Any difference to reinstall Sequoia from USB vs from Recovery?

[pullman]

Ok this probably is a dumb question, but I'm happy to unveil my ignorance and ask.

I have bought a second-hand MBA M1 and wish to reinstall Sequoia. Would it make any difference if I do so from bootable USB or from the Recovery function?

Sometimes in the past when I have reinstalled macOS and OS X I have better or worse installations. Little things have varied, like boot times and how "solid" the system has felt. Perhaps I'm the only one who has noticed this but it forms the basis of my question about the two options available these days.

Thanks in advance
Philip

 

[IJustWannaTalk]

Not after the initial installation, no.
Assuming both MacOS copies were from Apple's servers.

 

[pullman]

Thank you very much. I had a feeling there wouldn't be but was curious.

Not after the initial installation, no.
Assuming both MacOS copies were from Apple's servers.

 

[chabig]

Every installation of macOS Sequoia is identical, on every Mac, throughout the world, regardless of how it got installed. That's the way it works now, with the system being on a read-only, signed, sealed volume.

 

[Mike Boreham]

Ok this probably is a dumb question, but I'm happy to unveil my ignorance and ask.

I have bought a second-hand MBA M1 and wish to reinstall Sequoia. Would it make any difference if I do so from bootable USB or from the Recovery function?

Sometimes in the past when I have reinstalled macOS and OS X I have better or worse installations. Little things have varied, like boot times and how "solid" the system has felt. Perhaps I'm the only one who has noticed this but it forms the basis of my question about the two options available these days.

Thanks in advance
Philip

Why do you want to reinstall? The consequence of what @chabig said above is that the signed sealed system volume is immutable. It is checked extremely thoroughly every boot, and if it one bit is wrong it will not boot and you will be told to reinstall. Has this happened?

You can return the machine to new factory out of the box state by Erase all Content and Settings which is quicker and safer. If you use Disk Utility to erase volumes prior to reinstall, there is potential for erasing more than you should and having to use Configurator from another Mac to restore the firmware and hidden volumes... (been there, got the T shirt).

The only time you have no option but to erase and reinstall is if rolling back to an earlier macOS.

PS I buy all my Macs second hand and always use Erase all Content and Settings. The one time I didn't is when I had to use Configurator.

 

[IJustWannaTalk]

Thank you very much. I had a feeling there wouldn't be but was curious.

It's good to ask questions before changing tech stuff, especially in situations like these where the answers aren't often searchable.

 

[pullman]

Hello Mike and thank you for replying. I didn't know that about the system volume.

I also buy my Macs used and always install the OS from scratch even if a seller has wiped the computer. It just feels better knowing exactly how the computer was reset to factory settings. For this one I did what you suggested to erase all contents and settings which worked well.

Cheers
Philip

Why do you want to reinstall? The consequence of what @chabig said above is that the signed sealed system volume is immutable. It is checked extremely thoroughly every boot, and if it one bit is wrong it will not boot and you will be told to reinstall. Has this happened?

You can return the machine to new factory out of the box state by Erase all Content and Settings which is quicker and safer. If you use Disk Utility to erase volumes prior to reinstall, there is potential for erasing more than you should and having to use Configurator from another Mac to restore the firmware and hidden volumes... (been there, got the T shirt).

The only time you have no option but to erase and reinstall is if rolling back to an earlier macOS.

PS I buy all my Macs second hand and always use Erase all Content and Settings. The one time I didn't is when I had to use Configurator.

 

[avz]

If you use Disk Utility to erase volumes prior to reinstall, there is potential for erasing more than you should and having to use Configurator from another Mac to restore the firmware and hidden volumes... (been there, got the T shirt).

The only time you have no option but to erase and reinstall is if rolling back to an earlier macOS.

PS I buy all my Macs second hand and always use Erase all Content and Settings. The one time I didn't is when I had to use Configurator.

I will confirm that this is very important info as recently I've been to the same place and got the same $1500 T-shirt that says: "No you don't have another Mac to do a Configurator restore."

I guess the good news is that my Late 2008 unibody MacBook still just works.

 

[Fishrrman]

pullman wrote:
"For this one I did what you suggested to erase all contents and settings which worked well."

If you've already done that, then you've "done all you need to do".
Just use it and be happy.

 

[pivo6]

Every installation of macOS Sequoia is identical, on every Mac, throughout the world, regardless of how it got installed. That's the way it works now, with the system being on a read-only, signed, sealed volume.