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I inherited a Macbook Air but I cannot get it to restore the OS; has been stuck on the white os loading screen, hard restart and again and last night went to the white screen but this time instead of the apple logo, has a circle with a diagonal line across it.
Would it be time for a new hard drive? If so, how would I load the OS to it?
I tried various ways to reset the laptop but were unsuccessful
I think I have an external dvd unit if that helps.
Thx
 
Take it to Apple store, my brother had same issue, they had to do a hard reset for him.


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It's not pulling up the hdd if you're getting that issue. Put in a new hard drive and then have it restore the OS. You don't need an external DVD unit since the restore process will download the OS that the laptop shipped with. Depending on how old it is, you might be able to get it to upgrade to High Sierra afterwards.
 
Thanks
Sister said to take it to the Apple store but I honestly don't want to pocket out big bucks.
I'll get a hard drive and replace it; I didn't know it could be installed that way; I haven't had a mac since 1996 and it was then stolen from me few weeks into ownership. Kids do have a mac but I don't touch those things, have a windows laptop.
 
Yep, that's how we scrub the Macs when they become obsolete to remove any of the proprietary software on them. Nuke the hard drive or install a new hdd and have it pull the OS and reinstall itself.
 
It seems that when the internal battery loses enough power in the clock resets to its default time, it fails something with Apple and it won’t begin the download of the new iOS
 
It seems that when the internal battery loses enough power in the clock resets to its default time, it fails something with Apple and it won’t begin the download of the new iOS

Hmm, might be; laptop was stored for a while, will look into that.
 
As I recall, I booted into recovery, went to utilities, went to terminal and somehow reset date/time. I did it on 2 separate MacBooks and it worked on both. Once I reset the date/time I went back and they both downloaded Sierra no problem.
 
Interesting about the clock idea. Had not heard that one.

Look up: Reseting NVRAM and SMC to factory defaults. (Do NVRAM first)
(Various hold down keys while powering on)
 
Interesting about the clock idea. Had not heard that one.

Look up: Reseting NVRAM and SMC to factory defaults. (Do NVRAM first)
(Various hold down keys while powering on)

I’ve experienced a similar issue with a windows pc.

I did try the resetting several ways and nothing.
Been looking on craigslist for a cheap ssd hdd, I just have to make sure is an easy swap and might as well replace the small battery while at it.
 
It doesn’t hurt to check out at Apple store, sometimes they can get you fixed for free. If they are going to cost you, just walk away.


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Age is a good question.
If you cannot upgrade it to the latest OS, I would debate spending much money/effort on it.
A lot of apps have been ignoring support for old OS's lately, so they stop working.
I ended up buying a new Mac for my parents recently because of that.
But it all depends on what you want it for.
 
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Age is a good question.
If you cannot upgrade it to the latest OS, I would debate spending much money/effort on it.
A lot of apps have been ignoring support for old OS's lately, so they stop working.
I ended up buying a new Mac for my parents recently because of that.
But it all depends on what you want it for.

This. You lose a lot of support, both hardware and software, once the technology gets beyond a certain age.
 
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