Accidentally erased operating system - trying to "reset to factory settings", now unable to reinstall. Help please!

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Level 1

4 points

Accidentally erased operating system - trying to "reset to factory settings", now unable to reinstall. Help please!

I tried to follow some steps online to erase the data from my macbook pro 2017 to prepare it for sale, but via disk utility, appear to now have erased the operating system.

I have tried the Command + R to get to the reboot system, but:

Cannot reinstall from time machine backup as no backup sources appear
Reinstall macOS Sierra onto the HD experiences an error at the final stage 'an error occurred while preparing the installation. Try running this application again.'
Using Disk Utility I can click on Macintosh HD, but the partition option is greyed out and the first aid process fails 'If possible back up the data to this volume'

I'm very stuck if anyone could help please!

Posted on Nov 20, 2024 1:05 AM

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Answer 1

varjak paw

Level 10

177,724 points

Nov 20, 2024 7:41 AM in response to JackB1724

First, if you are getting rid of your Mac, you do not want to use a Time Machine backup. That will just restore all the data that you're trying to delete.

As to reinstalling macOS, I presume you're trying to follow these steps:

How to reinstall macOS - Apple Support

If so, there are some additional suggestions here that may help:

If an error occurred while updating or installing macOS - Apple Support

However, if you are unable to erase the drive - it should not need to be partitioned again but erasing it again may help; use either Mac OS Extended or APFS - there may be a hardware fault. With a 2017 MacBook it probably wouldn't be worth the cost to repair, but you could take it to an Apple Store or service center and get a diagnosis.

Regards.

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