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How to use Internet Recovery to install macOS to a new SSD

Introduction

Internet Recovery has a number of useful applications. This guide will show you how to use Internet Recovery to install a fresh copy of macOS to a blank or corrupted SSD.

Internet Recovery is only available on Apple computers made after 2009. If your computer was released in 2010 or 2011, you may need to update to the latest version of macOS to enable Internet Recovery.

  1. How to use Internet Recovery to install macOS to a new SSD, How to Start Up a Mac in Internet Recovery Mode: step 1, image 1 of 1

    • Shut down the computer.

    • If you're installing MacOS to a new drive with Internet Recovery, you can skip this step.

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  2. How to use Internet Recovery to install macOS to a new SSD: step 2, image 1 of 1

    • Once the computer is completely shut down, press the power button, then immediately press and hold the key combination cmd + option + R.

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  3. How to use Internet Recovery to install macOS to a new SSD: step 3, image 1 of 2 How to use Internet Recovery to install macOS to a new SSD: step 3, image 2 of 2

    • When the spinning globe animation appears, you can release the keys.

    • The globe will spin while Internet Recovery starts up. If you are not using a wired internet connection, a choose network prompt will appear. Use this menu to connect the computer to a WiFi network.

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  5. How to use Internet Recovery to install macOS to a new SSD: step 4, image 1 of 1

    • Once a network connection has been established, a progress bar will appear underneath the spinning globe.

    • This process is prone to timing out. If you receive an error, try again using a cable connection to reach the internet rather than WiFi. Depending on your model, you may need an adapter to accomplish this.

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  6. How to use Internet Recovery to install macOS to a new SSD: step 5, image 1 of 1

    • When Internet Recovery has loaded, you will see the macOS recovery screen.

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  7. How to use Internet Recovery to install macOS to a new SSD, How to use Internet Recovery to install macOS to a new SSD: step 6, image 1 of 3 How to use Internet Recovery to install macOS to a new SSD, How to use Internet Recovery to install macOS to a new SSD: step 6, image 2 of 3 How to use Internet Recovery to install macOS to a new SSD, How to use Internet Recovery to install macOS to a new SSD: step 6, image 3 of 3

    • Before you can install macOS to the new drive, you'll need to format the drive so the installer can recognize it.

    • Open Disk Utility from the recovery menu, select your drive, and click the Erase button toward the top of the Disk Utility window.

    • Make up a name for your drive, and make sure the format is set to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) or APFS. If there is a "Scheme" option, set it to GUID Partition Map.

    • If you don't see your drive listed in the Disk Utility menu, select Show All Devices from the View section of the menu bar.

    • Once the new drive is formatted, press Command + Q to exit Disk Utility and return to the recovery menu.

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  8. How to use Internet Recovery to install macOS to a new SSD: step 7, image 1 of 1

    • Back at the recovery menu, select Install macOS .

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  9. How to use Internet Recovery to install macOS to a new SSD: step 8, image 1 of 2 How to use Internet Recovery to install macOS to a new SSD: step 8, image 2 of 2

    • Follow the prompts to install macOS, selecting the newly formatted disk as the target for the installation.

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Conclusion

Your computer may restart several times during the installation of macOS. Once the installation is complete, you can use Migration Assistant to transfer data from your old drive to the new one.

185 other people completed this guide.

Author

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Taylor Dixon

Member since: 06/26/2018

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32 Comments

Perfect, it is soooooo easy

Cheers

Michael

Michael Clark - Reply

Hi there, will this work when upgrading an Early 2011 Macbook Pro with a new SSD and RAM? I don’t want to keep or clone any data that I currently have on the computer. I just want to do a clean install of MacOS without transferring over any old files. Thank you!

Fiona B. - Reply

Fiona, the Early 2011 MacBook Pros didn’t ship with internet recovery, but as long as it had a recent-ish version of MacOS before the SSD upgrade the firmware should have updated, which enables internet recovery! This is a great method for installing a fresh copy of MacOS to a new SSD.

Taylor Dixon -

Hello. Thank you for the article Taylor. I use a MBP 9,2 and wish to replace my ageing 500GB HDD with 500GB SSD and undergo a clean install of macOS. I’ll follow this article and install by the Internet Recovery method. I have a Time Machine backup, from which I want to restore only certain files and folders pertaining to my studies and work. I also want to restore only Keychain. Can you advise me regarding these or direct me by providing helpful links? Thank you.

Rohit Sorkhel - Reply

My situation:

(a) Running Mojave on early 2015 MBP, original SSD

(b) Want to upgrade SSD to 1TB

I was planning to:

(1) replacing the SSD,

(2) install Catalina on new SSD from internet using this guide, and

(c) then restore my other apps and user data from my Time Machine backup.

Would that work or should I anticipate some hiccups, especially with step (c). Also my Time Machine backups can they still be written to the same network location as my current location?

Sriram Karra - Reply

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