Clean install Mac OS

Wiping the Entire Physical Drive " APPLE SSD AP1024Z Media " drive on Apple Silicon Computers is Not Recommended even if done from a Bootable Installer USB Drive

This may render the machine an Expensive Paper Weight

As has been suggested earlier " Erase all Content and Settings " is the way to go.

The beauty of that method, it does not touch the Operating System itself

This method is much like resetting an iOS device

Maverick-24 wrote:

Hi there wondering if any one can help me I have a Mac book pro 2023 16 inch m3 ultra chip I wish to reinstall Mac sequoia but want to do a clean install I am very familiar with installing windows but this is my first Mac and think Macs are a lot better. Now I have created a BOOTABLE USB DRIVE with Sequoia on it and when I boot to recovery tools it is there and I can install from it but I wish to know when I go in to disk utility what do I need to delete to wipe the drive and start again can I select the APPLE SSD 1024Z Media and delete that then boot to the USB to install. The reason I want to do this is just to clean the drive use a Time Machine back up after to learn and know what to do if I ever have problems in the future as well as expanding my knowledge and skill of Macs

please see attached photos

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/c2c1f010-1680-4a97-89f4-8cf585c5aa06

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/101ee523-40d9-4364-9e74-1b0e8fa15a52

look forward to some help

The OS is mounted read-only from a sealed snapshot. The os cannot be modified so erasing it and reinstalling won’t change anything. You will merely waste your time.

Erase all Contents and Settings will achieve what you want. All third-party system modifications are stored on the Data volume separate from the OS.

Maverick-24 wrote:

hi Barney-15e

thanks for the quick reply so unlike windows were you completely wipe by using a disk wiper app to write random info to drive and then format this is not possible with Mac so when you say the os is mounted from a read only is that the os factory settings and then it loads a snap shot of the apps and files I have after from a partition on the disk when Mac OS is used normally

Can do it, but it’s a complete waste of time. If deleting the data with no traces is your desire, it’s all encrypted by default so erase content and settings will dump the encryption keys, and any data is completely unusable.

The OS is loaded from a Krypto graphically sealed snapshot of the OS. Your data is separate from the OS on a separate volume. It is mounted and made to look like all of it is a single entity.All Max since about 2017 are encrypted all the time. The OS volume is not encrypted, but as I stated, it’s pretty much un modifiable by anything except Apple updates.

Had to do this recently: I backed up all my apps & critical documents on Time Machine AND a backup external disk.

Went into Recovery Mode, opened up Disk Utility, erased my hard drive, then in Recovery installed a clean copy of Sequoia (or whatever OS you are trying to install).

I then went into Migration Assistant in Utilities and migrated the apps from Time Machine that had been backed up. The key thing is to make sure any current documents you need have been backed up to an external source.

This cleared up some issues I had been having with the OS. Had to do it on 2 Macs (one a MacBook Pro 2018, the other an iMac 27" 2020) both showing signs of corruption I couldn't find. This was a time-consuming project, but it worked.

Maverick-24 wrote:

thank you for your reply I have seen where people delete the Mac hd partition then reinstal Mac OS is this possible

I already answered that in my previous reply, and again, I reiterate, it serves absolutely zero useful purpose

Thank you for what you had done on an Apple Intel machine.

Though doing the same on Apple Silicon machines would make the computer a paper weight

You are welcome