Where and How to Make a Bootable Thumbdrive for Mac

September 15, 2018 6:32 PM

I am planning on selling my old Macbook pro (2013 ish.) I erased the drive so well the software is completely gone. I tried holding down the option key so I could connect to wi-fi but it won't successfully do that. I am guessing I need to create a bootable disk to re-install the ios? I can't even find a spot where the software can be downloaded and the help videos are less than clear...at least for me.
posted by ashtray elvis to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

Best answer: Holding down option while restarting is what you do if you have an external drive you want to boot from. It’s not what you need in this case.

Restart while holding down command-r. That will boot you into the Recovery partition, which will either have an OS installer ready to go, or it will download one for you and do the clean installation you need. If you’ve managed to erase even that (which is unlikely) you will need another Mac from which to make a bootable drive.
posted by bcwinters at 6:42 PM on September 15, 2018 [1 favorite]

https://www.macworld.com/article/2981585/operating-systems/how-to-make-a-bootable-os-x-10-11-el-capitan-installer-drive.html
posted by humboldt32 at 7:25 PM on September 15, 2018

First thing I'd try is Recovery Mode (hold down Command-R while booting). That should let you install a clean copy of the OS.

Failing that, you can build a bootable USB drive, but hopefully Recovery Mode will let you get things installed.
posted by Making You Bored For Science at 8:36 PM on September 15, 2018 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Yes! Command -R got me to the right spot. Software installed and it was done in about 20 minutes. Thank you again bcwinters, humboldt and Making You Bored for Science.
posted by ashtray elvis at 3:02 PM on September 16, 2018 [1 favorite]