Having problems trying to erase Mac after forgetting password

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Having problems trying to erase Mac after forgetting password

So I have a 2009 MacBook and forgot the password years ago. I found it today recently and tried to login but couldn’t remember the password. I booted it up using apple recovery and first tried to reinstall OS X El Capitan. I pressed continue and it said “Loading Installation Information”. Then I got an error which said “An error occurred while preparing the installation. Try running this application again.” Then I tried again and I got the same error over and over again. Then I went into disk Utility and tried to delete the first thing on the top on the sidebar like instructions said. It then gave me another error saying, “Erase process has failed. Press Done to continue.” I don’t know if I’m erasing the wrong thing because there is Hitachi HTS545032B9SA02 Media, Mac HD under the Hitachi hard drive, under disk images there is Apple disk image Media, and under that is OS X Base System. I don’t know what else to try so I came here. Any suggestions?

Posted on Dec 21, 2022 10:49 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

John Galt

Level 10

156,530 points

Dec 22, 2022 8:25 AM in response to MacintoshLover8163

Select the "Hitachi HTS545032B9SA02 Media" device, then click the Erase button. Choose "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" for its Format and choose "GUID Partition Map" for its Scheme.

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Answer 2

John Galt

Level 10

156,530 points

Dec 22, 2022 3:21 PM in response to MacintoshLover8163

Try it, but it would be even better if you were to find and boot from that Mac's original OS X Install DVD. That would guarantee you're using the OS X Utilities version that shipped with that Mac, along with its commensurately old version of Disk Utility. It would eliminate all doubt and obviate the need to create and boot from a thumb drive.

If it doesn't work it becomes increasingly likely that Mac's hard disk drive has failed. They can be replaced: MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2009) - Hard Drive Replacement Instructions

For reference: Computers that can be upgraded to use OS X Internet Recovery - Apple Support

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Answer 3

Dec 22, 2022 2:43 PM in response to John Galt

It only gave me “OS X Extended (Journaled)” so I clicked on that and put “GUID Partition Map” for its scheme. Then I clicked continue but got the same error. “Erase process has failed. Press Done to continue.” I thought about it some more and remembered I should probably try inserting a thumb drive with El Capitan 10.11 on it. I am still waiting for El Capitan to download onto the thumb drive.

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Having problems trying to erase Mac after forgetting password

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