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Martin29

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 25, 2010
346
120
Quimper, France
I have the PB installed on a Macbook Air which I have now sold in order to upgrade to a Macbook Pro.

In preparing the Air for a new owner I have disconnected all my accounts, and reformatted the drive, and launched a new OS X install. Problem is the install insists on installing El Capitan and not Yosemite.

I tried returning to a pre El Capitan restore from time machine before reformatting but still the same issue.

Can anyone tell me how to restore back to Yosemite?
 

Bruno09

macrumors 68020
Aug 24, 2013
2,202
153
Far from here
To reinstall Mavericks, use Internet Recovery : Cmd + Alt + r on chime.

You will see a spinning Earth, then an OS X Utilities window : use Disk utility to wipe the whole drive out.

Then choose "Reinstall OS X" : this will download and install the original OS, Mavericks.
 
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Martin29

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 25, 2010
346
120
Quimper, France
You mean to wipe the APPLE SSD and not just the Macintosh HD? Surely if I do that then I won't have a reinstall screen at all?
 

Bruno09

macrumors 68020
Aug 24, 2013
2,202
153
Far from here
Yes you need to wipe the whole SSD, in order to erase the El Capitan Recovery partition, otherwise you won't be able to install Mavericks.

Using Internet recovery (Cmd + Alt + r ) downloads some utilities, including an OS X interface, same as a Recovery partition. From there you can use Disk utility to wipe the whole drive out.
Then quit Disk Utility and choose "Reinstall OS X" (in that case, Mavericks).

Vous pouvez me croire, Martin ;)
(you can believe me, Martin)

Lors de la première utilisation de Récupération Internet, il vous est demandé de sélectionner un réseau Wi-Fi et de saisir un mot de passe réseau si nécessaire. Cette fonctionnalité télécharge ensuite une image du système de restauration, puis démarre depuis cette dernière. De là, vous pouvez bénéficier des mêmes utilitaires et options également proposées avec le système de restauration d’un disque de démarrage.
https://support.apple.com/fr-fr/HT201314

Internet Recovery initially asks you to select a Wi-Fi network and enter a network password when needed. Next, Internet Recovery downloads and starts from a Recovery System image. From there, you are offered the same utilities and options as the Recovery System on a startup drive.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201314


See also : https://support.apple.com/fr-fr/HT5189
 
Last edited:

Martin29

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 25, 2010
346
120
Quimper, France
Yes you need to wipe the whole SSD, in order to erase the El Capitan Recovery partition, otherwise you won't be able to install Mavericks.

Using Internet recovery (Cmd + Alt + r ) downloads some utilities, including an OS X interface, same as a Recovery partition. From there you can use Disk utility to wipe the whole drive out.
Then quit Disk Utility and choose "Reinstall OS X" (in that case, Mavericks).

Vous pouvez me croire, Martin ;)
(you can believe me, Martin)

Thank you Bruno! The Air is now downloading Mavericks. And I guess from there I can update to Yosemite, then restore in order to return to factory settings and still keep Yosemite for the new owner?

You are a star!
 

Bruno09

macrumors 68020
Aug 24, 2013
2,202
153
Far from here
I would rather sell the Mac under Mavericks, its original OS.

Then the buyer will have the choice to keep Mavericks, or upgrade to Yosemite or El Capitan using his OWN Apple ID.
 
Last edited:

Shirasaki

macrumors P6
May 16, 2015
16,263
11,764
You may need to remove this Mac from your Apple ID. Although this issue is much more common under iPhone, it worths paying attention to do so.
 
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