Common questions 

How do I enter the BIOS on a Mac?

Joe Ford

How do I enter the BIOS on a Mac?

To access your MacBook’s Open Firmware, you must first shut off your computer. Then turn it back on, holding down the “Command,” “Option,” “0” and “F” keys simultaneously as the machine boots to access the Open Firmware interface.

Does Mac use UEFI or BIOS?

Macs don’t have BIOS. They use Open Firmware (EFI and UEFI) to boot up.

Do Macs have BIOS settings?

There is no BIOS on a Mac. It uses EFI, which can be configured from within OS X e.g. using bless from the command line. Change the permanent preferred boot device in System Preferences on OS X or Boot Camp settings on Windows.

How do you get to the boot menu on a Mac?

Press the Power button to turn on your Mac (or Restart your Mac if it’s already on). When you hear the startup chime, press and hold the Option key. Holding that key gives you access to OS X’s Startup Manager. Once the Startup Manager screen appears, release the Option key.

What is the boot key for Mac?

Press C During Startup You can hold down the C key on your keyboard to instantly boot to a Mac OS X or other bootable disc in your Mac.

How do I make a Mac boot disk?

Press and hold the Option (Alt) ⌥ key immediately after turning on or restarting your Mac. Release the Option key when you see a dark screen showing your bootable volumes. Select the volume containing the bootable installer. Then click the up arrow or press Return.

How do I select a disk to install OSX?

Install macOS

  1. Choose Reinstall macOS (or Reinstall OS X) from the utilities window.
  2. Click Continue, then follow the onscreen instructions. You’ll be asked to select your disk. If you don’t see it, click Show All Disks.
  3. Click Install. Your Mac restarts after installation is complete.

How do I do a clean boot on a Mac?

How to perform a Clean Boot on macOS

  1. Open System Preferences on your Mac and then go to Users & Groups.
  2. You will need to toggle the lock icon on the bottom left of the screen to be able to make changes.
  3. Choose Login Options to bring up the options for logging in.
  4. Shut down the Mac.
  5. Perform a PRAM NVRAM Reset.

How do I fix a Mac startup problem?

On a Mac laptop:

  1. Shut down the MacBook.
  2. Unplug and then reconnect the power cable.
  3. Press Shift + Ctrl + Option/Alt keys and the power button at the same time.
  4. Now release all those keys and the power button at the same time.
  5. You may see the light on the power cable flicker.
  6. Restart your MacBook.

Can’t install OSX on this computer?

From the “MacOS could not be installed on your computer” screen: Press and hold “option” key and click restart. In the “Startup disk selection” screen, use the arrow keys to select your main hard drive (not the MacOS update) Open and install the update.

How do I install OSX on a new SSD?

With the SSD plugged in to your system you’ll need to run Disk Utility to partition the drive with GUID and format it with Mac OS Extended (Journaled) partition. The next step is to download from the Apps Store the OS installer. Run the installer selecting the SSD drive it will install a fresh OS onto your SSD.

Does SSD make Mac faster?

SDD stands for ‘Solid State Drive. ‘ SSD drives are the same shape and size as a traditional drive. The difference is that an SSD drive uses RAM chips instead of a spinning hard disk to store information. This makes it much, much faster.

How do I reinstall OSX from the Internet?

How to use Internet Recovery to reinstall macOS

  1. Shut down your Mac.
  2. Hold down Command-Option/Alt-R and press the Power button.
  3. Hold down those keys until you a spinning globe and the message “Starting Internet Recovery.
  4. The message will be replaced with a progress bar.
  5. Wait for the MacOS Utilities screen to appear.

How do I reinstall OSX without Apple ID?

1 Answer

  1. With Mac off Hold CMD + R and tap power button to turn on computer.
  2. Still holding CMD + R wait for recovery screen to appear that gives reinstall option.
  3. Before clicking reinstall click ‘disk utility’
  4. On disk utility click the ‘Macintosh HD’ then the erase tab on the right.

How do I wipe and reinstall OSX?

Select your startup disk on the left, then click Erase. Click the Format pop-up menu (APFS should be selected), enter a name, then click Erase. After the disk is erased, choose Disk Utility > Quit Disk Utility. In the Recovery app window, select “Reinstall macOS,” click Continue, then follow the onscreen instructions.

How do I reinstall OSX without Internet?

Installing a fresh copy of macOS via Recovery Mode

  1. Restart your Mac while holding down the ‘Command+R’ buttons.
  2. Release these buttons as soon as you see the Apple logo. Your Mac should now boot into Recovery Mode.
  3. Select ‘Reinstall macOS,’ and then click ‘Continue. ‘
  4. If prompted, enter your Apple ID.

How do I reinstall OSX without disk?

Reinstall Your Mac’s OS Without an Installation Disc

  1. Turn your Mac on, while holding the CMD + R keys down.
  2. Select “Disk Utility” and click on Continue.
  3. Select the startup disk and go to the Erase Tab.
  4. Select the Mac OS Extended (Journaled), give a name to your disk and click on Erase.
  5. Disk Utility > Quit Disk Utility.

How do I do a clean install of OSX Catalina?

Step 4: Wipe your Mac

  1. Connect your boot drive.
  2. Start up – or restart – your Mac while holding down the Option key (also known as Alt).
  3. Choose to install your chosen version of macOS from the external drive.
  4. Select Disk Utility.
  5. Select your Mac’s start up disc, probably called Macintosh HD or Home.
  6. Click on Erase.

How do I reinstall OSX Lion?

Reinstalling Lion Restart your computer, and immediately hold down command-r until the gray Apple logo appears. If prompted, select your main language and then click the arrow. Click Reinstall OS X, and then Continue. Follow the instructions on the screen, and then choose your hard disk.

Why doesn’t my Mac have a recovery partition?

If your Mac is missing a Recovery partition, then you may be able to restore it, by resetting your PRAM. To reset the PRAM, restart your Mac while holding down the ‘Command+Option+P+R’ keys until you hear macOS’ distinctive startup chimes for a second time.

How do I restore a Mac partition?

How do I recover a partition on my Mac’s hard drive?

  1. Download, install and launch Disk Drill for Mac.
  2. Select the partition from the list of available devices.
  3. Click the Recover button to scan for lost data.
  4. Preview the recoverable files and choose the ones you want to restore.
  5. Click Recover again to finish the recovery.

How do I see hidden partitions on Mac?

Open Disk Utility. In the upper left corner of the window is a dropdown menu labeled, “View”. Click on it and select the option, “Show all Devices”. However, if you want to see all of the hidden partitions (you really don’t need to,) then open Terminal in the Utilities folder.

How do I update my recovery partition Mac?

dmg file into your ~/Downloads folder.

  1. Download and decompress the file recovery. sh.
  2. Open Terminal and type the following two commands: chmod +x ~/Downloads/recovery.sh sudo ~/Downloads/recovery.sh.
  3. Wait a few minutes for it to finish and return back to a prompt. Reboot with holding down the option key to test your 10.

How do I update the OSX base system?

Entering macOS Recovery

  1. Press Command – R to install the latest version of macOS that was installed on your Mac without installing a later version.
  2. Press Options – Command – R to upgrade to the latest version of macOS that’s compatible with your Mac.

How do I create a Mac Recovery HD?

Launch Disk Utility, located in Applications > Utilities. From the Debug menu, select Show Every Partition to display the Recovery HD volume in the Device list in Disk Utility. In Disk Utility, select the original Recovery HD volume and then select the Restore tab. Drag the Recovery HD volume to the Source field.