MacOS – How to repair Mactintosh HDD

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I have a MacBook Pro 2016 15" with 256GB running macOS High Sierra. When I got the MacBook used, I was able to log in. The MacBook did not have an iCloud account linked so I linked mine up and enabled Find my Mac.

I tried to do a fresh install of macOS Sierra which cleaned out the hard drive but it says "An error occurred while preparing the installation. Try running this application again".

Disk Utility returns a code 8 for a corrupted system. Is this because I did not turn off the Find my Mac?

Best Answer

If your goal is to install macOS Sierra, then your best bet is to boot into macOS Recovery using the ShiftOption⌘R keyboard shortcut. That's because your model MBP originally shipped with macOS Sierra and this keyboard shortcut is designed to install the version of macOS that originally shipped with your Mac.*

To do this:

  1. Fully shut down your MBP
  2. Power up your MBP again but immediately press and hold the ShiftOption⌘R
  3. Keep the keys down until you see either an Apple logo or spinning globe appear on screen (Note: If you have a firmware password set on your system, then let go of the keys when the password prompt appears)
  4. Once the Utilities window appears you'll be in macOS Recovery Mode

Now choose to reinstall macOS and follow the prompts.

IMPORTANT - If you already have data stored on your internal drive you should do a backup first!

* For users of older Mac models this option will install the closest version of macOS still available to the original that shipped with it.

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