A Step-by-Step Guide to Reinstall Your MacOS Without Losing Data

I want to sell my MacBook Air and now need to reinstall a clean Mac operating system, both the latest macOS Sequoia and old OS X are fine with me. Is there any way to quickly bring a Mac to factory settings and nothing personal data on it?

For various reasons, you will have the need to reinstall Mac OS. In some cases, you want to sell your Mac or give it to others. Sometimes, you just want to fix issues or get Mac work better. Whatever your reason, you can get effective ways here to wipe your Mac and install a clean Mac OS. Also, if you want to keep your data after the reinstallation, we provide a method in part 3 as well.

Part 1. Things You Should Know Before Reinstalling macOS

Does reinstalling macOS delete data?

Normally, yes. The traditional method will remove all of your data on your Mac. It’s very suitable for selling or resetting the whole machine. However, if you want to keep the data, you can jump to part 3 to check it out.

Can you reinstall macOS to restore the Mac?

Yes, reinstalling macOS will erase all data and reset all settings to their factory status.

When should you reinstall macOS

The most common reason to reinstall a macOS is that the owner wants to sell it to someone else while keeping the privacy secure.

Part 2. How to Reinstall macOS (Traditional Ways)

Backup Mac Data with Time Machine

Backup is always the first step. In case you lose some important data, you need to make a backup before re-installing Mac OS. You can choose to backup Mac with Time Machine or professional backup tool based on your need.

Backup Mac with Time Machine

From its name you will know that, Mac Data Recovery can work as a powerful recovering to help you restore deleted/lost files on Mac. Various data loss situations can be easily handle, such as deletion, formatted partition, hard drive problem, and Mac crash and so on.

Wipe Mac Data [Reformat Mac Hard Drive]

If you want to sell your Mac or pass it to others, you'd better wipe your Mac and erase all personal information from it. Also, you can directly move to third part to reinstall Mac OS.

How to reformat hard drive

Better way to wipe Mac data

When you want to give your Mac to a family or friend, sometimes, you don't need to remove all things from Mac. All you need is to delete some files related your privacy. Here you can choose the professional Mac Cleaner.

Downloads

Mac Cleaner

• Clean junk files created by Mac system, including temporary files, memory dumps, log files, event logs, old data, etc.
• Scan worthless cache data/logs quickly and delete all trash items to regain more Mac space.
• Remove unneeded iTunes backup files and delete unnecessary localization of apps.
• Monitor Mac performance in multiple aspects, like disk utilization, battery status, memory performance and CPU usage.

Free DownloadFor macOS

100% Secure. No Ads.

How to Reinstall Mac OS with Recovery Mode

Now we at the key part of this article, how to reinstall Mac OS. In fact, you can easily reinstall your Mac operating system through Recovery Mode. Detailed steps are as followed:

Part 3. How to Reinstall macOS Without Losing Data

With the method above, you can easily make a backup or remove your data on your Mac. Nevertheless, sometimes, what if I just want to reinstall the system but keep the files? You can count on Aiseesoft Data Recovery. Here are the detailed steps to recover your data after reinstalling the system.

Part 4. FAQs about Reinstalling macOS

Conclusion

After reading this post, you can handily reinstall your macOS. You can also learn how to back up Mac and wipe Mac data. Don’t hesitate to message us if something is still bothering you. Also, you can check out the articles below to find your answers.

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