Reinstalling macOS

The process of reinstalling macOS is something I seem to do more often than I like. Here are the basic steps that I follow to do a fresh installation. I don’t cover the confirmation or registering of any Apps or add ons, you are on your own with that part of the process.

Note: This process Will Delete your Hard Drive so be very certain that you have backups of any data you really need, I’m thinking ~/.ssh and Bookmarks here!

Download the latest version of macOS. (At present it’s Big Sur)

https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT201372

The steps I use for the USB KEy creation from the above link:

Using a 16Gb min USB key make the install media.

#sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Big\ Sur.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia — volume /Volumes/MyVolume

After typing the command:

1. Press Return to enter the command.
2. When prompted, type your administrator password and press Return again. Terminal doesn’t show any characters as you type your password.
3. When prompted, type Y to confirm that you want to erase the volume, then press Return. Terminal shows the progress as the volume is erased.
4. After the volume has been erased, you may see an alert stating that Terminal would like to access files on a removable volume. Click OK to allow the copy to proceed.
5. When Terminal says that it’s been completed, the volume will have the same name as the installer you downloaded, such as Install macOS Big Sur.
   You can now quit Terminal and eject the volume.

Boot the new Installer

May need to get past the security to boot from an external disk.

Command-r to get into recovery mode

Select Disk Utility and delete the Volume Group for the Internal Drive

Erase the empty disk and accept the default name volume

Then exit to the Recovery screen and select Reinstall macOS Big Sur.

Choose the “Untitled” Volume to install on and wait.

Take the opportunity to sign on to your WIFI SID of choice

As not much happens on the standard install screen I like to select Logs in the Window drop-down and then Select all logs, arrange the screens so you can follow along.

Intel processor

1. Plug the bootable installer into a Mac that is connected to the internet and compatible with the version of macOS you’re installing.
2. Press and hold the Option (Alt) ⌥ key immediately after turning on or restarting your Mac.
3. Release the Option key when you see a dark screen showing your bootable volumes.
4. Select the volume containing the bootable installer. Then click the up arrow or press Return. If you can’t start up from the bootable installer, make sure the External Boot setting in Startup Security Utility is set to allow booting from external media.
5. Select the Options and choose the Disk Utility
6. Choose your language, if prompted.
7. Select Install macOS (or Install OS X) from the Utilities window, then click Continue and follow the onscreen instructions.

APPS

First things first.
Install HomeBrew from the terminal

#/bin/bash -c “$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

Collected commands for my setup

#brew install — cask 1password alfred brave-browser carbon-copy-cloner fantastical iterm2 kindle handbrake path-finder pock postman slack soundsource spotify visual-studio-code istat-menus virtualbox

#brew install wget

Install all Apps that require a visit to a web site

oh-my-zsh