Buying a used MacBook resetting question re OS

[andy armitage]

Hi guys

I am buying a 2011 MacBook Pro and the question what does the current owner do to reset it as it came with snow leopard originally and it is now on Yosemite so how do you do this can you wipe it and leave the current OS or is that not right would it need to be reset and snow leopard reinstalled and then Yosemite put back on it also do I need to do anything about the current owners passwords etc?

Any advice would be much appreciated as I know you will know :)

Thanks

[jamesnw]

If it still has its original partition then I think they can reset to the original OS.

I had to reset a macbook recently where I had swapped the HDD out so had no internet partition. for that i had to use the internet based restore.
I don't recall exactly which version it restored to though as i sold it on straight after. But it can definitely be done.

Uncle Google will no doubt provide the steps to initiate the internet restore.

[andy armitage]

If it still has its original partition then I think they can reset to the original OS.

I had to reset a macbook recently where I had swapped the HDD out so had no internet partition. for that i had to use the internet based restore.
I don't recall exactly which version it restored to though as i sold it on straight after. But it can definitely be done.

Uncle Google will no doubt provide the steps to initiate the internet restore.

Thanks I know Google will have information but I hope that I can get a laymans version of what to do on here :)

[subzeer0]

i think if you press cmd+r when switching on it will go into internet restore after a minute or two

good luck

[Nogbad The Bad]

i think if you press cmd+r when switching on it will go into internet restore after a minute or two

good luck

This will install the OS that the device will have been running when it was unboxed for the first time ( OSX Lion iirc ), you may need to do an update to run the latest OS thats supported.

[ziphos]

Have you checked with the seller that he has completely unregistered it from his Apple/iCloud/iTunes account? Probably worth a Google to check what you have to do. If it is still registered I believe you will have a lot of problems with it even after you have re-installed MacOS. This is part of the theft prevention procedures, so quite important to get right.

[Franco]

I just changed macs a month ago, and followed exactly this before giving the old mac to friends:

https://www.imore.com/how-to-prepare-mac-for-sale

It is exactly what to do. My friend had to update to the (free) El Capitan OS during his installation

BWs

Franco, Sheffield