Macbook not working after being wiped

[Sarabee]

Hello,

I have a 2015 15" MacBook Pro with Retina display. I am trying to sell it after upgrading to a new MacBook.

I wiped followed the procedure of signing out of everything that I needed to. I then proceeded to wipe the drive and this is where it all went wrong.

I have done this before and never had issues but this time something went wrong. When the Mac loads up it comes up with a prohibited symbol, then when I get into Mac recovery, the OS won't download at all. It says something to do with the start up disk.

I am not sure what has gone wrong, seeing as I have just recently done the same thing to my new Mac when it was starting to play up and that worked perfectly fine.

I try to do the USB boot but when I use terminal it says the Mac OS file doesn't exist in applications even though it does because I followed the instructions on the apple website and downloaded the file again.

I am at a complete loss and I really need to sell the Mac, I can't afford to take it anywhere arm so this is my last resort...

I'm not as clued up as some when it comes to pc stuff so please speak English 😉

If you need any additional information just let me know

Thanks In Advance

Sara

 

[northernmunky]

It sounds like you did a partition wipe, thats why you get the prohibited symbol, it cant find a system folder to start up from.

So yes, best to allow the Mac to download from the Apple website, or if you if the recovery partition is still there you should be able to do a Cmd+R at startup and select the recovery partition.

Try one of these, were you running High Sierra before by any chance?

macOS Recovery installs different versions of macOS depending on the key combination you use while starting up. Turn on or restart your Mac, then immediately hold down one of these combinations:

Command (⌘)-R
Install the latest macOS that was installed on your Mac, without upgrading to a later version.*

Option-Command-R
Upgrade to the latest macOS that is compatible with your Mac.**

Shift-Option-Command-R
Requires macOS Sierra 10.12.4 or later Install the macOS that came with your Mac, or the version closest to it that is still available.

 

[Audit13]

How about trying to install via internet recovery?

 

[northernmunky]

I'm just wondering if you had High Sierra before, and the system is trying to install Sierra or below, it might be having a hissy fit because it can't read the APFS partition.

In non less tech speak, if you are re-installing Sierra or below, you will have to use Disk Utility to partition your drive back to MacOS Extended instead of APFS. Any other OS will not be able to understand your drive.

 

[navaira]

I wiped a rMBP with High Sierra (2015 model as well), and when I booted to recovery I couldn't use Disk Utility on the drive without unlocking it first, which I only managed to do by starting the install, getting prompted to enter the password, entering it, closing the installer, returning to Disk Utility, then formatting the partition. Mind, I don't know if this can be related to your problem, it's just something that surprised and confused me yesterday.

It says something to do with the start up disk.

Can you check what exactly it says?