Need to wipe Macbook Air clean. Please help.

[bphaedrus]

Hi,

I need to wipe my Macbook Air clean and reinstall the OS. I have looked up how to do this online.

My problem is that the screen on my Macbook Air is cracked and I am projecting everything onto a tv screen.

When I boot up the computer while holding down the power and option keys, the recovery HD screen doesn't project onto the tv (and I can't see anything on the cracked screen).

Is there a way to erase the hard drive and reinstall the OS from the home screen?

Thanks

 

[niteflyr]

Try holding "Command+R" at boot to go straight into recovery.

 

[motrek]

Try holding "Command+R" at boot to go straight into recovery.

Why isn't there a way to downvote this?

 

[bphaedrus]

Thanks for your suggestion niteflyr. My main problem is not getting into recovery (I can do that by holding down option key), but the recovery screen doesn't project on my tv (and the computer screen is cracked). Thanks!

 

[rigormortis]

i rushed out and rebooted my mac book pro connected to my tv to see if i could see the option screen on my tv set over hdmi!! and i didn't!!

okay.

well for one thing. if you have a newer SSD based macbook Air. there just isn't a way to reliablly erase a SSD. you can wipe it 35 times, and some CIA person could still read it.

knowing this. i sure hope you installed file vault. if you erase the disk just a simple erase with file vault on your protected

if you wipe the disk once, 7 times, or 35 times, and its a SSD , i heard someone can take a microscope to the flash memory or use some high tech stuff to read the data



anyway

if your screen is shot. i think your only alternative is to connect the macbook air to another computer, over firewire, or thunderbolt, depending on the configuration of your computer, and hold down the T key on the mac book air to turn on target disk mode. once you have the mac book air connected to another mac using target disk mode, you can wipe it. ( i think )

i think i am right on this. but i am not about to test it!! haha. anyway make sure you only wipe your main partition. don't go wiping the entire hard disk. do not wipe the recovery partitions. just wipe the main one
wipe it how many times you feel like it

if there is some way of using your tv set to enable filevault, do that first before wiping.

if u need to reboot and enter a password and the screen won't mirror. you can go into terminal and type
sudo fdsetup authrestart to get past the password screen


once file vault is on, a simple 1 pass erase of the entire disk is good

when i say "get past the password screen" i mean is that file vault will store the decryption key in ram, reboot, and then it will give you your regular login screen, where you enter your password.

without "sudo fdsetup authrestart" the login screen that shows up because the drive is locked, won't mirror to an external display. (or it won't show up or work in screen sharing )

 

[rigormortis]

as far as reinstalling the o/s i dunno
save that for when you or the new owner fixes the screen???

or make a usb key to install os x???

i dunno. i never done that on a mac book with a dead screen

 

[Traverse]

You can create a bootable USB drive using the Macworld article here (works with Mavericks and there's an article for Yosemite) to clean install the OS and wipe all data.