MAC OSX LAPTOP / DESKTOP RESET GUIDES BY TRAVIS SNOW & FELIX ORTIZ
While Apple Mac Books are the most popular machines and their popular OSX is very user- friendly returning them to factory default requires a few additional steps than resetting a Windows PC. Still it’s not impossible, and this guide will help walk you through resetting the device making it ready for sale.
If you’re working on a Mac Book Air, or Mac Book Pro, make sure the power adapter is connected and plugged in while performing these steps !!!! Failure to do so can cause severe hard drive corruption!!!!
You can use these steps to erase the files on your startup disk and install a new copy of OS X: Before you begin, make sure your Mac is connected to the Internet.
Turn off FileVault (if the customer was using it). 1. Restart your Mac. Immediately hold down the Command (⌘) and R keys after you hear the startup sound to start up in OS X Recovery.
2. When the Recovery window appears, select Disk Utility then click Continue.
3. Select the indented volume name of your startup disk from the left side of the Disk Utility window, then click the Erase tab.
4. If you want to securely erase the drive, click Security Options. Select an erase method, then click OK.
5. From the Format pop-up menu, select Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Type a name for your disk, then click Erase.
6. After the drive is erased, close the Disk Utility window.
7. Select the option to Reinstall OS X.
8. Click Continue and follow the onscreen instructions to reinstall OS X.
Additional options
If you want to reinstall the version of OS X that came with the Mac, or if you need to reformat your entire startup disk, hold down Command-Option-R at startup instead. This starts your Mac from Internet Recovery. If you have more than one partition (like Boot Camp) and you want to erase the entire startup disk, you can use Disk Utility to remove partitions or repartition your drive. Start your Mac from Internet Recovery, then use Disk Utility to repartition your startup disk before you erase it. Make sure you back up any important data from all partitions before repartitioning a drive.