Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
MacBook Pro 7,1 High Sierra new install
- Thread starter Axel90
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
When you say clean, if you want to completely erase the disk and install High Sierra then follow these steps.
1. Backup any files you want to keep.
2. Insert the usb stick.
3. Reboot / boot the Mac and immediately hold the option key.
4. A boot menu should appear. Highlight the usb stick and press enter.
5. When the installer loads, choose your language, then choose “Disk Utility” from the “Utilities” menu.
6. Highlight the internal disk and click “Erase”. You can change the security options to more thoroughly wipe the drive but that will take a while.
7. Quit Disk Utility.
8. Follow Installation prompts from the installer and upon completion, you will have a clean installation.
9. Restore any backup files you made.
If the USB doesn’t boot but has the installer app copied to it, boot the Mac into 10.6.8 and run the install app. Follow the prompts until it reboots into the installer and continue from step 5 above.
If it hasn’t been done yet, consider putting an SSD into the Mac and upgrading the RAM to at least 8 GB.
1. Backup any files you want to keep.
2. Insert the usb stick.
3. Reboot / boot the Mac and immediately hold the option key.
4. A boot menu should appear. Highlight the usb stick and press enter.
5. When the installer loads, choose your language, then choose “Disk Utility” from the “Utilities” menu.
6. Highlight the internal disk and click “Erase”. You can change the security options to more thoroughly wipe the drive but that will take a while.
7. Quit Disk Utility.
8. Follow Installation prompts from the installer and upon completion, you will have a clean installation.
9. Restore any backup files you made.
If the USB doesn’t boot but has the installer app copied to it, boot the Mac into 10.6.8 and run the install app. Follow the prompts until it reboots into the installer and continue from step 5 above.
If it hasn’t been done yet, consider putting an SSD into the Mac and upgrading the RAM to at least 8 GB.
To be fair, yes you really want to do that, High Sierra is more RAM hungry and its optimised for SSD's, it runs painfully slow on spinning disks.
"I got an usb install stick with high sierra.
Is it possible to do a clean new installation of high sierra on a MacBook Pro 7,1? (2,4Ghz, 4GB RAM)"
You might be able to do it.
But... I wouldn't recommend it unless you upgrade the RAM and drive first.
You'll ABSOLUTELY need an SSD "in there" unless you can be happy with a computer that runs... well.... s_l_o_w_l_y.
Is that what you want?
And 4gb of RAM is going to make matters worse, because the OS will be hitting the drive with page-ins and page-outs, putting even more demand on a platter-based hard drive.
I'd recommend that you upgrade the drive and RAM anyway.
This doesn't have to be an expensive proposition.
Get the cheapest SSD you can find, either 250gb or 500gb.
Get ONE 8gb RAM DIMM, and replace ONLY the topmost DIMM (with the back off).
That will give you 10gb of installed RAM, enough for any Mac OS.
If it was me, I'd upgrade to, say, El Capitan (a very good version of the OS) and just "leave it there" for the remainder of the life of the MBP...
Is it possible to do a clean new installation of high sierra on a MacBook Pro 7,1? (2,4Ghz, 4GB RAM)"
You might be able to do it.
But... I wouldn't recommend it unless you upgrade the RAM and drive first.
You'll ABSOLUTELY need an SSD "in there" unless you can be happy with a computer that runs... well.... s_l_o_w_l_y.
Is that what you want?
And 4gb of RAM is going to make matters worse, because the OS will be hitting the drive with page-ins and page-outs, putting even more demand on a platter-based hard drive.
I'd recommend that you upgrade the drive and RAM anyway.
This doesn't have to be an expensive proposition.
Get the cheapest SSD you can find, either 250gb or 500gb.
Get ONE 8gb RAM DIMM, and replace ONLY the topmost DIMM (with the back off).
That will give you 10gb of installed RAM, enough for any Mac OS.
If it was me, I'd upgrade to, say, El Capitan (a very good version of the OS) and just "leave it there" for the remainder of the life of the MBP...
Last edited: