How do I restore the 2011 MacBook Air to factory setting??

I was using a USB key that I made myself, and it's still greyed out for no apparent reason.

Well I have the same issue"security options" but I check the next window...I do not remember the name and its says Data Zero so, what I did was erase it. After that I turn off the computer, you have to start the computer again in Recovery HD or you will see an icon that is a filed with a question mark on it. When you used COMMAND and R keys...if you wait it will show you first that is serching and then a window with 4 options....used the option for install the Mac OX lion and then continue. The document created before, has the same side of the original that we erase, install it.. will take about two hours...in my case..the computer asked me to restart before finishing the process, I did it and i have to star all over from the COMMAND + R key and turn on/off computer button, but at the end when the dowload finished it restart itself as factory setting!!

I don't usually reply to posts on noticeboards, but I do have to say thank you very much for your contribution!

I bought a MacBook Air for my girlfriend on eBay and it had to be reset.

Your solution worked absolutely brilliantly!

Thanks mate!

The post by darrenjfox worked like a champ!!!! Awesome. Thank you

Hi darrenfox,

I have a question rnegarding your solution for restoring MacBook Air to factory settings...

When I add the sudo su command and press enter to add the next command I get a warning that it can incur data loss which is cool, but then it says;

To proceed, enter your password, or type Ctrl-C to abort.

Password:

From here I cannot proceed as it does not even allow me to type, I try and type and it just remains blank... . .?

Any ideas as to how to proceed?

Thanks for your time,

Alex

I'm not an expert but I would've thought that if facing problems with the erase/wipe option, perhaps the easiest way to "wipe" your data would be to turn on file-vault and then re-install OSX on top of that. The underlying data would remain encrypted and there would simply be no way to recover it?

darrenjfox you are an absolute champ. Worked a treat. Thanks!

I'm stuck following DarrenjFox instructions. I get to /sbin/mount -uw / and receive a bunch of "device is write locked" messages. If I try to continue to the next step (rm -R /Users/myusername) I get "No such file or directory". If I reboot I can only access Guest Safari browsing login so I'm stumped on how to even reinstall Lion or do Time Machine backup to restrore device. I'm ultimately trying to wipe the device clean to give to someone else. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Another side note, I have a Win7 partition and am still able to login to that......for what it's worth.

Hi

NOT that I want to do this, I have only had my MBA for 9 days!, but I am interested in knowing WHY you are all so interested in doing this? Have you ALL upgraded and want to sell Or are you having issues?

Rgds
Rod

Perth

Hi albalboy,

FYI, it IS taking your password, it's just not SHOWING it.

DarrenjFox - Thank you for this solution. Worked a treat.

Hi Kappy, I followed your instructions and then restarted the machine and I'm getting a white screen with a folder with a question mark on it. Any ideas where I went wrong or how to correct? Thanks for the help!

Thanks so much, darrenjfox! I fixed a friend's MacBook Air that they 1) Tried but failed to install Windows 7 to, and 2) Forgot their MacOS password.

Thank you!! This really helped me 🙂