How to: Restore the 2011 MacBook Air

This is a quick tutorial outlining the process of restoring your 2011 MacBook Air. Since the MacBook Air no longer ships with system restore disks (or restore USB key), this is the only way to either restore the system or recover it from a Time Machine backup. The process I've outlined will leave you with a freshly installed copy of Apple OSX Lion.

[LazarouDave]

For anyone having problems with accessing the Recovery Partition (NOTE: You must be with range of a WiFi connection that you can access): 
1. Shut down and wait about 10 seconds
2. Get 3 fingers ready over the 'Command', 'Option' and 'R' keys
3. Power the device on and immediately press those 3 keys
4. This should put you into Internet Recovery Mode, Once here, allow the Mac to complete the processes it needs.
5. Follow this tutorial as of 0:55 seconds.

Hope this helps

[coyotethepangolin]

Hi man! I know it's been 10 years, but I was factory resetting my 10-year-old macbook air today, and your tutorial was the only one that was clear enough to help me. Now I can finally retire my trusty old mac, sell it for some money and get myself a better PC. You helped out a broke student today, thank you so much 💌💌

[dauji]

Quick tip: If you don't see recovery hard disk option at the very start and only your main Mac OS, use the CMD+R method while restarting your MacBook and it will take you straight to the recovery disk. Hope it helps!

[briyantanganaganayagam]

Just watched this in 2019, crazy how far Lou and this channel has come

[karimsuriel]

Is not giving me the second option ( recovery HD) what can I do?

[irnmnkey]

I have os x mountain lion bought it from apple. I followed your instructions and it went really well on my MacBook Pro. I'm at 1hr and 30mins right now. Thanks a lot I was looking for this for a while. Thanks again.

[kevinkaittany]

Extremely helpful maan. Couldn't get the Mac to boot. Short, precise and straight to the point. Keep going

[hi]

Just a tip: on mid-2013 macbook air you hold down command + R instead of option key

[AvatarWanTV]

So I bought a MacBook Air from my friend. It turned out he still had his password lock on the start up! He also forgot his password too. Then I came across this video that helped me wipe out all the data and factory restore it. Clear, simple, easy to follow. Great video! Thanks a bunch.

[Laluan]

When it is booting up you can press CMD + R! This brings you right to your recovery HD!

[caroltube]

Thank you SO MUCH. This is the one description that I could follow as a MAC noob, who just bought an un-erased secondhand Macbook pro.

[p.t]

This Is the best tutorial for these types of tutorials. Very clear, very informative, very succinct. Keep up the good work

[jictcaliber]

For those asking if MacBook Pros can do this, The answer is yes . This type of recovery has been present since the Mac OSX Lion (10.7) this feature is also present in the upcoming july release of Mac OSX Mountain Lion (10.8)

[conspiracy]

Had the same problem. Don't use "power + option" to access the recovery partition. Instead, hold down "Command + R" and press the power button. Hold "Command and R" until the recovery starts. Then use disk utility to clean the drive. Mine worked. I had the "couldn't unmount disk" with option key but not with command+r combination.

[davidsnell]

Thanks your the only person I could actually find who did a easy video with USB drives and all that.

[SLEEN]

I have done this, is it all on to be packed up and sold now with all my details etc off the macbook. Thank you for this video. Very helpful

[izakhandley]

I need help! I've followed this process countless times but when it gets to the part where you re install OSX it's asks for an Apple ID, so I put it in and it says "Please try again later" this happens over and over again.

[djgallemas]

@unboxtherapy I have a problem, your instructions are very simple, but when I turned off my computer and held the option (alt) key there is only one HD. No RECOVERY HD HELP!!

[Spike]

In disk utility there is a repair permissions button that should fix this, after it repairs the disk you should be able to erase it. Hope this helps!

[joleenvolz]

very helpful. have to admit at first I was scared to try it.... wasn't sure if it was a scam. Finally found directions for apple that were similar, however yours were much easier to follow. Thanks.