That allows you to run Disk Utility, reinstall or wipe and install the system, access Terminal for command-line functions, and so on. Normally, you can start up a Mac while holding down Command-R to boot into what Apple now calls macOS Recovery. The article includes instructions on obtaining the installer, which might involve you having to use someone’s else Mac to download it, if you don’t have a replacement Mac on hand yet.īut if you can’t get access to another Mac or the necessary drive, it’s still possible to use a different Recovery mode on all recent Macs, dating back to 2010. We have instructions for making a bootable installer with macOS Sierra (as well as archived versions for several previous releases).
Recovery lets you install onto an erased partition, but only if Recovery wasn’t erased, too!īecause Recovery didn’t work, the fastest way to install fresh is to make or borrow a macOS installer on a USB flash drive or a disk drive. There are a couple of options with an erased partition. My friend was wiping my Mac so I could sell it and I’m pretty sure they’ve deleted the start up disk? It’s not letting me reinstall the OS on a recovery startup.
