Tip: Click Security Options to select options for securely erasing the disk.Ħ) After the disk has been erased, select Disk Utility → Quit Disk Utility.ħ) Now choose Reinstall OS X and click Continue.Ĩ) In the pane where you select a disk, select your newly formatted partition and follow the onscreen instructions. This will erase all the information from the disk, including your personal data. Tip: To see additional disks, click the button Show All Drives.ĥ) In the Format pop-up menu, choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled), type a new name for your disk and click Erase. “Generally you don’t need to erase your startup disk to reinstall macOS,” explains Apple. “The macOS Installer is designed to allow you to perform an install in place over the same version or earlier versions of macOS.”ģ) Select Disk Utility and click Continue.Ĥ) Select the intended volume name from the left side and click the Erase tab. Tip: To reinstall macOS without deleting your files and settings intact, jump to step 7. If you have a Mac notebook, press the keys on its built-in keyboard because the Recovery Mode keystroke may not necessarily register on external or wireless keyboards. Hold these keys pressed until the Apple logo appears. How to erase, install or reinstall macOS in Recovery Modeġ) In the Apple menu choose Restart, or power on your Mac.Ģ) Hold down the Command (⌘) – R combination immediately upon hearing the startup chime. The step-by-step instructions provided below will restore your computer to factory settings.īefore reinstalling the factory-preloaded version of macOS, you can decide to optionally erase your startup disk. Before proceeding, make sure you have backed up your essential files and documents to an external drive, a USB thumb drive or Time Machine. This tutorial covers entering Recovery Mode and taking advantage of it to erase, install or reinstall the latest version of macOS that was previously found on your Mac. Invoked at boot time, Recovery Mode helps you check your connected disks for errors, get help online and reinstall macOS. In helping take the pain out of reinstalling macOS, Apple has included so-called Recovery Mode in macOS. As you may have guessed, not many people take that extra step. Reinstalling macOS is a piece of cake provided you have created a USB install disk for El Capitan to begin with. And should your computer exhibit issues preventing it from starting up properly, reinstalling macOS will bring it to perfect working order. Before selling your Mac, it’s always a good idea to wipe its startup disk clean and then erase your computer and reinstall macOS.

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