Don’t format a drive of M1 Macs from recovery mode

Re:Don’t format a drive of M1 Macs from recovery mode by liminalsunset on Thursday February 18, 2021 @12:56PM (#26183153)

There actually is a way to do this easily, and it only seems to work if you have FileVault enabled.

Boot into recovery, when it asks for a password say youve forgotten it, you don't have a key, and click the resulting "Erase Mac" button. This will erase the drive properly removing the partitions, iirc.

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Re:Don’t format a drive of M1 Macs from recovery mode by m1mac on Thursday February 18, 2021 @01:39PM (#26183720)

Yeah, that's the right way to do it. You can do it without FileVault enabled, too. Enter `resetpassword` in Terminal, and the Erase Mac option is in the menu bar.

I'll grant that this is poorly documented and not intuitive in the least. A secure erase and reinstall is a common task. It shouldn't require an obscure menu bar option or the use of Terminal.

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