restore macbook to original factory settings

"

5. Upon completion DO NOT restart the computer.

6. Shutdown the computer."

Ummm... That doesn't make any sense. Translation: Upon completion shut down your computer but don't restart it."

So, like, what do you want us to do, keep our computers off for the rest of eternity?

How do i restore my macbook to its original factory settings? I dont have a disk

and i can do it with out the CD?

would this work on 10.5.8?

Aaarghh... would have been nice if point 8 disclosed that the system would then proceed to try and download the latest version of OSX, which in my case is asking me to wait 12hrs for the download!

Had I known this, I would have made a recovery disk first, but now it is too late, I've erased my primary partitiion :-(

I might have to go into the Apple store tomorrow.

Your login password is part of your user profile - this may very well not be the same password as your Apple iTunes login.

You can reset your Apple iTUnes login at https://iforgot.apple.com/iForgot/iForgot.html

Hope this helps.

Kind regards,

Jonathan

So the "official" Apple OSX restoration process is here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718

To put the computer back to factory default setup the HDmust be erased using Disk Utility - which is an option during the restoration process outlined above.

I just finished using it and (as is usual with Apple products) it works like a charm.

drCurvin

Thanks DiNicola!

Your process worked perfectly on my Mac Pro Retina....

Thanks a lot for sharing.

Mark

If I restore it to factory setting, will my microsoft office license will be lost as well? Thats the only stuff that i dont want to lose because i dont have the license box anymore.

No you do not need a disk. I purchased Mountain Lion and installed on my MacBook Pro. Apple did not install it. I just follow DiNicola's steps and the erase and reinstall worked perfectly without a disk.

Hey, DiNicola

I did exactly what you said but I did not bought Mountain Lion, I just donwloaded it by ThePirateBay, so now I cant reinstall OS X because it asks me for my Apple ID which doesn't have Mountain Lion bought. What could I do?

Kappy,

I bought a MacBook from my sister and she didn't have the original install disks. It's a Macbook 7,1 and had Snow leopard on it. I followed your instructions using the snow leopard install disk and now the computer won't boot to any screen. Everytime I start it, if eventually tells me I have to restart by pushing the power button. The snow leopard disk is also stuck in the DVD drive. Can you help me?

Ok, I figured out how to get the disk out, but still can boot into the disk utility using the Snow Leopard disk. What am I doing wrong?

Santis,

Sorry to say you need to purchase a legitimate version of OS X.

jvflyboy1,
I'd recommend posting in a new thread as it's highly unlikely that the original poster might stumble back upon a thread that was a year dead.
Having said that, did the Snow Leopard disc initiate the installer when you put it into your Macbook? Are you sure that your Combo/Super Drive is functioning normally?

CMD+R is for local recovery which installs current OS and CMD+OPT+R is for internet recovery which installs original OS?

Exactly. cmd-r will boot to the local Recovery HD partition on the drive and reinstall whatever version is now on there, and cmd-opt-r will bypass all that and pull down a recovery utility from the Internet and reinstall whatever version the machine came with.

Just to clarify though, both of these methods download the entire OS over the Internet. The OS itself is not on the Recovery HD partition. The Recovery HD partition is just 650MB and is used to DL the OS.