- How to clean install mac os sierra without usb how to#
- How to clean install mac os sierra without usb download#
macOS users can also install the OS onto a USB drive and work with the same installation that’s on your internal (and faster) drive. Linux users know that booting from a USB drive is a useful way to get into the OS. In short, we don’t recommend it, and it’s likely not supported. We also don’t know whether you’ll experience issues if you look to install an older OS you don’t own. Though, if your Mac is based on Apple Silicon, you may find incompatibilities. In theory, there’s no reason why you couldn’t boot an older version of macOS, and Apple does offer ways to install older versions on a USB. Can I boot older versions of macOS from a USB drive? If youre loathe to delete a couple of apps youre not quite ready to get rid of, youll find it easier to identify which ones you do need when it comes to reinstalling them. Our testing gave us no issues when using a USB 2.0 to USB-C connector, so you’re able to press your older USB drives into service. Performing a clean install clears your Mac from all of the junk files that have accumulated as youve used it. Am I able to use a USB connection other than USB-C? We recommend 16GB to give yourself enough “wiggle room” when it comes to the installation process. As such, you’ll need a large enough USB drive to store Big Sur.
In our experience, you will not be able to do this. Can I split an installation across multiple USB drives? Disk operations on the boot drive can be performed safely from a USB stick as well. You can now run the operating system as normal and use this USB drive to boot up your Mac. If you booted from a USB disk, click “Continue” to advance to the installer.For Intel Macs, restart and hold the Option key to enter into the boot selection dialog.įor both types of machines, use your keyboard’s arrow keys to select the USB drive from the list of bootable devices, click to confirm, and your USB drive will begin to boot. If you booted from a functioning recovery partition, click the “Reinstall macOS” button. With your information wipe complete, you are now ready to reinstall macOS. If you choose three or five passes, you might want to leave this running overnight.
If you opted to wipe your drive securely, this might take a while-30 minutes to an hour is not unreasonable for one pass. Just give your drive a name (I recommend “Macintosh HD”, just for consistency’s sake), then click “Erase” to start the overwriting process. You only need to write over a drive once to securely wipe it, but if you’re paranoid you can also wipe it three or five times.Ĭlick “OK” once you’ve decided, but remember: if your Mac has a solid state drive, you do not need to use these options. Now move the dial up, to randomly write data over your entire drive. You still need to wipe the drive, however, or your files will remain in place, so skip to the end of this step to do so.) (If your Mac has a solid state drive, you can skip this part: your SSD will already securely erase files thanks to TRIM. If you’re wiping a mechanical drive, click “Security Options” in the window that pops up. Click your primary drive, then click “Erase” If not you can find Disk Utility in the menu bar: click Utilities then Disk Utility. To get started, click the Disk Utility option.ĭepending on how you started Recovery Mode, you may be presented with the option to start Disk Utility right away, as seen above.
How to clean install mac os sierra without usb how to#
We’ve shown you how to securely wipe a hard drive with your Mac, and doing so in Recovery Mode isn’t really different from doing so within macOS. If you want a truly clean installation, however, you need to first wipe your hard drive. We recommend backing up files before you do this, just in case, but otherwise you’re ready for step three. Your user accounts and files will stay exactly where they are-only your operating system will be overwritten. If you want to re-install your operating system, but leave your files in place, you can skip this step. RELATED: 8 Mac System Features You Can Access in Recovery Mode Step Two: Securely Wipe Your Hard Drive (Optional) Once you’ve managed to open up the Recovery Mode in some fashion, we can move on to wiping your drive securely.
How to clean install mac os sierra without usb download#
You can access recovery without a partition using Network Recovery: hold Command+Shift+R while turning on your Mac and it will download the Recovery features for you. Failing that, you can create a bootable USB installer for macOS Sierra, and boot from that by holding “Option” while turning on your Mac.
If neither of these options work, don’t panic! You’ve got a couple of options yet.
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