Then click the button first initialize and then on that final to complete formatting the disk.
In the window that opens, type a name to be assigned to the unit (you can choose any) in the appropriate field, check that in the dropdown menu format the article is set APFS (and if not, you can) or, if the option is not selectable, choose Mac OS extended (registered). your iMac's hard drive or SSD) in the left sidebar and click the button initialize It is located at the top. Therefore, enter Disk utility, select the disk to format (i.e. In a few seconds, the menu should open with MacOS utility.
The first step you should take is to turn off the PC by selecting the item close of menu apple top left Then you need to turn on your iMac again and hold down the keys cmd + r in the keyboard until the Apple logo and a loading bar appear in the center of the screen.
Recovery modeįirst of all, let's try to understand how to format iMac using Recovery modeThat is, the recovery mode normally provided by macOS. As anticipated in the opening, the operation is feasible using the function of recuperación predicted by macOS to create one USB with installation files To learn more, read on. Now that you have a backup of the data on your iMac, you are finally ready to take real action and find out what steps to take to format the PC. However, if you still want to adopt this system, you can read my guide on how Record with Mac to find out how to perform the operation in question. If your iMac has an optical drive or you have an external recorder and you have it connected to your PC, you can also consider burning your files on DVD, but I don't recommend it - you would spend a lot more time transferring data, consuming a lot of floppy disks, and could get mastering errors that would make some files unrecoverable. If you prefer to generate backups instead independent Time Machine (recommended operation, if you want to create a true "clean" macOS installation), always connect an external disk to your Mac and copy "manually" all the files that interest you: the library of music iTunes, the files with the photo library, the documents folder, etc.
For more information on this and the practices described above, I suggest you read my specific guide on how to make a backup with Time Machine. However, in that case, keep in mind that you could also copy corrupted configuration files and / or data that you don't really need on the Mac. Therefore, select the HDD which will be used for the backup and wait for the data copy procedure to complete (as the first backup can take a long time, try to be patient).Īfter reinstalling the system, you can automatically restore your data, again using Time Machine. If you have never used time Machine and you want to use it for the first time, please connect your HDD external device (or your SSD) to the Mac, go to System preferences by clicking on the corresponding icon (the one with the gear ) On Spring barclick on the item Time Machine in the window that opens and then on the button Select disc. If you use Time Machine, the system Backup MacOS 'serial', you can simply connect your external disc to the PC, click the Time machine icon (the one who has clock ) present in the notification area and select the item Go back now from the menu that opens. The macOS installer (You only need it if you decide to format the PC with a flash drive).Īs anticipated in the previous step, before formatting your iMac, I suggest that you create a reserve of all your most important data about it.