MacBook Pro 2019 OS Reinstall

[pjanoo]

Hi all

Hoping you can shed some light on this. I heard a few years back that the T2 chip on this machine can brick the laptop if you attempt to reinstall the OS. I've just bought myself a second hand MacBook Pro 2019 and intend to wipe the disk and reinstall macOS when I get it. It's the first machine I will own that has this T2 chip in it.

Is there anything I should know before I do this? I usually boot into internet recovery and use Terminal to wipe the disk, should this work with the T2 chip with no issues?

Really don't fancy bricking my new laptop on day one!

Cheers

 

[Sheepish-Lord]

Yeah that issue was fixed shortly after it started. Just follow Apple’s instructions.

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

 

[Fishrrman]

Don't bother with terminal.
Boot to internet recovery (command-OPTION-R)
Open disk utility.
Go to the view menu and choose "show all devices" (IMPORTANT step)
Erase drive to APFS, GUID partition format.
Quit disk utility, open OS installer, re-install.

 

[ZillaG]

Don't bother with terminal.
Boot to internet recovery (command-OPTION-R)
Open disk utility.
Go to the view menu and choose "show all devices" (IMPORTANT step)
Erase drive to APFS, GUID partition format.
Quit disk utility, open OS installer, re-install.

I too bought a second hand Macbook Pro 2019, and am trying to erase the disk and start from scratch.

I initially was able to go to the disk utility screen, and the erased the Macintosh HD. After that, I restarted, pressed command-Option-R, and I do internet recovery, but I get prompted for an iCloud p/w of the former user. What can I do from here?

 

[ZillaG]

I totally bricked it now, and see this https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204323. Follow those steps and the screen with blinking ? persists after shutdown/power ups. Any clue?

 

[ZillaG]

Ok I got it back to internet recovery (just command-R for 2019 Intel-based machines), but back to asking for former owner's iCloud creds. What to do?

 

[Cide]

You would have to contact the former owner and get this iCloud information, In order to wipe it, I'm pretty sure there's no way past that which I am aware of.

 

[ZillaG]

I'm trying the option that says "Erase Mac"

 

[ZillaG]

You would have to contact the former owner and get this iCloud information, In order to wipe it, I'm pretty sure there's no way past that which I am aware of.

Another monkey wrench, she can't remember the iCloud p/w, and the recovery numbers are old numbers she no longer has. What an ordeal! .

Is there now way to get back to the Utilities menu?

 

[ZillaG]

So we're able to get emails so we can verify our (mine and the former owner's) identities. We're just now waiting for a final email from Apple support so we can reset the iCloud (of former owner) p/w.