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Screen was grey with prohibitory symbol...I used command r which took me to OS X utilities screen.....what option do I choose

I am not computer literate. I am using MacBook (2012)... I realized that I needed to update operating system tonight. the laptop went to restart and screen turned grey. I was able to press command r and now the OS X utilities screen is up. I do not have an external backup

restore from time machine backup

reinstall osx

get help online

disk utility


anybody able to offer assistance?

MacBook Pro

Posted on Nov 11, 2017 8:22 PM

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2 replies

Nov 11, 2017 8:27 PM in response to Karen Bogart

Clean Install of El Capitan or Later on a Clean Disk


  1. Restart the computer. Immediately after the chime hold down the Command-Option-Rkeys until a globe appears.
  2. The Utility Menu will appear in from 5-20 minutes. Be patient.
  3. Select Disk Utility and click on the Continue button.
  4. When Disk Utility loads select the drive (usually, the out-dented entry) from the side list.
  5. Click on the Erase tab in Disk Utility's main window. A panel will drop down.
  6. Set the partition scheme to GUID.
  7. Set the Format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.)
  8. Click on the Apply button, then click on the Done button when it activates.
  9. Quit Disk Utility and return to the Utility Menu.
  10. Select Reinstall OS X and click on the Continue button.


This should install the version of OS X that was pre-installed when the computer was new.

Screen was grey with prohibitory symbol...I used command r which took me to OS X utilities screen.....what option do I choose

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