daniellaelizabeth

Q: restore macbook to original factory settings

How do i restore my macbook to its original factory settings? I dont have a disk but to my understanding i don't need one, and i can do with out it. can anyone help with this?

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Oct 3, 2012 8:14 AM

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Q: restore macbook to original factory settings

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  • by brklynhamza,Helpful

    brklynhamza brklynhamza Jul 15, 2013 9:19 AM in response to daniellaelizabeth
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jul 15, 2013 9:19 AM in response to daniellaelizabeth

    How do i restore my macbook to its original factory settings? I dont have a disk

    and i can do it with out the CD?

  • by bgollin49,Helpful

    bgollin49 bgollin49 Jul 19, 2013 12:14 PM in response to DiNicola
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Jul 19, 2013 12:14 PM in response to DiNicola

    would this work on 10.5.8?

  • by Tag11Mac,

    Tag11Mac Tag11Mac Jul 22, 2013 11:29 AM in response to DiNicola
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 22, 2013 11:29 AM in response to DiNicola

    Aaarghh... would have been nice if point 8 disclosed that the system would then proceed to try and download the latest version of OSX, which in my case is asking me to wait 12hrs for the download!

     

    Had I known this, I would have made a recovery disk first, but now it is too late, I've erased my primary partitiion :-(

     

    I might have to go into the Apple store tomorrow.

  • by C15JON,

    C15JON C15JON Jul 24, 2013 3:25 PM in response to alfredrobinson1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 24, 2013 3:25 PM in response to alfredrobinson1

    Your login password is part of your user profile - this may very well not be the same password as your Apple iTunes login.

     

    You can reset your Apple iTUnes login at https://iforgot.apple.com/iForgot/iForgot.html

     

    Hope this helps.

     

    Kind regards,

     

     

    Jonathan

  • by drCurvin,

    drCurvin drCurvin Aug 4, 2013 9:02 AM in response to brklynhamza
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 4, 2013 9:02 AM in response to brklynhamza

    So the "official" Apple OSX restoration process is here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718

     

    To put the computer back to factory default setup the HDmust be erased using Disk Utility - which is an option during the restoration process outlined above.

     

    I just finished using it and (as is usual with Apple products) it works like a charm.

     

    drCurvin

  • by Acems22,

    Acems22 Acems22 Aug 16, 2013 11:46 AM in response to DiNicola
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 16, 2013 11:46 AM in response to DiNicola

    Thanks DiNicola!

     

    Your process worked perfectly on my Mac Pro Retina....

     

    Thanks a lot for sharing.

     

    Mark

  • by wingflames,

    wingflames wingflames Aug 30, 2013 2:49 AM in response to DiNicola
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 30, 2013 2:49 AM in response to DiNicola

    If I restore it to factory setting, will my microsoft office license will be lost as well? Thats the only stuff that i dont want to lose because i dont have the license box anymore.

  • by Bagne,

    Bagne Bagne Sep 18, 2013 1:41 PM in response to BrookeiMac
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 18, 2013 1:41 PM in response to BrookeiMac

    No you do not need a disk.  I purchased Mountain Lion and installed on my MacBook Pro.  Apple did not install it.  I just follow DiNicola's steps and the erase and reinstall worked perfectly without a disk.

  • by santis,

    santis santis Sep 21, 2013 8:52 PM in response to DiNicola
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 21, 2013 8:52 PM in response to DiNicola

    Hey, DiNicola

    I did exactly what you said but I did not bought Mountain Lion, I just donwloaded it by ThePirateBay, so now I cant reinstall OS X because it asks me for my Apple ID which doesn't have Mountain Lion bought. What could I do?

  • by jvflyboy1,

    jvflyboy1 jvflyboy1 Nov 18, 2013 5:07 PM in response to Kappy
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 18, 2013 5:07 PM in response to Kappy

    Kappy,

                I bought a MacBook from my sister and she didn't have the original install disks.  It's a Macbook 7,1 and had Snow leopard on it.  I followed your instructions using the snow leopard install disk and now the computer won't boot to any screen.  Everytime I start it, if eventually tells me I have to restart by pushing the power button.  The snow leopard disk is also stuck in the DVD drive.  Can you help me?

  • by jvflyboy1,

    jvflyboy1 jvflyboy1 Nov 18, 2013 5:36 PM in response to jvflyboy1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 18, 2013 5:36 PM in response to jvflyboy1

    Ok, I figured out how to get the disk out, but still can boot into the disk utility using the Snow Leopard disk.  What am I doing wrong?

  • by endlightend,

    endlightend endlightend Nov 19, 2013 1:05 AM in response to santis
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Nov 19, 2013 1:05 AM in response to santis

    Santis,

    Sorry to say you need to purchase a legitimate version of OS X.

  • by endlightend,

    endlightend endlightend Nov 19, 2013 1:07 AM in response to jvflyboy1
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Nov 19, 2013 1:07 AM in response to jvflyboy1

    jvflyboy1,
    I'd recommend posting in a new thread as it's highly unlikely that the original poster might stumble back upon a thread that was a year dead.
    Having said that, did the Snow Leopard disc initiate the installer when you put it into your Macbook? Are you sure that your Combo/Super Drive is functioning normally?

  • by Viper3881,

    Viper3881 Viper3881 Dec 6, 2013 4:02 PM in response to daniellaelizabeth
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 6, 2013 4:02 PM in response to daniellaelizabeth

    CMD+R is for local recovery which installs current OS and CMD+OPT+R is for internet recovery which installs original OS?

     

    Exactly. cmd-r will boot to the local Recovery HD partition on the drive and reinstall whatever version is now on there, and cmd-opt-r will bypass all that and pull down a recovery utility from the Internet and reinstall whatever version the machine came with.


    Just to clarify though, both of these methods download the entire OS over the Internet. The OS itself is not on the Recovery HD partition. The Recovery HD partition is just 650MB and is used to DL the OS.

  • by jinhr,

    jinhr jinhr Jan 6, 2014 7:49 PM in response to DiNicola
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 6, 2014 7:49 PM in response to DiNicola

    DiNicola's step-by-step guide works like a charm for my new MacBook Pro Retina 13 bought in Jan 2014. Thanks a lot!

     

    DiNicola wrote:

     

    I called Apple and they said here's how you restore:

     

    1. Start computer up, holding OPTION key

    2. Select Recovery

    3. Select language (I'll choose English)

    4. Disc Utility

    5. Macintosh HD

    6. Select Erase tab

    7. Erase Disc

    8. back to OSX Utilities - Select Reinstall OSX (this makes it so your most recently installed operating system will be restored.  I bought my Macbook as a Leopard, but it runs Mountain Lion now.)

    9. Reinstall to Mac HD

     

    That's it.  I haven't tried it yet, but plan to when I get home.  Nothing to buy, and if I get stuck, they said I could take it into the Apple Store and a genius would help me.

     

    Hopefully this helps!

     

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