Making an OS Installer

[Ambrosia7177]

OP wrote:
"I am *still* typing on my 2011 MBP. The "new" Retina I refer to is a 2015 Retina MBP that I bought in 2016 and have been trying to set up last half of 2017.
It is starting to become fairly "ancient" in physical terms, but I often refer to it as "new" beause, well, God, I haven't ever even used the stupid thing yet!!"

Frankly, I've never seen anyone in this forum who has the "problems" you seem to be experiencing.

Even "never touched a Mac before" users can buy a MacBook Pro, unbox it, turn it on, and then set it up without too much trouble.

If it's taking you TWO YEARS to get a 2015 MBPro just to boot and run, and you can't even "get there" yet, I advise you to either sell it or smash it to pieces (you're so "security-minded", right?), and get something else.

Now if you want to quit the b.s. and get the thing up and running, I can tell you what to do.
But -- TEN TO ONE -- you won't do it, claiming some kind of excuse to wit..."but... it won't be SECURE!"

When it comes to Mac knowledge, @Fishrrman, without a doubt, you are one of the smartest people on this website.

(And when it comes to intolerance and insensitivity, you're right up there too.)

My apologies if my father getting Alzheimer's and me taking off the last year and half to take care of him until the end, and then spending the last year trying to get back on my feet after having been out of work all of that time got in the way of what you feel is a "normal" learning curve, but life happens...

In addition, being methodical and trying to learn how things work step by step isn't a mortal sin.

I now know way more than I did even 6 months ago about Macs thanks to lots of patient people on MacRumors.

This includes encryption, firmware passwords, basic navigation using Terminal, VPNs, cloning, creating a USB installer, privacy measures, security measures, and so much more.

As to why my Mac started acting up with the login screen, I can't say - other than it was nothing I did.

It looks like re-installing Sierra did the trick, although I am spending tomorrow testing things before I continue.

It should also be noted that the reason it's taken me so long to do things this fall - now that I'm back to work and there are no more family issues - is that I have been reading a lot and taking good notes so I can build a new machine from scratch in a matters of days instead of weeks, months or years.

In fact, when I have to set up my Retina again, it will be interesting to see how quickly I can do things now that I have good notes!

My plan was to spend this weekend re-building my Retina, but alas, I ended up spending all day today cleaning my place, and tomorrow I have to start doing my taxes - yet more delays!

When I can sit down uninterrupted, I think I can rebuild my Retina from start-to-finish in about two days.

Then hopefully I will have a fully working "new" Retina MBP that I can start using!!

Of course, I forgot how to set up a lot of my software, so that'll probably take me another month, but at least I'm taking notes this time and making progress!

So don't hate on me too much Fishrrman - I'm trying the best I can!

 

[Fishrrman]

"When I can sit down uninterrupted, I think I can rebuild my Retina from start-to-finish in about two days."

Just use the USB installer to
- erase the internal drive
- install a clean copy of the OS
- then run setup assistant to get an account on it.
Done in a couple of hours -- not "days".

Worry about other stuff like filevault later on.