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Resolved Help Resetting Mac/Reinstalling OS

J

JoshPartridge

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 29, 2020
5
2
Hi,

I am selling my old MacBook (Early 2016 model, A1534) and am resetting it to it's factory settings for the new owner, but I think I messed up somehow. After a few tries at using the Disk Utility and then reinstalling the OS, the current situation is:

I am not sure if I deleted the wrong disk, or if I simply need to try delete the internal disk (didn't want to do this without asking first, in case I mess up more). Does anyone know what the best move is here? Apologies I don't really know what I'm doing, so please let me know if more information would help.

tempImagetRINcl.jpg
 
pmiles said:
Did you follow the steps here?

What to do before you sell, give away, trade in, or recycle your Mac - Apple Support

Reset your Mac to factory settings to prepare it for a new owner.
support.apple.com support.apple.com

Use Disk Utility to erase an Intel-based Mac - Apple Support

How to erase (format) the built-in startup disk of an Intel-based Mac.
support.apple.com support.apple.com
Click to expand...
Hi,

I have done these steps before but this time I think I did a step wrong at some point (was kind of rushing it this morning), so the Macintosh HD disk has been deleted but I'm not really sure where this APPLE SSD AP0256J Media disk has come from, as it wasn't there when I started the process.

The second article does say to erase all volumes so I'm guessing I need to try and delete this disk that is listed there, just wanted to confirm in case I mess anything else up.
 
In the screen shot, you have the disk image that you are booted to highlighted. This is a virtual disk...so don't worry about it...you can't change it.

Select the Internal "Apple SSD" and expand that. That is the internal drive. We should verify how it is formatted, and what the Volumes look like. If it was not formated correctly, an OS can still be installed, but won't boot.
 
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hobowankenobi said:
In the screen shot, you have the disk image that you are booted to highlighted. This is a virtual disk...so don't worry about it...you can't change it.

Select the Internal "Apple SSD" and expand that. That is the internal drive. We should verify how it is formatted, and what the Volumes look like. If it was not formated correctly, an OS can still be installed, but won't boot.
Click to expand...
Got it, thanks. Attached the screenshot with the internal drive.

tempImagegbu7WV.jpg
 
OK, so it says the disk is unformatted. So something went wrong. With that disk selected, pick "Erase". There is nothing on the drive now. Be sure it is formatted with these settings:

Screen Shot 2020-12-30 at 12.09.11 AM.png


Name: whatever you like (the default name is usually Macintosh HD).

Format: OS X Extended - Journaled (Required to install and boot Mac OS)

Scheme: GUID (Required to install and boot Mac OS)

Newer OSes may need APFS format instead (it varies by OS and type of drive), but don't worry. Use OS X Extended - Journaled; if the installer needs to change the format, it will change it automatically. This Format will let the installer proceed and the machine should boot normally.

It gets tricky:

The Apple SSD in your pic is the physical drive.
The normal Macintosh HD–typically called a drive–is actually a Volume (often called a Partition too) on that drive.
 
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