restore to factory settings failed.

I’m on Catalina and found it’s very slow. I’m trying to do a factory reset and reinstall the OS but when I try to erase the hard drive it says ‘erase process has failed’


I tried to reinstall OS Catalina but it says ‘Target volume is part of an incomplete system and cannot be installed to’


When I restart it now I get a warning symbol, circle with a slash through it.

What’s the best way to approach this?

Earlier Mac models

Posted on Sep 27, 2023 11:28 AM

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3 replies

Sep 27, 2023 9:18 PM in response to 7Richard7

Try booting into Internet Recovery Mode using Command + Option + R to access the online macOS installer. Once booted into Internet Recovery Mode you need to launch Disk Utility and erase the whole physical drive (Intel Macs only) as GUID partition and APFS (top option). Within Disk Utility you may need to click "View" and select "Show All Devices" before the physical drive appears on the left pane of Disk Utility.


FYI, it really helps to know the exact model fo the Mac. You can get this information by entering the system serial number here:

Check Your Service and Support Coverage - Apple Support


If the Mac uses a hard drive, then maybe the hard drive is worn out or failing. You can try running the Apple Diagnostics to see if any hardware issues are detected. Unfortunately the diagnostics don't detect most issues or failures.


Sep 28, 2023 2:16 PM in response to HWTech

hi that’s the process I was describing. I’m trying to erase the SSD but it says ‘Erase process has failed’ I also tried to reinstall the OS and it said ‘The target volume is part of an incomplete system’ so I restarted and got either warning symbol or it would start then a warning of press any key, it just goes into a loop.

Sep 29, 2023 6:42 AM in response to 7Richard7

7Richard7 wrote:

hi that’s the process I was describing. I’m trying to erase the SSD but it says ‘Erase process has failed’

I have seen the erase process fail, but if you try the erase again immediately after the failure, I have found that it will usually succeed assuming the drive is good.


I also tried to reinstall the OS and it said ‘The target volume is part of an incomplete system’ so I restarted and got either warning symbol or it would start then a warning of press any key, it just goes into a loop.

That tells me you probably were not erasing the whole physical drive, but only one of the APFS volumes. Make sure to select the whole physical drive as I described in my previous post. The physical drive will be identified by its make & model on the left pane of Disk Utility. It may be something like "Apple SSD 0256...", or "Hitachi HT500...", etc.


You can try running the Apple Diagnostics to see if any hardware issues are detected. Unfortunately the diagnostics don't detect most failures, but it never hurts to check.


It really helps to know the exact model of the Mac like I mentioned in the previous post, plus it really helps to which OS installer you are booting into as well since there can be three different possibilities which can make a huge difference on our suggestions.


We also need to know the exact error message(s) you are receiving and when they are being seen as they may provide better clues.

restore to factory settings failed.

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