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The Apple Support Community will permanently close on November 20, 2026. Starting today, the site will no longer accept new posts and is available in a read-only state.
You can continue to find trusted guidance and support on the official Apple Support site.
We want to thank the community members who have contributed their time and expertise to help others with their Apple products.
My Mac book pro has been wiped out and to redownload the Macintosh HD disk I need the password but I do not remember it so i figured just get a new disk but I need a address of a file for a Time Machine back up I’m not very techy and the computer guy kind of messed it up worse than it was
MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.14
presley98 wrote:
My Mac book pro has been wiped out and to redownload the Macintosh HD disk I need the password but I do not remember it
Need a password for what? An AppleID password while booted into Recovery Mode to confirm a previous purchase of that OS? Or a password to unlock Filevault?
Are you booting into Recovery Mode and being asked for your AppleID & password to confirm a previous purchase of macOS? If so, then try booting into Recovery Mode using Command + Option + R instead. If you are booting an older system without Internet Recovery Mode, then this should bypass the authentication requirement. If it is a Mac with access to Internet Recovery Mode, then you may get access to a more recent version of macOS installer which won't prompt for any authentication.
If it is a Filevault password and it is an older Mac, then just use Disk Utility to erase the whole physical drive before selecting the "Reinstall macOS" option. If it is a newer 2018+ Mac with Filevault, then I'm not sure. Perhaps a DFU firmware Restore unless of course the device has been locked by an AppleID or MDM.
so i figured just get a new disk but I need a address of a file for a Time Machine back up
If it is a newer Mac with a newer OS, then a TM backup won't help you to make the new drive bootable since only data is included with TM backups for later versions of macOS. TM with older versions of macOS (maybe 10.13?) did allow a full restoration of macOS system & user data, but I'm not entirely clear on the details for that.
To create a bootable macOS USB installer now that your Mac has been erased will require access to another working Mac that is compatible with an OS your non-working Mac can use. For an M-series Mac a DFU firmware Restore is an option (requires access to another recent Mac). For a 2010 or older Mac, then you can either use the macOS Restoration DVD which originally shipped with the Mac, or possibly an OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Upgrade DVD (which option or options of DVD depend on the exact model of the Mac).
To get the exact model of the Mac you can enter the system serial number on the check coverage page here (please do not post the serial number on the forum since it is considered personal information):
Check Your Service and Support Coverage - Apple Support
We definitely need more details here.
Writing an effective Apple Support Communities question - Apple Community
presley98 wrote:
My Mac book pro has been wiped out and to redownload the Macintosh HD disk I need the password but I do not remember it
Need a password for what? An AppleID password while booted into Recovery Mode to confirm a previous purchase of that OS? Or a password to unlock Filevault?
Are you booting into Recovery Mode and being asked for your AppleID & password to confirm a previous purchase of macOS? If so, then try booting into Recovery Mode using Command + Option + R instead. If you are booting an older system without Internet Recovery Mode, then this should bypass the authentication requirement. If it is a Mac with access to Internet Recovery Mode, then you may get access to a more recent version of macOS installer which won't prompt for any authentication.
If it is a Filevault password and it is an older Mac, then just use Disk Utility to erase the whole physical drive before selecting the "Reinstall macOS" option. If it is a newer 2018+ Mac with Filevault, then I'm not sure. Perhaps a DFU firmware Restore unless of course the device has been locked by an AppleID or MDM.
so i figured just get a new disk but I need a address of a file for a Time Machine back up
If it is a newer Mac with a newer OS, then a TM backup won't help you to make the new drive bootable since only data is included with TM backups for later versions of macOS. TM with older versions of macOS (maybe 10.13?) did allow a full restoration of macOS system & user data, but I'm not entirely clear on the details for that.
To create a bootable macOS USB installer now that your Mac has been erased will require access to another working Mac that is compatible with an OS your non-working Mac can use. For an M-series Mac a DFU firmware Restore is an option (requires access to another recent Mac). For a 2010 or older Mac, then you can either use the macOS Restoration DVD which originally shipped with the Mac, or possibly an OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Upgrade DVD (which option or options of DVD depend on the exact model of the Mac).
To get the exact model of the Mac you can enter the system serial number on the check coverage page here (please do not post the serial number on the forum since it is considered personal information):
Check Your Service and Support Coverage - Apple Support
We definitely need more details here.
Writing an effective Apple Support Communities question - Apple Community
Sorry, but I'm not understanding what you mean. Do you mean that previously, Time Machine on your Mac was set to back up to a shared folder on another Mac? If so, only the person who runs that Mac can give you the necessary information to reconnect. None of us here could possibly know that.
If that's not what you meant, please clarify.
Regards.
Need an address of a File server used for Time Machine backups
