MacOS – Pros and cons of wiping a new Mac

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Coming from the PC world, most made-to-order manufacturers (e.g., Dell, HP, Acer, etc.) all have annoying little addons which I consider spyware/bloatware–things like toolbars with ads. When buying such PC laptops, I would always reformat their hard drives and then install just Windows (and drivers), ensuring a blank slate without any bloat.

I don't believe Apple includes such spyware/bloatware. Nevertheless, when purchasing a new machine direct from Apple, are there are any advantages or disadvantages to wiping the existing drive and performing a fresh install of OS X?

Best Answer

There are several disadvantages:

  • Most internet posts describing how to reinstall OS X miss the hardware specific diagnostic boot image that is stored on Recovery HD (this has changed starting with El Capitan 10.11).
  • You will lose the iLife apps if you don't first boot the factory OS and claim those redemptions to an Apple ID.

The recovery boot isn't a deal breaker if you don't mind using a generic internet recovery boot image when needed. Or you can find and reinstall the following folder on the 'Recovery HD':
/com.apple.recovery.boot/.diagnostics

So, your call on what happens when pressing and holding the 'D' button at startup.

Losing iMovie, Photos (or iPhotos if the Mac shipped with that as well/instead), GarageBand doesn't matter if you purchased the hardware under a DEP program or don't care to use those or already have them or don't care to spend money later to buy them as needed.

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