Hi there,
I installed Linux Mint on my mac mini and would like to return it to the most recent version of osx. Since I am not able to do a internet restore I need to install from a USB thumb drive.
Question is how do I get a bootable USB thumb drive with osx on it to do a fresh install from scratch?
It had High Sierra on it originally and the mini is about 18 months old.
Thanks in advance.
Ray
Mac mini, macOS 10.14
If your family or friends has a Mac -- it will be easier to use their Mac to create the USB boot drive:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372
After successfully create the USB boot drive -- you should plug into the MacMini, boot-up by holding the "option" key (Mac Keyboard) or "alt" (PC keyboard).
Then follow the prompt to re-install the MacOS of your choice.
By the way: what year is your MacMini? 2014?
If your family or friends has a Mac -- it will be easier to use their Mac to create the USB boot drive:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372
After successfully create the USB boot drive -- you should plug into the MacMini, boot-up by holding the "option" key (Mac Keyboard) or "alt" (PC keyboard).
Then follow the prompt to re-install the MacOS of your choice.
By the way: what year is your MacMini? 2014?
Unless you don't have a good Internet connection you should be able to boot into Recovery Mode or Internet Recovery Mode to access the online macOS installer.
Here is an Apple article on how to properly erase the drive and reinstall macOS:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208496
In the future plan ahead and create the bootable macOS USB installer before removing macOS from your Mac.
What are the oldest Macs that support Internet Recovery? I guess it needs a special firmware for that? AFAIR my old Mac mini Late 2009 didn't support it (it came with AFAIR Snow Leopard install DVDs).
Matti Haveri wrote:
What are the oldest Macs that support Internet Recovery? I guess it needs a special firmware for that? AFAIR my old Mac mini Late 2009 didn't support it (it came with AFAIR Snow Leopard install DVDs).
I am not completely certain, but Apple updated the system firmware on 2010+ laptops with an update of macOS 10.12.6+ so I believe any 2010+ Mac with the possible exception of the older Mac Pros should have it. According to an old version of Apple's documentation for Internet Recovery Mode which they didn't explain very well it was implied that Command + Option + R would boot a Mac into Internet Recovery Mode if macOS 10.12.6+ had not been installed which would install the oldest version of macOS available for that system.
I've never seen any official (or even unofficial) documentation that explicitly lists which models support Internet Recovery Mode. I mainly repair laptops and an occasional desktop unit so I never really had the time or opportunity to investigate the older desktop models from 2010-2011.
I have a mac mini and need to re-install osx from a USB thumb drive from scratch
