If the machine is not booting into OS X, then you will have to work from the Serial Number located on the outside of the machine or box someplace. What is important is the Model Identifier, the Serial Number and the Memory, get all this written down. Then do > More Information and write down all what you see there. Drives, partitions, formatting w/Mac's + PC'sįirst off if the machine is bootable to OS X, head to the Apple Menu > About This Mac and note the OS X version. If you require more complicated behind the scenes action then read theseĮrase, formatting, OS X installs on Mac's.

Be glad to know it now than later on and takes your data with it. If the drive fails the zero erase procedure, it's bad and requires replacement.

It does take some time to complete but it's worth it to prevent drive issues later. 10.5 is currently not supported for security issues etc., so if your using this, use it off the Internet.Īll OS X boot drives must be formatted in Apple's Disk Utility (as minimal) 1 Partition: Option: GUID and OS X Extended Journaled as the format.Īll OS X boot hard drives (not Solid State Disks) should be futher erased with the Security Option: Zero All Data or move the slider one spot to the right, this has a effect of wiping all data off the drive and also eliminates bad sector issues that can prevent a drive from formatting or even installing OS X. This User Tip is designed to cover Intel Mac's, older PPC processor based Mac's came with their own OS X disks or 10.5 upgrade disks and that's the last OS X version that can run on those machines. The previous owner is supposed to remove any firmware passwords, erase everything and reinstall the OS X version that came with the machine or OS X 10.6 (if the machine originally came with 10.6, 10.5 or 10.4), but usually this doesn't occur and when the new owner goes to update OS X or reinstall the OS, they are blocked in some manner. As people begin to sell their used Intel processor Mac's problems are occurring when the new owner wishes to wipe everything and make the machine their own due to complexity of reinstalling various OS X versions, AppleID conflicts etc, so I will attempt to clear up the issue and provide concrete procedures you need to follow.

Macbook air reformat