Rebuild with Offline Install?

[systematic92]

Morning Boys,

I have a worker who has forgotten his password AND encryption password with FV.

What are my recovery options?

Presuming the only thing I can do is reformat the entire macbook with an offline installer?

Any advice would be grateful.

Thanks,

 

[Gav2k]

Morning Boys,

I have a worker who has forgotten his password AND encryption password with FV.

What are my recovery options?

Presuming the only thing I can do is reformat the entire macbook with an offline installer?

Any advice would be grateful.

Thanks,

Firstly not everyone on this forum is a boy, I am but we have plenty of girls too.

Secondly to your question. Having been through this many times with returns at work I can tell you the easiest option is to download Ubuntu on another machine and use the installer to make a USB stick. It's a really simple process.

After it's done plug it into the Mac you wish to fix and boot from it. You can then repartition and format the drive. After which you can use internet recovery to install the base os it shipped with

 

[systematic92]

Sorry Boys and Girls!! My bad sir.

Can I not make a bootable USB via another MAC or is Ubuntu necessary?
Do you happen to have a guide or link to a guide that I can follow dependant on the answer to the first question?

Much appreciated

 

[Gav2k]

You can use any machine to make a bootable copy of Ubuntu. If your referring to a bootable copy of OS X I wouldn't bother, youve no need for a fully fledge copy of an OS to get out of trouble.

http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/create-a-usb-stick-on-ubuntu

 

[systematic92]

Thanks Gav.

I was thinking that one could make a bootable USB stick from a working system with El Capitan on it (we have plenty) and then it's a simple case of firing the botched system up and installing EC directly on it?

 

[systematic92]

We do also have OLDER MacBooks which dont have internet Recovery - is there any option for these types of systems?

 

[Gav2k]

Thanks Gav.

I was thinking that one could make a bootable USB stick from a working system with El Capitan on it (we have plenty) and then it's a simple case of firing the botched system up and installing EC directly on it?

You could but I've tried this before an from what I remember OS X sees the FileVault drive and won't allow you to perform certain actions. Things may have changed but my goto tool for this is now Ubuntu. For the 10 minutes it took to make the USB drive it's been invaluable.

 

[Gav2k]

We do also have OLDER MacBooks which dont have internet Recovery - is there any option for these types of systems?

Older macs require you to download the OS X installer either to a USB drive or you need the disks.

 

[systematic92]

You could but I've tried this before an from what I remember OS X sees the FileVault drive and won't allow you to perform certain actions. Things may have changed but my goto tool for this is now Ubuntu. For the 10 minutes it took to make the USB drive it's been invaluable.

I guess for Macs that don't have Internet recovery as an option, I can use your Ubuntu method and wipe down the HDD and then use an offline install method to reinstall the OS?

First step is creating this Ubuntu boot CD. I will most likely bug you since this is my first time doing this process and will probably hit some niggles along the way.

.... AND yes I am guilty of being a Windows boy all my life and have recently had exposure to Macs, which I dig.

 

[systematic92]

Older macs require you to download the OS X installer either to a USB drive or you need the disks.

Is there a link on how to do this please?

 

[Gav2k]

http://osxdaily.com/2014/10/16/make-os-x-yosemite-boot-install-drive/