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how do i reset my macbook air back to factory settings?

i just bought a mac book air from an individual. how can i reset it back to factory settings?

MacBook Air

Posted on Aug 15, 2011 9:52 AM

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10 replies

Aug 15, 2011 12:53 PM in response to hiccup2

If it is a 2011 MB Air you can just boot into Lion Recovery by holding command-R when booting. After booting you can use the Utilities menu to select Disk Utility. Use the Disk Utility to erase the disk. When you are done with that, quit and you should be back to the main recovery page. Choose to install Lion. This will restore your MacBook Air to factory defaults.


I did this after a couple of days of owning my new MB Air because I wasn't sure everything was installed correctly via Migration Assistant. It made me much more comfortable to start from a clean install of Lion and transfer everything over manually.

Sep 3, 2011 10:11 PM in response to Jim Bailey

HI, Jim Bailey:


Thanks for sharing the experience. I will try to implement your suggestion. The latest MBA does not come with OSX Lion in any medium. So, where would the the OS be stored? On a hidden portion of the SSD, somewhere?

What I am afraid of is that when the disk is erased completely, I will lose the pre-installed version of Lion. Lion is pre-installed on the SSD. Is there suppoed to be a USB flash memory that comes with the machine? Nothing like that comes even when one spends almost $2,000.


By the way, it says iLife comes with it BUNDLED, how can one find this. It was not explained in the litte white book, where to get that.

Sep 8, 2011 9:00 PM in response to perennialmac

To install iLife you need to sign in to the app store with your user id and then under updates you will see it available for you to download & install onto your Macbook Air.


I would recommend you create a back up onto a USB harddrive using the Lion Recovery or you can also create a bootable back up image with Superduper or CarbonCopyCloner software onto the USB HDD. Then you have the peace of mind knowing that you will have a bootable back up in case things go wrong.

Feb 27, 2012 12:35 AM in response to Jim Bailey

Hi,

Look I know it's ben long time since you have made this post but I really need to inhance this solution as I have been waiting for the download for more than 12 hours now and it indicating 11 hrs remaning, I am here in Libya where connection isn't Ok and electricity is up&down is there any other solution I can do?


FYI, I have already done that part of erasing the Disc and have now the utility open if I will shutdown then I will have to wait for reloading the utility online which is more than 4 hrs here.

however, no more OS on my device, please advice.

Feb 27, 2012 8:23 AM in response to iSuper7

Sorry but I don't think there is much you can do unless you want to purchase a USB version of Lion from Apple. The downside of Apple's internet recovery is that it requires access to a decent internet connection to work well. If you have some sort of Apple shop someplace nearby maybe you can ask for help there.


The Lion USB Thumb drive on the US Store is here:


http://store.apple.com/us/product/MD256Z/A

how do i reset my macbook air back to factory settings?

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