How to return MacBook Air to factory settings and perform a system restore. Instructions for reinstalling macOS (OS X) without a bootable USB flash drive Restoring the mac os operating system

If OS X stops loading and your hard drive is still working, you can transfer your files to an external hard drive through the terminal

07/14/14 at 16:04

It wasn't easy, but you did it - you broke OS X and now your Mac's operating system refuses to boot. When launched, it hangs on the apple logo or shows a cross instead. While reinstalling OS X is easy, there's one problem: important files, all your work, your life, are left on your Mac's internal hard drive. You can’t just rearrange OS X from scratch; you need to save your files first. In order to do this, you do not need to contact a service center; you can do everything yourself. You just need to have a large flash drive or external HDD, connected via USB.

How to recover files if OS X refuses to boot

1. Restart or turn on your Mac and hold down ⌘R while booting to enter System Recovery mode.

2. Connect an external hard drive via USB.

3. From the window menu, select Utilities → Terminal.

cd /volumes/Users/UserName

If you don't remember the username, type cd /volumes/Users/ and press Tab 2 times to see all available names. This is just so that you remember the username, as it will be used in the next command. In our case, the username is Alexander.

4. Now you need to find out the name of the external USB drive or flash drive. Enter the following command (Volumes with a big one):

The names of all will appear on the screen hard drives or their sections. For example: Macintosh HD, OS X Base System, Toshiba 500 Gb. Our external hard drive is made by Toshiba, so “Toshiba 500 Gb” is its name in the system.

5. Knowing the username and the name of the external drive, you can start the file copying function using the command:
cp -r [source][destination]

cp -r /volumes/Users/Alexander /Volumes/Toshiba 500 Gb

When you press Enter, the cursor will move to a new line and remain there for a long time. At first glance it may seem that nothing is happening, but the copying process in the terminal has no feedback and does not display what is happening in any way until all files are completely copied. If your user's folder contained a lot of data, then copying to an external drive could take tens of minutes or even more than an hour.

When the copying process is complete, a new terminal line like -bash-3.2# will appear on the screen

Copying individual files

If it is inconvenient for you to copy the entire user folder or the capacity of the external drive or flash drive does not allow you to do this, you can transfer the folders one by one. For example, to move the Documents folder, enter the following command:

cp -r /volumes/Users/Alexander/Documents /Volumes/Toshiba 500 Gb/Documents

Useful Terminal Commands

Here is a list of useful terminal commands that may come in handy during the recovery process:

ls- display the contents of the current folder.
cd /foldername- go to the folder.
CD..- exit the folder in the hierarchy above.
cp [source][destination]- copying a file.
cp -r [source][destination]- copying from folder to folder.

The first few characters + the Tab button pressed 2 times - automatically substitutes the names of folders and files or displays a list of them if 2 or more files begin with these characters.

Exceptions and warning

This type of recovery is a last resort; it allows you to independently restore data from user folders: Desktop, Documents, Music, Downloads, Pictures, Movies. Using this method, you can recover documents and files that are on your hard drive, but not inside applications. If the files were part of an application using Sandbox technology, such as books in the iBooks application, then it will be almost impossible to recover such files. In this case, it will be easier to restore them from iOS devices, through the application or .

How to reinstall OS X from scratch

Once you've finished copying your files and are sure you haven't forgotten anything important, you can move on to wiping your hard drive and installing OS X from scratch.

1. Close the terminal to return to the previous window.

2. Launch the Disk Utility application, in which select your internal hard drive and clean it through the Erase tab. Close Disk Utility to return to the previous window.

2. Click Reinstall OS X and follow the installer's instructions. OS X will download from the Internet, but even with a good Internet connection this can take about an hour.

In order to restore the system we need:

External media with Mac OS backup;

Mac Book, Mac Book Pro, Mac Book Air, iMac, Mac mini;

About an hour or less, depending on the size of the backup and the speed of the Mac.

1 step. Connect the Time Machine backup media to your Mac.

Step 2. Restart your Mac by clicking the Apple menu in the top left corner and selecting Restart.

Step 3. As your Mac boots (a gray screen appears), press and hold Command (⌘) + R.

Step 4 Select the external media with the backup, the recovery disk and the date of the backup to be restored.

Immediately after downloading the OS X utilities, select "Recover from backup copy Time Machine".

Read the general information and click "Continue".

Select the recovery disk (the media on which the backup is located).

The next step is to select a backup copy, I recommend choosing the most recent one, since it will save the latest changes in the system.

After this, you need to select the disk to which the system will be restored.

At the end, a message will appear stating that the restoration was successful, after which the Mac will restart and the next time you boot you will see the restored Mac OS X.

Recovering data from Time Machine backups.

In order to recover files (photos, videos, music) made using Time Machine, log into Time Machine by clicking on the icon in the upper right corner and select "Login to Time Machine".

If the backup media is not connected, you will see the error “Your disk cannot be found Reserve copy Time Machine". To fix this error, connect the media to your Mac.

If the media is connected you will see an interface that will allow you to travel back in time and view early changes to your files using the arrow or timeline on the right side of the screen. To restore files, select one or select several and click the "Recover" button.

In my opinion, file/system recovery has never been as elegant, beautiful and easy to do as in the Time Michine utility.

In this article, one of the editors of the WoW It team will share his sad, but much-needed experience of using a MacBook. One day the question arose about buying a laptop, and since I had been using Windows for quite a long time, I was pretty fed up with it. It was decided to go over to the side of evil, as they say they have livers) Considering that for quite a long time I wanted a MacBook and OS X on board, I decided to buy MacBook Air it came pretty easy. And now, the happy owner of a MacBook Air 11. As befits an experienced system administrator who has never held a Mac in his hands, the tinkering began. So say check for fault tolerance, and of course inexperience won! OS X went down in just two days). Question: “What should I do, how can I reinstall OS X or can it be restored, and if so, how can I do it?” There was only one thought in my head: “It’s Apple, it’s probably all simple.”

Having stumbled upon the first article on the Internet that you need to format the screw and repartition it to an earlier one file system(Wrong! DO NOT do this). So that later, during the installation of the new OS X, he himself would repartition it to the latest version along with the installation of OS X High Sierra. But again, inexperience only aggravated the situation, since now Recovery with data saving was also killed. Further realizing what had been done, the appeal went to a single, correct source, the official Apple website.

How to Reinstall OS X in Recovery Mode

The first thing you need to do is check Recovery; if you have a live recovery disk, you should try to recover it. To start your MacBook in recovery mode you need to:

CMD+R.
Next, select Recovery and go through the recovery procedure accordingly.

But if you are greeted by a picture (image below), then you have hit the jackpot of incredible experience!

How to reinstall OS X using network recovery mode

And so, instead of disk utility, you see a network system recovery window in front of you, what to do. It's quite simple. The MacBook could not detect the system recovery disk, and there are two options: either just delete everything remotely, or, which is much worse, the HDD or SDD died, depending on the configuration. In order to try to install the system via the Internet and at the same time check whether your disk is dead, you need to:

After loading system network recovery, select your home Wi-Fi network or connect via wire if possible.

Wait for everyone to load necessary files and start installation operating system, which was installed when purchasing the device by clicking on the reinstall OS X button.

Reinstall OS X from a USB flash drive

In principle, in most cases it can be stopped here, but there are also sad endings. For example, you may receive error -4403F - this may be due to a poor connection or the use of a proxy or VPN on your network. Try repeating the process or connecting to a different network. Sometimes it would start the third time.

Next, your scenario unfolds according to several strategies.
First strategy.
You have an old MacBook, you took it from your hands, which when purchased came with OS X Lion. But you obviously don't have it in your AppStore purchases. Then, when you try to install the operating system, after entering your AppleID credentials, you will be given the following - it is currently impossible to install OS X, try later. - Then you need to reinstall OS X from the flash drive.

How to create a USB flash drive from MacOS on Windows and reinstall OS X from the flash drive

There are a lot of manuals on how to create a bootable USB flash drive on MacOS; you can easily find them on the Internet. But, if you don’t have another Mac at hand, then you need any Windows PC.

How to burn a USB flash drive with OS X:

You need to download an operating system image no older than Lion, everything will definitely work with it. You can download from any torrent exchanger.
Download the program to unpack the image TransMac install and run as administrator. You can download it from the official website. The real version is available for 15 days, which is enough to create a bootable MacOS USB flash drive.

On the left in the list of devices, select your flash drive and right-click on it Format Disk for Mac, then click Yes

After the flash drive is formatted, again right click and select Restore with Disk Image then click Yes. Then select the image downloaded on your PC and deploy the image to the USB flash drive.

That's it, after the image is completely installed on the flash drive, you can connect it to your MacBook according to the old scheme:

Turn off your MacBook completely by holding down the power key for 6 seconds.
Turn on the MacBook, hold down the keys when turning it on CMD+R.
Select a flash drive

Click to reinstall OS X

We wait for the installation to complete, go through the first setup and update to the latest version available to you.

Full MacBook reset, PRAM and NVRAM reset.

But that's not all. It seems that I have already tried everything and have already made a flash drive 100 times trying to reinstall OS X from it and tried all possible versions of MacOS, but still it throws out some errors. Then you need to act more radically. You need to completely reset your MacBook, reset the BIOS. Since the Mac was not created by stupid people and has the most secure nature of use, it has a lot of hidden parameters and settings. They are stored in any case. Sometimes this is the stone. Looking ahead, I’ll say that this is what helped. And so, to reset the MacBook, namely, reset the PRAM and NVRAM memory cells, do the following:

Turn off your MacBook completely by holding down the power key for 6 seconds.
Turn on the MacBook, hold down the keys when turning it on CMD+Option+P+R.
Hold until it reboots again and there is a greeting sound.

In this particular case, everything fell into place. This manipulation helped, the strange marked disks stopped being displayed, and most importantly, the installation process continued without errors.

Reset SMS on MacBook

Although there are situations when this does not help. Then we need to hit on all fronts and flattery further into the forest. Mac has the so-called SMC System Management Controller. The stability of the entire system depends on it, and often resetting its settings cures a number of problems such as:

— constantly rotating cooler at high speeds even without heating;

— The system freezes when going into sleep mode;

— Error in the operation of external monitors, as well as other peripherals and system loading errors;

In order to reset SMS, you need to do the following:

Turn off your MacBook completely by holding down the power key for 6 seconds.
Connect the power adapter.
Simultaneously press Shit + Control + Option + Power and hold until the MagSafe adapter indicator changes color.
Release all keys and press Power.

If you have old model with removable battery:

Turn off your MacBook completely by holding down the power key for 6 seconds.
Disconnect the power adapter.
Remove the battery.
Press and hold the Power button for at least 5 seconds.
Release the Power button, insert the battery, connect the power adapter and turn on the laptop.

But if you are the owner of Desktops (iMac, Mac mini, Mac Pro), then we will help you:

Completely disconnect from power
Wait 30+ seconds
Connect power, wait 5-10 seconds and turn on the device.

Something like this will help you! If you still cannot cope with the problem, our editors and our readers are always happy to help you with your problem. Remember, you are not alone) We will be waiting for your comments and questions.

Often Mac users are faced with the following problem - how to return the computer to factory settings, resetting all user information, and reinstall the operating system “cleanly”. Instructions for this process presented below.

In contact with

The Mac, like most other Apple devices, is intended for personal use. This means that usually computer owners fine-tune the system for themselves and another user will not be entirely comfortable working with it. If there is a need to completely get rid of existing data and settings, then you need to follow the simple steps described below.

Clean installation of macOS: preliminary steps

IMPORTANT: Before clean install(reinstallation, flashing, factory reset) Mac, be sure to check:

Is the Mac tied specifically to yours and not to any other
Do you remember the credentials (username and password) of your Apple ID. You can check, for example, by logging into this page (from your computer).

The fact is that if the function was activated on the Mac (located along the path: System Settings → iCloud → ), then after reinstalling the system (resetting to factory settings), the system will ask you to enter the Apple ID to which the device is linked.

ON THIS TOPIC:

How to reset Macbook, iMac, Mac mini, Mac Pro to factory settings (how to reinstall macOS)

Boot Mac into Recovery Mode

1. Make sure you have an Internet connection (for later installation of macOS), as well as an electrical connection in the case of a MacBook.

Attention! Further actions will lead to complete deletion of ALL data on the Mac - save in advance necessary information on external media;

2. Restart your computer (or turn it on if it was turned off) using the  menu → Reboot;

3. During the reboot process, press and hold the key combination that suits you best:

⌘Cmd + R– installing the version of macOS that was running on the computer before problems arose. Those. your Mac will install exactly the same version as before.

⌥Option (Alt) + ⌘Cmd + R– Update to the latest version of macOS that your Mac is compatible with. For example, if the Mac was running High Sierra, and the breakdown occurred after the final build of macOS Mojave was released, the system will download Mojave from the Internet and install it.

⇧Shift + ⌥Option (Alt) + ⌘Cmd + R– installation of the version of macOS that was originally installed on the computer (or the closest available version to it).

Note: required macOS Sierra 10.12.4 or more a new version OS.

4 . Then the window “ macOS Utilities"(on versions lower than macOS High Sierra may be called "Utilities" macOS programs"). Here you need to select " Disk Utility" and click " Continue";

1 . Select in Disk Utility your drive in the menu on the left (usually a Macintosh HD, it's at the very top).

2 . Click on the inscription First aid.

3 . Click Launch. The application will check boot disk on “health status”, i.e. functionality and correct existing errors. This process may take some time.

4 . After checking is completed, click Ready.

Erasing the boot disk

1. In the application Disk Utility, select a verified boot disk, go to the section "Erase"(at the top of the screen);

2. On the menu "Format" select APFS (for computers running macOS Sierra or later old version OS select Mac OS Extended) and press " Erase";

3. Once the disk formatting process is complete, click " Complete" to exit Disk Utility.

Reinstalling the macOS operating system (factory reset)

Reinstall macOS using the appropriate item (screenshot below) and follow the instructions. Latest version macOS will be downloaded from the Internet and the macOS reinstallation process will begin. During this time, the computer may restart.

Note: If you're installing from scratch, you'll have to configure your Mac and program settings all over again.

For full-time work With Mac OS you need to be able to perform different operations: reset macbook Pro to factory settings, return lost data from backup, restore forgotten password. All this can be done on a Mac using the built-in system tools, but in the most difficult situations you will need to use the installation disk.

Factory reset

If Mac OS is on Macbook Pro or another Apple computer model is working with errors and you want to return the default settings, then first take care of creating a backup copy of your data, since all information will be deleted during the reset. To create a backup copy of the OS, it is recommended to use the Time Machine utility. To store a backup, you will need an external hard drive formatted in Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

After adjusting the settings, the Time Machine slider will move to the On position. A full system backup takes several hours. After creating a backup copy, you can proceed to returning the factory settings to the OS:

Once the disk formatting process is complete and the OS settings have been reset to factory settings, exit Disk Utility. Reinstall Mac OS X again using the appropriate option in the Utilities window.

Restoring data from backup

If you decide to create a backup copy before resetting your Macbook Pro, you can quickly restore lost files if necessary.

Once the calculation of the time required to transfer files is complete, click "Recover". A warning will appear that the disk to which you are restoring data will be completely cleared of information. Click Continue. After the recovery is complete, restart your computer. When you start, you will see the system as it was at the time the backup was created. Any changes made after this event will be discarded.

Password recovery

There are three ways to reset a password that a user has forgotten:

Using the installation disc.
Applying recovery using Apple ID.
Using the terminal in recovery mode.

if you have installation disk Mac OS X, then resetting your password will not take much time:

The Reset Wizard will help you get rid of a key that the user has forgotten and set up a new password. This is the most quick way, but if you don't have a Mac OS disk, it won't work. In this case, you can try entering the password incorrectly three times - a recovery window via Apple ID will appear.

However, there is a condition here: the password recovery function via Apple ID must be enabled in the Mac settings. If you have not activated this feature, use the third method, which works for everyone Mac versions OS and does not impose any requirements.

After resetting the password, you need to restart the OS. At startup, a message will appear stating that the system was unable to unlock the login keychain.