How do I wipe my Mac and reinstall?

Restart your Mac. Choose Apple menu > Shut Down, press and hold the power button until “Loading startup options” appears, select Options, click Continue, then follow the onscreen instructions. In the Recovery app window, select Reinstall for your macOS release, click Continue, then follow the onscreen instructions.
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How do I reinstall my Mac to factory settings?

How to factory reset MacBook and Mac desktops
  1. Make a fresh backup of your Mac.
  2. Open System Preferences.
  3. Click System Preferences in the menu bar > Erase All Contents and Settings.
  4. Follow the prompts to fully erase your Mac.
  5. Like iOS, the new erase process in macOS Monterey handles everything to fully wipe your Mac.
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Does a factory reset delete everything Mac?

A factory reset will wipe your Mac computer, restoring its software to the state it was in when you first turned it on. That means that all your personal files and data will disappear.
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How do you erase all content and settings on a Mac?

Follow these steps to erase all content and settings on your Mac:
  1. Launch System Preferences.
  2. Click System Preferences in the menu bar and select Erase All Content and Settings.
  3. Enter your admin password when prompted.
  4. Click Continue to confirm that all items will be erased.
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How do you clean a Mac?

Using a 70 percent isopropyl alcohol wipe, 75 percent ethyl alcohol wipe, or Clorox Disinfecting Wipes, you may gently wipe the hard, nonporous surfaces of your Apple product, such as the display, keyboard, or other exterior surfaces. Don't use products containing bleach or hydrogen peroxide.
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How To Erase



How do I reformat my imac?

Hold down the Command and R keys as soon as you hear the Mac tone indicating a reboot. Wait for the macOS Utilities screen to appear, then click Disk Utility. Choose your Mac's system drive, usually named Macintosh HD, then click Erase. Select the Format option Mac Extended (Journaled) or APFS.
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How do I do a hard reset on a MacBook Pro?

How to Hard Reset MacBook Air or MacBook Pro
  1. To force a restart your MacBook, you need to press and hold down the Command (⌘) button, the Control (Ctrl) key, and the power button at the same time.
  2. Hold these keys down until your MacBook's screen goes blank and the computer restarts itself.
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How do I factory reset my MacBook 2015?

To do so, shut down your Mac, then turn it on and immediately press and hold four keys together: Option, Command, P, and R. You can release the keys after 20 seconds or so. That's it! Your Mac's NVRAM has been reset.
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How do I delete everything from my MacBook Air 2015?

Here's how you do it:
  1. Click Disk Utility.
  2. Click Continue.
  3. Click View > Show All Devices.
  4. Select your hard drive and click Erase.
  5. In the Format field, choose the APFS option on macOS High Sierra or later. On macOS Sierra or earlier, choose the Mac OS Extended (Journaled) option.
  6. Click Erase.
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How do I factory reset my MacBook Pro 2014?

How to reset a MacBook Air or MacBook Pro
  1. Hold down the Command and R keys on the keyboard and turn on the Mac. ...
  2. Select your language and continue.
  3. Choose Disk Utility and click Continue.
  4. Choose your startup disk (named Macintosh HD by default) from the sidebar and click the Erase button.
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How do I reinstall my MacBook Pro 2015?

Yes, a simple search revealed that you can do a complete clean install of your MacBook.
  1. Shutdown your computer. Restart and at the same time press COMMAND + R keys. ...
  2. Go to Disk Utilities. Select Erase the disk and all data will be deleted. ...
  3. Reinstall macOS operating system. OK, this is where the problems start.
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How do I factory reset my Mac Catalina?

Open System Preferences. Click on System Preferences in the menu bar at the top of your screen. Click on Erase All Content and Settings. Enter your password.
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How do you wipe a hard drive?

How to completely wipe a hard drive
  1. Step 1: Back up your hard-drive data. ...
  2. Step 2: Don't just delete files from your computer. ...
  3. Step 3: Use a program to wipe your drive. ...
  4. Step 4: Physically wipe your hard drive. ...
  5. Step 5: Do a fresh installation of the operating system. ...
  6. DBAN. ...
  7. Destroy the hard drive.
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Should I erase Macintosh HD data?

You should erase the Macintosh HD volume together with the Macintosh HD - Data volume when downgrading macOS. Why should you delete the Macintosh HD - Data? Because the Macintosh HD - Data volume of the previous macOS will be retained after downgrading macOS.
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How do I completely wipe my hard drive and operating system?

Go to Settings > Change PC Settings > Update and recovery > Recovery. Click Get Started under the Remove everything and reinstall Windows section. Click Next, then choose Fully clean the drive to ensure everything is deleted. Click the Reset button and your drive is wiped, your PC is reset, and Windows is reinstalled.
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How do I wipe my hard drive before selling it?

To wipe HDDs in Windows, use Disk Manager (right-click the Windows icon at bottom left and scroll up to Disk Manager) and select the drive to be formatted. Make sure that "Perform a quick format" is unchecked and select NTFS as the file system. Format the drive three times to make sure you get everything.
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How do I wipe my laptop before selling it?

We've updated this with Windows 11 and Android 12 information.
...
This process will vary depending on the phone model, but here's how to do so on a phone running stock Android:
  1. Open Settings.
  2. Tap System.
  3. Tap Reset options.
  4. Tap Erase all data and follow the on-screen directions.
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How do I do a clean install of OSX Catalina?

Press the power button to turn on the Mac – but keep it pressed until you see the startup options window including your bootable volume. Choose the bootable installer volume. Click Continue. The macOS installer should open – when it does follow the onscreen instructions to do the clean install.
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Does reinstalling macOS delete data?

macOS Reinstallation Deletes Everything, What Can I Do

Reinstalling macOS of macOS Recovery can help you replace the current problematic OS with a clean version quickly and easily. Technically speaking, simply reinstalling macOS won't erase your disk either delete files.
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How do I factory reset my iMac 2013?

After the iMac shuts down completely but before it begins to restart, hold down the Command (⌘) and R keys at the same time. The Mac will display the macOS Utilities menu, from which you can reinstall Mac OS.
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How do I wipe my 2011 IMAC?

How to Wipe a Mac With an M1 Chip
  1. Turn on your Mac and continue to press and hold the power button until the startup options window comes up. ...
  2. When the Utilities window appears, select Disk Utility.
  3. In the sidebar, choose Macintosh HD.
  4. Click the “Erase” button, then select a file system format and enter a name for it.
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How do I factory reset my IMAC 21.5 inch Late 2013?

Than restart/boot up in Internet Recovery mode by holding down Command + Option + R keys. You will see a spinning globe for a while and then be connected to Apple's servers. Once there, launch Disk Utility and wipe your drive. After that, choose to reinstall the OS - it should install the original system.
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How do I restore my IMAC to factory settings without CD?

Restart your Mac. Choose Apple menu > Shut Down, press and hold the power button until “Loading startup options” appears, select Options, click Continue, then follow the onscreen instructions. In the Recovery app window, select Reinstall for your macOS release, click Continue, then follow the onscreen instructions.
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What happens when you erase Mac?

Generally on a Mac, 'erase' means to destroy all the bits on the storage medium, including the operating system, applications, programs, and user data. On a Mac erase does NOT mean factory reset.
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