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kjusielvi

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 23, 2015
5
0
As you can see in this thread https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...-only-have-windows-8-1.1920270/#post-21933398 I have completely deleted OS X Yosemite and only have Windows left. Now that I'm quite fed up with Windows and want to use my Macbook Air for real, I'm thinking of using internet recovery (Command and R) to reinstall OS X.

I have backed up all my data and don't need anything stored in my Macbook. My questions are: (I know they're long but they're quick to answer)

1. I want to erase everthing on my Mac. I now have 3 partitions. After booting and pressing Command + R, I would use disk utility to erase everything, like this
DNlX4fq.jpg
.
After clicking erase, would my 3 partitions be merged into 1 and I could repartition my Mac?

2. I want to create a partition for OS X Yosemite (and possibly updating to El Capitan). What is the minimum/recommended size for OS X Yosemite partition? (Because my SSD is only 128GB)

3. Let's say I create 3 partitions, let's name them A for OS X, B for my data, and C for reinstalling Windows. If I boot into Windows, would I be able to use (read and modify) the data on B, or only OS X could do that?

4. How much data would I have to download during Internet Recovery? I suppose a lot since I'm downloading the whole OS X, but my internet is quite slow, so I want to know how many GBs would I have to download.

5. If I'm asked to enter Apple ID to download OS X, would any Apple ID works?

Thanks for reading. I would be extremely grateful if you answer my questions. Cheers :)
 
Last edited:

tsang2320

macrumors regular
Jan 13, 2014
128
53
There is a recovery partition normally on your Mac with your latest installed version of OS X. If you boot into with Command + R, you can erase the drive there and download that particular OS X version.

Otherwise you hold Option + Command + R to download a recovery image from Apple, and with that booted you can also erase your drive and download the OS X version that came with your Mac.

Just erase the drive then you can partition.
If you boot from Internet recovery, it won't ask you for your Apple ID.
 
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Weaselboy

Moderator
Staff member
Jan 23, 2005
34,489
16,217
California
1. Yes... if you select the disk itself at the top like that and erase you will have one large partition filling the entire drive.
2. A standard Mac install with the iWorks and iLife apps uses about 20GB. Plus you want 16GB or so for swap space, then whatever you want to data.
3. Windows cannot read or write a Mac HFS+ file system. There are third party utilities like Paragon that add this feature to Windows.
4. About 7GB
5. It will need to be an AppleID that was used to "purchase" the OS X version to are currently running.
 
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kjusielvi

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 23, 2015
5
0
5. It will need to be an AppleID that was used to "purchase" the OS X version to are currently running.
I don't know that AppleID. What do I do?

As tsang2320 said above, "If you boot from Internet recovery, it won't ask you for your Apple ID." is that true if I use cmd+option+R It won't ask for the AppleID that was used to purchase the OS X?

I think my Macbook Air is brand new and the last OS X that was installed was the one that come with it when my cousin bought it for me.
 
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