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jrbw3mi Author

Level 1

11 points

Need to reinstall my mac mini for bare bones web browsing only functionality

We have an old mini (2012) with 500gb hard drive and 8 gb ram.

Although the only thing that it's used for is web browsing, it has become unusable, performance-wise.

If feasible, I'd like to remove all but one user and wipe the whole thing and reinstall Catalina.

I started to do this from MacOS Recovery option, but it seems like maybe it's just laying the OS on top of what's already there (I'd love to be wrong about that).

Any tips and tricks from all of you brilliant people out there? And Happy New Year to all.

Mac mini, macOS 10.12

Posted on Dec 30, 2022 10:31 AM

Top-ranking reply

den.thed

Level 10

82,528 points

Posted on Dec 30, 2022 10:59 AM

You will need to use Disk Utility in Recovery Mode and Erase the Macintosh HD,

see > Use Disk Utility to erase an Intel-based Mac - Apple Support

then exit Disk Utility and Reinstall the macOS while still in Recovery Mode.

see > How to reinstall macOS - Apple Support

If you end up with an earlier macOS version, then Update to Catalina.

see > Update macOS on Mac - Apple Support

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Need to reinstall my mac mini for bare bones web browsing only functionality

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