MacOS – Re-install Mac mini Server

formattinghard drivemac-minimacos

My friend gave me Mac mini Server saying its Mavericks. When I switch it on I see 2 hard drives only and no operating system. I tried to use my Apple ID but it doesn't work. In disk utility I saw 1st hard drive has partition named "os" which I am not able to delete. How do I completely format both the hard drives and re-install Mavericks on that. I have a very slow internet and I don't have another mac, of course I have Linux and Windows dual boot machine.

Best Answer

While we (and possibly you yourself as well) do not know what type of Mac Mini Server hardware you have, you can check this at the following Apple websites by using the serial number of your computer found at the underside:

Respecting that you stated that you have a slow Internet connection, keep in mind that Mac OS X 10.7 Lion and later (Mavericks included) needs to be downloaded from the Internet, which is about 5 GB for each OS (plus 2 GB for the server extension in case of OS X 10.7 Lion). The Mac Mini Server being a small computer, you can try to bring it to a friend to download it there, if they have a faster connection.

Nevertheless, here are some options for you:

For a Mac Mini Server (Mid 2010) or before, try one of the following options:

  1. Use the installation media which came with the Mac (e.g. Mac OS X Server 10.6) to install the OS again (if you do not have an optical drive with it, you will need to have a different Mac sharing its optical drive or try to clone the disc to a USB thumb drive)
  2. If a later version of Mac OS X is installed, you could use the built-in Recovery HD to install that version of Mac OS X the Recovery HD was created for (you will need to have obtained that version with your Apple ID or it will not work to authenticate the install).

For a Mac Mini Server (Mid 2011) or later, try the following option:

At startup, hold down Cmd+Alt+R to bypass any built-in recovery system and boot from the Internet Recovery (about 350-480 MB download).

This will give you the option to install the original OS which came with that Mac Mini Server. Since that version is hardware-bound, no Apple ID is required to install it.

Once installed, you need to do the following to use Mavericks (or later):

  • update the system to the latest version, then
    • if you own Mavericks already, download it from the list of purchases from the App Store
    • if you do not own it, you can download the latest version of OS X, which is Yosemite
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