Impossible to re-install Macbook Air (10.14.1) hard drive

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njs1944 Author

Level 1

8 points

Impossible to re-install Macbook Air (10.14.1) hard drive

After receiving a continual message that my hard drive is nearly saturated, I saved all my date on Time Machine and then proceeded to erase the hard drive and re-install it. However, when the computer turns on and I press Cmd + R, the utility disc never opens, nor the world (ball). Therefore I can't erase the hard drive. It always opens to my desktop. How can I get beyond this point and re-install my hard drive? Thanks if anyone has the solution!

MacBook Air

Posted on Dec 11, 2018 6:07 AM

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Answer 1

dwb

Level 7

32,938 points

Dec 11, 2018 8:39 AM in response to njs1944

The keypress is time critical, you can't be pressing them when you turn the computer on but after turning it on if you wait too long the keypress will be ignored. You may be waiting too long. If you are using an external bluetooth keyboard, don't. That way leads to madness 👿. The other possibility is that the recovery partition is damaged. You could also try command option & R.

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Answer 2

njs1944 Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 11, 2018 9:40 AM in response to dwb

Thanks very much for your response. I tried command option + R and it was different. The revolving globe appeared this time and a small window that said to choose the network. However, when I tried to choose, it was not possible, and no choices appeared to choose from.

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