to a USB key for reuse.

You can follow this admittedly arduous process to snag the 4.7GB installer. Then use this free app with an 8GB USB key to make your installer.

As mentioned, there is not bloatware with a new machine, so there is not much reason to do this.

 

[wannabelean]

Either way, you will need to use Internet Recovery once to DL the installer image, but after the first time you can save it to a USB key for reuse.

You can follow this admittedly arduous process to snag the 4.7GB installer. Then use this free app with an 8GB USB key to make your installer.

As mentioned, there is not bloatware with a new machine, so there is not much reason to do this.

Does a clean install require a serial #? I cant find any on the machine or in the documentation.

 

[Dalton63841]

Does a clean install require a serial #? I cant find any on the machine or in the documentation.

Nope. Mac doesn't use serials for their OS'es. They use the honor system.

 

[wannabelean]

Mac never comes with "bloatware". When you buy a Mac the apps that are on it are the factory apps, similar to how Windows has notepad and Paint(?does it still?)

It is doubtful that it would make a difference in speed. That is a Windows train of thought. Mac doesn't actually work that way. Seeing it "work like new again" is as simple as making a new user account, transferring your data to it, and deleting the old user account. That is because everything that can cause slow downs is in your Library folder in your personal user account. Only big issues can screw up things outside your user account thanks to Unix permissions and ownership.

EDIT: Ahh I see... In that case you probably would see some improvement from a clean install. New app installations drop files all over the place, although most just sit there idly after you uninstall the app, some can be annoying.

EDIT:
Just thought I would show you this, considering you mentioned hating the whole online recovery thing. I hate it too, and I've already done something about it. It is pretty in depth though...
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1598564/

If you are not good at digging in deep but are brave, I did build an app to do the same thing last week. I have tested it extensively on my machine, but no one else has tried it out yet.
https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/17504389/

Thanks! Will try this out today and report.

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Nope. Mac doesn't use serials for their OS'es. They use the honor system.

What's a honor system? I'm certain I entered a serial for MS office.

 

[Dalton63841]

Thanks! Will try this out today and report.

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What's a honor system? I'm certain I entered a serial for MS office.

With the big apps, and of course apps from 3rd parties, there are serials, but the OS doesn't. They just take your word that you bought it officially.(well, to be fair the online recovery requires that it was officially purchased to work.)

 

[wannabelean]

With the big apps, and of course apps from 3rd parties, there are serials, but the OS doesn't. They just take your word that you bought it officially.(well, to be fair the online recovery requires that it was officially purchased to work.)

Wow. So anyone having access to my offline installer can use it? Does the installation not activate(or send hardware info) over the internet. I'm really surprised as Windows has to be activated and you need to have a serial key too.

 

[Dalton63841]

Wow. So anyone having access to my offline installer can use it? Does the installation not activate(or send hardware info) over the internet. I'm really surprised as Windows has to be activated and you need to have a serial key too.

Yes that is correct. Anyone can use the installer and have a full working system.

The only caveat is if they ever have to use the Recovery partition. When you first start recovery, it calls home to make sure the OS has been purchased through the Mac App Store(buying the laptop includes the purchase of the OS it came with). That is, unless you are me and hack the recovery partition to be an offline installer.