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gbatchelor Author

Level 1

4 points

How can I turn off filevault before a fresh install?

Bought a secondhand MacBook Pro and I am trying to install Catalina but it insists on encrypting the drive and is estimating "more than a day"! This is unrealisitic considering its a clean drive?

Posted on May 25, 2021 2:22 AM

Top-ranking reply

HWTech

Level 9

60,572 points

Posted on May 25, 2021 8:07 PM

No need to mess with Filevault when performing a clean install. When you use Disk Utility to erase the drive make sure to select the whole physical drive instead of the volume. There is no need to unlock Filevault if you select the physical drive to erase. Unfortunately beginning with macOS 10.13 Disk Utility now hides the physical drive from view by default. Within Disk Utility click on "View" and select "Show All Devices" so that the physical drive appears on the left pane of Disk Utility. By selecting the physical drive you can destroy a locked Filevault.

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How can I turn off filevault before a fresh install?

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